Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. 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. More
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 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. J. Edgar Hoover considered him a radical and made him an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO for the rest of his life.
Martin Luther King Jr. timeline
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Coretta Scott Is Born
Coretta Scott was born April 27, 1927, in Heiberger, near Marion, Alabama. She spent her childhood on her parents' farm in Heiberger. The farm had... Read more
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Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Is Born
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., twentieth-century America's most compelling and effective civil rights leader, was born on January 15, 1929, in... Read more
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Coretta Scott Meets Martin Luther King Jr.
I always believed that there was a purpose for my life, and that I had to seek that purpose, and that if I discovered that purpose, then I believed... Read more
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Coretta Scott Marries Martin Luther King Jr.
When he proposed, she deliberated for six months before saying yes, and they were married in the garden of her parents' house on June 18, 1953. The... Read more
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's... Read more
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Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Travel To India
“It was wonderful to be in Gandhi’s land,” wrote the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., a few months after returning from a monthlong visit to India... Read more
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Becomes Involved in the Albany Movement
The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, on November 17, 1961. Local activists, the Student Nonviolent... Read more
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Violence Erupts as Civil Rights Protesters Clash with Police in Birmingham, AL
The Birmingham campaign was a strategic movement organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the unequal... Read more
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Delivers "I Have a Dream" Speech
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther... Read more
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The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is Bombed
[A]bout 10:22 on that morning 34 years ago today, worshipers heard a clicking noise, like the very loud click of a clock. ''What was that?'' Sunday... Read more
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Malcolm X meets with Martin Luther King Jr.
After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity, a... Read more
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through... Read more
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"Bloody Sunday", First March from Selma to Montgomery
On March 7, demonstrators start a 54-mile march in response to an activist's murder. They are protesting his death and the unfair state laws and... Read more
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Leads Second March from Selma to Montgomery
Immediately after "Bloody Sunday", Martin Luther King Jr. began organizing a second march to be held on Tuesday, March 9, 1965, calling for people... Read more
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Leads Third March from Selma, Successfully Reaching Montgomery
The five-day, four-night march began on March 21, and covered a 54-mile (87 km) route along U.S. Route 80 (in Alabama known as the "Jefferson Davis... Read more
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Lyndon B. Johnson Signs National Voting Rights Act of 1965 into Law
The National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 1973–1973aa-6) outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the... Read more
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated at Lorraine Motel
In March 1968, Reverend King went to Memphis, Tennessee in support of striking African American sanitation workers. The workers had staged a... Read more
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Robert F. Kennedy Delivers Speech on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
A speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was given by New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy on April 4, 1968. Kennedy was campaigning... Read more
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Coretta Scott King Leads Silent Memorial March For Martin Luther King Jr.
An assassin finally snuffed out Dr. King's life on April 4, 1968, while he led a strike of 1,300 black sanitation workers - the working poor of... Read more
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Coretta Scott King Publishes 'My Life With Martin Luther King Jr.
In the years immediately following her husband's death, King was involved in many things. For example, in June of 1969 Coretta Scott King published... Read more
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'Martin Luther King Jr. Day' Becomes a National Holiday
Coretta King’s most enduring contribution to American culture has been as chair of the Martin L. King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. In the late... Read more
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James Earl Ray Dies In Prison
In Atlanta, Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, issued a statement that said: ''This is a tragedy, not only for Mr. Ray and his family but... Read more
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"Our Friend, Martin" Is Released
Our Friend, Martin is a 1999 animated children's educational film about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American civil rights movement. Two friends... Read more
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Uncovered Documents Show FBI Was Spying On Coretta Scott King
The American Civil Liberties Union today issued a call to change FBI spying guidelines after documents were released revealing that the FBI spied... Read more