Facts on... Martin Luther King Jr.

 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
American minister

Original name: Michael King, Jr.

Born: January 15, 1929 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

Died: April 4, 1968 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.

FAMILY

Martin Luther King, Jr., was born the second child of Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher. In 1953 King married Coretta Scott, and the two had four children.

INFLUENCE

Martin Luther King, Jr., influenced people around the world. He defended peaceful approaches to some of society’s biggest problems. He organized a number of marches and protests and was a key figure in the American civil rights movement. King sought equality and human rights for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and all victims of injustice through peaceful protest.

It is for this reason that he even has a day in his honor, the MLK Day of Service, a reflection of his legacy of addressing social problems through collective action.

MOVEMENT

On December 1, 1955, a black woman refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that lasted 381 days (known as the Montgomery bus boycott), and chose Martin Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader.

Kings suffered aggressions from protestors multiple times. His house was set on fire, and he even got stabbed in the chest once when he was holding a book-signing session.

 In 1963, King helped organize the March on Washington, at which he made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was then passed, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Later, King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize for Peace.