Gerlin Cruz

Gerlin Cruz

Emily Litle

English Composition 121.002

March 29, 2019

My Historical Figure

For this work I have chosen Martin Luther King Jr., the reason why I chose this

character, it is because of the great figure that was in his time fighting for the rights of blacks,

and the martyr that he became when he died. Surely everyone will remember his speech "I have

a dream" in front of thousands of people, who identified with the black cause.

Martin Luther King, Jr. born as Michael King Jr (Atlanta, Georgia, January 15, 1929 -

Memphis, Tennessee, April 4, 1968) was an American pastor of the Baptist Church1 and an

activist who developed a crucial work in the United States at the forefront of the civil rights

movement for African Americans and also participated as an activist in numerous protests

against the war in Vietnam and poverty in general. For this activity aimed at ending US

segregation and racial discrimination through non-violent means, he was awarded the Nobel

Peace Prize in 1964. Four years later, at a time when his work had been geared especially

towards opposition to the war and the fight against poverty, was killed in Memphis, as he

prepared to attend an informal dinner of friends.

Martin Luther King, civil rights activist from a young age, organized and carried out

various peaceful activities claiming the right to vote, non-discrimination and other basic civil

rights for black people in the United States. Among his most remembered actions are the bus

boycott in Montgomery, in 1955; his support for the foundation of the Southern Christian
 Gerlin Cruz

Leadership Conference (SCLC), in 1957 (of which he would be its first president); and the

leadership of the March on Washington for Work and Freedom, in August 1963, at the end of

which he would give his famous speech "I have a dream" ("I have a dream"), thanks to which he

would extend throughout the country public awareness of the civil rights movement and would

be consolidated as one of the greatest orators in American history, most of the rights claimed by

the movement would be legally approved with the enactment of the Law of Rights civilians of

1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. is considered one of the assassinations of the

20th century, King is remembered as one of the greatest leaders and heroes in the history of the

United States, and in the modern history of nonviolence. He was posthumously awarded the

Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and the Gold Medal of the Congress of

the United States in 2004. Since 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a holiday in the United

States.