Martin Luther King

Full name: Martin Luther King, Jr
Born: January 15, 1929
Atlanta, GA
United States
Death: April 4, 1968 (39 years)
Memphis, TN
United States
Occupation: Pastor Protestant and political activist

McLuther Martin King, Jr. (Atlanta, January 15, 1929 - Memphis, April 4, 1968) was a Protestant minister and American political activist. Became one of the most important leaders of the civil rights activist in the United States and worldwide, through a campaign of nonviolence and love for neighbor. Became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, shortly before his assassination. His speech is most famous and remembered "I Have A Dream."

Political activism

In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give her seat on a bus to a white woman and was arrested. The city's black leaders organized a bus boycott in Montgomery to protest racial segregation in force on transportation. During the campaign of 381 days, co-led by King, many threats were made against his life, was arrested and saw his house being attacked. The boycott ended with a Supreme Court decision in American outlaw racial discrimination in public transportation.

After this battle, Martin Luther King participated in the founding of the Conference of the Southern Christian Leadership (SCLC, or in English, SCLC, Southern Christian Leadership Conference) in 1957. The CLCS should organize activism around the issue of civil rights. King stood in front of the SCLC until his death, which was criticized by the more democratic and radical Committee Nonviolent Coordinating Student (CNVCE, or in English, SNCC, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). The SCLC derived its membership principally from black communities associated with Baptist churches. King was a follower of the ideas of non-violent civil disobedience advocated by Mohandas Gandhi (Indian political leader also known as Mahatma Gandhi), and applied this philosophy to the protests organized by the SCLC. King correctly identified that demonstrations and nonviolent against the system of segregation prevalent in the southern United States, violently attacked by racist authorities and with widespread media coverage, they would create a public opinion favorable to civil rights enforcement, and this was the fundamental action that made the debate about civil rights a major political issue in the U.S. from the early 1960s.


Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous speech "I Have a Dream" in March 1963 before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, during the "march for jobs and freedom." He organized and led marches to achieve the right to vote, ending segregation, ending discrimination at work and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights was later aggregated to the state law-Street Band with the approval of the Civil Rights Act (1964), and the Voting Rights Act (1965).

King and SCLC chose them with great success to the principles of nonviolent protest, even as a means to provoke and irritate the racist authorities of the places where the protests were taking place - invariably the latter retaliated violently. The CLCS also joined the protests in Alabany (1961-2), which were not successful due to divisions within the black community and also by prudent reaction of local authorities, then joined the protests in Birmingham (1963), and protest St. Augustine (1964). King, the SCLC and CNVCE joined forces in December 1964 in protest occurred in the town of Selma.


On October 14, 1964 King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded in recognition of his leadership in the nonviolent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.

Collaboration with the partial CNVCE, King and SCLC attempted to organize a march from Selma to the capital of Alabama, Montgomery, to begin March 25, 1965. Had already been two attempts to promote this march, the first on March 7 and the second on March 9.

At first, 525 people marched for only six blocks, the violent intervention of the police stopped the march. The images of violence were broadcast around the country, and the day was given the nickname Bloody Sunday. King did not attend the march: he was in negotiations with the U.S. president, and did not give its approval for the march so early.

The second march was interrupted by King near the Pettus bridge on the outskirts of Selma, an action that seems to have been negotiated in advance with leaders of the following cities. This action aroused the surprise and indignation of many local activists.

The march finally completed in the third trial (March 25, 1965), with the permission and support of President Lyndon Johnson. It was during this march that Stokely Carmichael (future leader of the Black Panthers) coined the phrase "Black Power".

Earlier, in 1963, King was one of the organizers of the march on Washington, which originally had to be a protest march, but after discussions with then President John F. Kennedy, has become almost a celebration of the achievements of the black movement (and government) - which angered activists rather more radical and less naive.

In 1965 the black leader began to doubt U.S. intentions in the Vietnam War. In February and again in April 1967, King made serious criticisms of the role that the U.S. desempanhavam war. In 1968 King and the SCLC organized a campaign for social and economic justice, poverty (the Campaign for the Poor), which was intended principally to help the poorest communities in the country.

It should also be noted that the impact King had on popular entertainment. He spoke with the actress's black series, Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols, when she threatened to quit the program. Nichelle believed the paper was not helping at all his career and that the studio was evil, but King convinced her that it was important to have a black representative in one of the most popular programs on television.

Martin Luther King was hated by many southern segregationists, which culminated in his assassination on April 4, 1968, moments before a march, a hotel in the city of Memphis. James Earl Ray confessed to the crime, but he later recanted his confession. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, along with the rest of the family leader, won a civil suit against Loyd Jowers, a man who pitched a scandal by saying that it had offered $ 100,000 for the murder of King.Ħ

In 1986 we established a U.S. national holiday to honor Martin Luther King, named for Martin Luther King Day - always the third Monday of January, which is close to the anniversary of King. In 1993, the first time, the holiday was fulfilled in all states.