Martin Luther King

 Martin Luther King, Jr.   (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the   African-American Civil Rights Movement . He is best known for his role in the advancement of  civil rights   using nonviolent  civil disobedience    <span style="font-size:15px;line-height:14.4pt;color:rgb(213,212,212);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:white;border:1ptnonewindowtext;padding:0cm;">based on his Christian beliefs.

<h4 style="margin:4.8pt0cm6pt;line-height:14.4pt;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">He was born Michael King, but his  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Sr. father] <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">changed his name in honor of  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">German <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">reformer  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Martin Luther <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">. A  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Baptist <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Montgomery Bus Boycott <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">and helped found the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Southern Christian Leadership Conference <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">(SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Albany, Georgia <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Birmingham, Alabama <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">March on Washington <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">, where he delivered his " <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">I Have a Dream <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">orators <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">in American history. <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">J. Edgar Hoover <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">considered him a radical and made him an object of the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Federal Bureau of Investigation <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">'s  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">COINTELPRO <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">for the rest of his life. FBI agents investigated him for possible  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">communist <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and on one occasion, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter which he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.

<p style="margin:4.8pt0cm6pt;line-height:14.4pt;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">On October 14, 1964, King received the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Nobel Peace Prize <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">for combating racial inequality through  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">nonviolence <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Selma to Montgomery marches <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">and the following year, he took the movement north to  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Chicago <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">to work on segregated housing. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">poverty <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">and the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Vietnam War <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled " <span style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Beyond Vietnam <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">". In 1968 King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Poor People's Campaign <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">, when he was <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr. assassinated ] <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">on April 4 in  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Memphis, Tennessee <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">. His death was followed by  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">riots in many U.S. cities <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">. Allegations that  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">James Earl Ray <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting. The jury of a 1999 civil trial found  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Loyd Jowers <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">to be complicit in a conspiracy against King.

<p style="margin:4.8pt0cm6pt;line-height:14.4pt;background-position:initialinitial;background-repeat:initialinitial;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">King was posthumously awarded the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">Presidential Medal of Freedom <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">and the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Congressional Gold Medal <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">. <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">Martin Luther King, Jr. Day <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971, and as a  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">U.S. federal holiday <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">in 1986. <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streets_named_after_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr. Hundreds of streets ] <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">and  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">a county <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor. A  <span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1">memorial statue <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">on the  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white; mso-themecolor:background1">National Mall <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">  <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:white;mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">was opened to the public in 2011.