Biography of the civil rights activist and pastor whose most famous speech, which contains the words 'I have a dream', has come to symbolise hope and faith for all.
Martin Luther King Jr
Last updated 2009-08-06
Martin Luther King Jr
For many, Martin Luther King Jr was the most prominent civil rights movement leader in the twentieth century. His most famous speech, which contains the words "I have a dream", has come to symbolise hope and faith for all.
King was born in 1929 as Michael Luther King Jr. Growing up in separatist America, he attended the Morehouse College of Atlanta, a distinguished institution for black people, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. After receiving a doctorate from Boston University, he became pastor for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
Martin Luther King Jr tribute outside the Enoch Pratt library, Baltimore, USA ©
King, always interested in civil rights, was heavily influenced by Gandhi's policy of non violence when he visited India with his wife and met with Muhammad Jinnah. His involvement with the black civil rights movement was closely related to his Protestant faith. After gaining a major victory in the Bus Boycott of 1956, when the boycotting of the bus services by black people led to their de-segregation, he became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. The ideals for this organisation came from Christianity, but the method of non violence from Gandhi.
Over eleven years from 1957 to 1968 he travelled over six million miles, gave over two and a half thousand speeches, and addressed a quarter of a million people in his 'I have a dream' speech alone.
His policy of non-violence led to his arrest twenty times, and he was personally abused four times. He became a figurehead for not only black people in separatist America, but as a leader for human rights wherever there was injustice, locally, nationally, and globally.
After being the youngest ever person to win the Nobel Peace Prize at age just 35, he was assassinated on 4 April, 1968. True to his revolutionary spirit, he had been just about to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking street cleaners of Memphis, Tennessee.
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