Born Michael Luther King Jr. on the 15th of January 1929, Martin Luther King Jr.

was an American Baptist minister and a civil rights activist from Atlanta, Georgia.
Coming from a very religious family King acted as a co-pastor from 1960 until his
death, his grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931 and his father has served
from then until the present. He died on the 4 th of april,1968 in Memphis,
Tennessee.

During his childhood, King's father would regularly use whippings to discipline his
children. At times, King Sr. would also have his children whip each other. King's
father later remarked, "[King] was the most peculiar child whenever you whipped
him. He'd stand there, and the tears would run down, and he'd never cry."

King became friends with a white boy whose father owned a business across the
street from his family's home. Due to the racism that reigned in the U.S. King had
to attend a school for black children, Younge Street Elementary School, while his
close playmate went to a separate school for white children only. Soon
afterwards, the parents of his friend stopped allowing King to play with their son,
stating to him "we are white, and you are colored".

When King relayed the happenings to his parents, they had a long discussion
with him about the history of slavery and racism in America.

Martin attended segregated public schools in Georgia, he received the Bachelor’s

Degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of
Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated.

After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in

Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior
class, he was awarded the Bachelor of Divinity in 1951.
He enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, and met and married
Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments.
Two sons and two daughters were born into the family. 
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of
his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading
organization of its kind in the nation.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
In North America racism dictated that different races (chiefly blacks
and whites) should be segregated from one another. Black people
should develop their own institutions such as churches, schools, and
hospitals, and they were not supposed to even sit next to a white
individual. Besides, it was unnatural for members of different races
to marry, coexist or even to communicate.
The racism against members of low-status races was common and
acts of physical violence, daily insults, and acts of verbal
expressions of contempt and disrespect were normal.
These acts caused profound effects on self-esteem and social
relationships, increasing the division between races and forced the
imprisonment of black people in the lower-class division.
 Discriminating laws
Laws and social policies that enforced racial segregation and
permitted racial discrimination against African Americans were
present in a lot of states in the U.S, those laws aimed at limiting the
voting power of racial minorities and suppressing them by taking
away their rights.
 Poll tax
The poll tax was used as a mechanism of voter suppression directed
originally at African Americans, especially in Southern states.
When payment of the poll tax was made a prerequisite to voting,
impoverished black skinned-coloured individuals, unable to afford
the tax, were denied the right to vote.
 Racial gerrymandering
Other measures that tended to limit voting by African Americans
were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, gerrymanders aimed at
diluting the voting power of ethnic or linguistic minority groups (racial
gerrymandering).
 Jim Crow
Initially, Jim Crow laws required the separation of white people and
people of colour on all forms of public transportation and in schools,
later excluding interaction and mixing between races in cemeteries,
parks, theatres, restaurants or even public bathrooms.
Even anyone who was suspected of having a black ancestor, even
just one in the very distant past, was considered to be a person of
colour and therefore subject to the Jim Crow laws.
The purpose of Jim Crow laws was to prevent contact between
black people and white people as equals, establishing white people
as above black people. Blacks who violated these laws could be
physically beaten by whites without reprisal
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

In the years after his death, King remained the most widely known
African American leader of his era, he was seen as a symbol of the
country’s progress in the racial context, his status as an American
icon became more widely accepted over time.
Montgomery bus boycott, 1955

In 1955, Rosa Parks (a black seamstress) refused to give up her

bus seat to a white man in violation of Jim Crow laws, local laws in
the Southern United States that enforced racial segregation. King
was on the committee from the Birmingham African-American
community that looked into the case. 

The incident led to the Montgomery bus boycott, which was urged
and planned by Nixon and led by King lasting 385 days and it
became so tense that King's house was bombed and also led to his
arrest.  

This campaign concluded with a United States District Court ruling

in Browder v. Gayle that ended racial segregation on all
Montgomery public buses.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

In 1957 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference(SCLC) was

created by several civil rights activists, led by King until his death.

The group was created to harness the moral authority and

organizing power of black churches to conduct nonviolent protests in
the service of civil rights reform.
The SCLC put into practice the tactics of nonviolent protest with
great success by strategically choosing the methods and places in
which protests were carried out. There were often dramatic stand-
offs with segregationist authorities, who sometimes turned violent.

Birmingham campaign, 1963

In April 1963, the SCLC began a campaign against racial
segregation and economic injustice in Birmingham, Alabama.
The campaign used nonviolent but intentionally confrontational
tactics like openly violating laws that they considered unjust in order
to provoke mass arrests and create a situation so crisis-packed that
it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

Because of the unsuccess of the early volunteers, children and

young adults were recruited to join in the demonstrations to gain the
public attention (Children Crusade).

March on Washington, 1963

King, representing the SCLC, was among the leaders of the "Big
Six" civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the
organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,
which took place on August 28,1963.

The march made specific demands: an end to racial segregation in

public schools; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law
prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil
rights workers from police brutality

Selma voting rights movement and "Bloody Sunday", 1965

In December 1964, King and the SCLC joined forces with
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Selma,
Alabama, where the SNCC had been working on voter registration
for several months.
During the 1965 march to Montgomery, Alabama, violence by state
police and others against the peaceful marchers resulted in much
publicity, which made racism in Alabama visible nationwide.

Opposition to the Vietnam War

King was long opposed to American involvement in the Vietnam
War, but at first avoided the topic in public speeches in order to
avoid the interference with civil rights
goals that the criticism of President Johnson's policies might have
created.

Poor People's Campaign, 1968

In 1968, King and the SCLC organized the "Poor People's
Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. King traveled the
country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would
march on Washington to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at
the Capitol until Congress created an "economic bill of rights" for
poor Americans.

IDEAS
King had a religious philosophy of nonviolence, his belief that all
people had the right to earn a fair and dignified living -regardless of
race, occupation, or socio-economic status- caused the movement
to end segregation and counter prejudice in the United States
through the means of peaceful protesting.
In his mind, there should be the civil rights that protected, not only
white but also black American people. For him it was important to
open doors to education and employment to all races.
He sought equality and human rights for African Americans but he
was also unfortunately confronted with economic disadvantages and
injustices like deaths during peaceful protests.
LEGACY AND INFLUENCE
King’s life has been interpreted in new ways by successive
generations of scholars, many of whom have drawn attention to the
crucial role of local Black leaders in the African American protest
movements of the 1950s and ’60s.
He inspired participants to believe that their cause was just and that
they were not asking for more than what they deserved. King also
appealed to the consciences of all Americans and was able to build
a support for civil rights reform.
His strategy of emphasizing nonviolent protest and interracial
cooperation enabled him to fight effectively against the Southern
system of legalized racial segregation and discrimination. His work
is still in motion today, supported by far more people than before.
King received several awards due to his meaningful words and
actions and his passion and desire of a better world. In 1964 he
became the youngest man to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr.King also won a Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977), a
Spingarn Medal and has posthumously won the Congressional
Medal of Freedom and a Grammy Hall of Fame award.
I Have a Dream

"I Have a Dream" came to be regarded as one of the finest

speeches in the history of America, it was delivered during the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on august 28, 1963 to
over 250,000 attendees.
King’s message was clear, he believed in the existence of harmony
between black and white people and hoped for freedom and equality
arising from a land of slavery and hatred.

The March, and especially King's speech, helped put civil rights at
the top of the agenda of reformers in the U.S. and facilitated
passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among the most quoted lines of the speech are "I have a dream that
my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not
be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their
character. I have a dream today!"