Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was the instrumental leader of the civil rights movement; he believed in non-violence and civil disobedience; he was head of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and then the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); was born in Atlanta, Georgia to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. (King was born Michael but in 1934 his father—Rev. Michael King, Sr.—returned home from Europe where he had toured the site where Martin Luther had begun the Protestant Reformation and upon returning home he changed his name as well as his sons.) He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 at age nineteen and earned his Ph.D. in Theology from Boston University in 1955. King married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953 and they had four children. While at Crozer Theological Seminary, King first became acquainted with the ideas of Mohandas Gandhi, which influenced him greatly in his future years. In 1953, King became the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was selected to lead the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was then instrumental in the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King led the SCLC in several triumphs over racial injustices and became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. His is probably most remembered for his famous “I have a Dream” speech which came at the conclusion the Civil Rights March on Washington which he had spearheaded. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee while he stood on his hotel balcony. James Earl Ray was arrested and convicted of the crime. In 1986.
Hope that helps!!!