Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. His original name was Michael King Jr. He was the son of Alberta and Martin King Sr.
He married his wife, Coretta, on June 18, 1953, and had three boys.
King experienced racial prejudice early in life. Segregation was both law and custom in the south and other parts of America. He was a Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death.
King was arrested in 1960 when he joined black college students in a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter. John F. Kennedy was running for president at the time and Kennedy pleaded to have King released from jail, which helped Kennedy during the election.
At the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C., the March on Washington was taking place and that is when King delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech, which boosted public support for civil rights. In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed racial segregation in publicly owned facilities.
In Oslo on Dece. 10, 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize from Gunnar Jahn, president of the Nobel Prize Committee.
King was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. Americans honor the civil rights activist on the third Monday of January each year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
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