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Martin Luther King, Jr., was the eloquent voice of the modern civil rights movement. More than any other individual, he articulated the aspirations and grievances of African Americans who sought the rights promised by the U.S. Constitution. King pioneered the use of civil disobedience against racial segregation and discrimination. His powerful oratory invoked religious and patriotic imagery in support of full civil rights for all Americans. He inspired thousands of sympathizers to join his nonviolent crusade and persuaded untold millions of the justice of his cause. King was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Baptist preachers. A precocious student, he entered Morehouse College at age fifteen.

He prepared for a career in the ministry by studying at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and then pursued doctoral studies at Boston University, receiving the degree in 1955. In 1954 he accepted the pastorate of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a Montgomery seamstress, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. Four days later, King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, an organization formed to protest the city's segregated transportation system. King and the association conducted a year-long boycott of city buses. His advocacy of nonviolent resistance against segregation adapted techniques used by India's famous leader Mohandas K. Gandhi to the American situation. When the buses finally were integrated in December 1956, King was hailed as a dynamic young leader of the emerging civil rights movement.

Over the next decade King remained the foremost champion of African American equality. His success in Montgomery inspired other activists to develop direct-action tactics for use in the civil rights movement. In 1960 King supported African American college students who staged sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters.

When the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence in 1961, King urged them to continue their battle to integrate interstate transportation. In Albany, Georgia, the following year King led mass marches against segregation, resulting in hundreds of arrests, but he was unable to wrest any concessions from an unyielding city administration. The lessons King learned from his Albany setback were applied in Birmingham, Alabama, where he spearheaded weeks of demonstrations against segregation in 1963. While confined in the Birmingham jail, King penned a passionate letter defending his confrontational methods. National opinion turned in favor of civil rights when Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor turned police dogs and fire hoses on youthful protesters. The Birmingham crisis persuaded President John F. Kennedy to sponsor legislation requiring integration of public accommodations. On August 28, 1963, King delivered his memorable, "I have a dream" speech at a Washington, D.C., rally of 250,000 people supporting Kennedy's civil rights bill.

King's leadership of the civil rights movement was recognized in 1964 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His prominence brought increased scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose director, J. Edgar Hoover, increased his surveillance of King's activities and orchestrated efforts to discredit his leadership. After the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, King turned his attention to voting rights. When Alabama state troopers attacked demonstrators attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965, public outrage again forced the federal government to act. Five months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, which protected African American citizens attempting to vote.

King responded to growing unrest in urban ghettoes by leading a 1966 crusade against slum housing in Chicago. He also raised his voice to condemn the Vietnam War. His 1967 speech at Riverside Church in New York City, in which he spoke out against the war, placed him in the front rank of antiwar activists. In the final year of his life, King concentrated on issues of economic justice. He began organizing a campaign to bring delegations of poor people to Washington, D.C., to lobby for increased antipoverty funding. A request to support striking sanitation workers drew King to Memphis, Tennessee, where, on April 4, 1968, he was killed by a shot from a high-powered rifle. James Earl Ray, a white man with a prison record, was convicted of King's murder. In 1986 the nation honored King's memory when his birthday was declared a national holiday.

References:

1. Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

2. Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

3. Branch, Taylor. At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

4. Carson, Clayborne, and Kris Shepard, eds. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Intellectual Properties Management/Warner Books, 2001.

5. Carson, Clayborne, and Peter Holloran, eds. Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Intellectual Properties Management /Warner Books, 1998.

6. Hansen, Drew D. The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech That Inspired a Nation. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

7. Lischer, Richard. The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Word That Moved America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

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