Martin Luther King JR

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15 1929 – April 4 1968) was an American pastor activist humanitarian and leader in the African-American Civil rights movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of Civil rights using nonviolent Civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. He was born Michael king but his father changed his name in honor of the German reformer Martin Luther. A Baptist minister king became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the southern Christian leadership conference (sclc) in 1957 serving as its first President. With the sclc king led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany Georgia in 1962 and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham Alabama that attracted National attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech. There he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history..