Martin Luther King Jr.
(Atlanta, Georgia, January 15,
1929-Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968), born
Michael King Jr., was an American pastor and activist
of the Baptist Church1 who developed a crucial work
in the United States at the forefront of the civil rights
movement for African-Americans and who, in
addition, participated as an activist in numerous
protests against the Vietnam War and poverty in
general. For this activity aimed at ending American
segregation and racial discrimination through non-
violent means, he was awarded the Nobel Peace
PrizeNote 2 in 1964. Four years later, at a time when
his work had been oriented towards towards the
opposition to the war and the fight against poverty, he
was assassinated in Memphis, when he was preparing
to attend an informal dinner with friends.Note 3
Martin Luther King, a civil rights activist from a very
young age, organized and carried out various peaceful
activities demanding the right to vote, non-
discrimination and other basic civil rights for black
people in the United States. Among his most
remembered actions are the bus boycott in
Montgomery, in 1955; his support for the foundation of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC),
in 1957 (of which he would be its first president); and
the leadership of the March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom, in August 1963, at the end of which he
would deliver his famous speech "I have a dream" ("I
have a dream"), thanks to which it would spread
throughout public awareness of the civil rights
movement throughout the country and would establish
himself as one of the greatest speakers in American
history. Most of the rights claimed by the movement
would be approved with the enactment of the Bill of
Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965.
The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. is
considered one of the greatest assassinations of the
20th century. King is remembered as one of the
greatest leaders and heroes in United States history,
and in the modern history of nonviolence. He was
posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and the United
States Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Since 1986,
Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been a public holiday
in the United States.
