American Martin Luther King Jr., the most visible and well-known leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was a Baptist minister who helped advance civil rights through non-violent methods based on his Christian beliefs.
King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and helped lead the
1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott early in his career. After the unsuccessful Albany
Movement to end segregation in Albany, Georgia, he organised the March on
Washington in 1963 where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream"
speech. Though he alienated many of his liberal allies by calling for
opposition to the Vietnam War, he remained highly popular.
In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the midst of planning the Poor
People's Campaign in Washington D.C., he was assassinated by James Earl
Ray in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968. He was 39. His death sparked
massive nationwide riots. In 1986, Martin Luther King Day was inaugurated as a
federal holiday.
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