Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was one of the pivotal leaders of the American civil rights movement. He was a Baptist minister, and became a civil rights activist early in his career.
His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his well known “I Have a Dream” speech. Here he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement, establishing himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history. He had organized and led marches for blacks' right to vote, desegregation, labor rights and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights were successfully enacted into United States law with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
Tragically Martin Luther King was assassinated 40 years ago on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
