Martin Luther King

(Atlanta, January 15, 1929-Memphis, April 4, 1968) was an American pastor of the Baptist Church1 who carried out crucial work in the United States at the head of the civil rights movement for African-Americans and who also participated as an activist in numerous protests against the Vietnam War and poverty in general.

For that activity aimed at ending American 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 especially geared towards Opposition to the war and the fight against poverty, he was assassinated in Memphis, while preparing to attend an informal dinner with friends.

Martin Luther King, a young civil rights activist, organized and carried out various peaceful activities demanding 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 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 deliver his famous speech "I have a dream", thanks to which he would extend for Nationwide public awareness of the civil rights movement would establish itself as one of the greatest speakers in American history. Most of the rights claimed by the movement would be legally approved with the enactment of the Rights Act civilians of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The murder 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 United States Congress in 2004. Since 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been a public holiday in the United States.