Martin Luther King Jr., also known as MLK, was born January 15th 1929. He was an African American minister best known for being the prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement and his fight against racial segregation and discrimination. As a follower of the methods of Mahatma Gandhi, King was instrumental in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world through nonviolent means. He is a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism. King became a Baptist minister early in his career becamoming a civil rights activist through his preachings. In 1955 He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1957, he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also serving as its first president. In 1963 King led to the Million Man March in Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech cementing his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. King expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society. In 1964, King became the youngest person to ever receive theNobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means.
By the time of his murder in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War. King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, A National Holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986, He was posthumously awarded The Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. He is now an icon of non-violent protest, of social justice, and civil rights.
