Martin Luther King, Jr.
Live your dream with the man who helped change the world
King believed that a man should be judged not by the colour of his skin but by the content of his character. He was the civil rights activist from Atlanta Georgia who became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Laws changed thanks to his non violent opposition and a national holiday was declared after he was assassinated in 1968.
- 1929: Born in Atlanta, Georgia
- 1953: Becomes pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama
- 1955: Gains his PHD in systematic theology from Boston University
Leads the Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks is forced to give her seat to a white man
- 1956: Racial segregation ends on Montgomery buses
- 1957: Founds the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to organise civil rights reform
- 1963: Gives his ‘I have a Dream’ speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 1964: The Civil Rights Act is passed, ending public segregation of blacks and whites
Wins Nobel Peace Prize
- 1965: Organises the Selma to Montgomery marches which are broken up by Police brutality
- 1966: Moves to live in the Chicago slums to show his empathy with the poor
- 1967: Announces his opposition to the war in Vietnam
- 1968: Assassinated in Memphis by James Earl Ray
Who else?