Martin Luther King Jr. played a tremendous role in the 20th century civil rights movements. King changed the American society. He orchestrated many peaceful acts to gain equality for African Americans. He led the bus boycott in 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus. King was also known for his powerful acts in having taught nonviolent methods. In 1964, he earned the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King Jr. was also very widely known for his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 to a middle class African American family. He was born to Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Christine King in Atlanta, Georgia. King’s father was a Reverend. Martin
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They were often intimidated, and gerrymandering and other forms of corruption were used against them.” King knew that something had to be done, so he gathered the people of good will and “led a 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery and spoke triumphantly before the state capitol building in Montgomery.” “On May 4, 1966, well over eighty percent of registered African Americans in the state of Alabama voted in that state’s Democratic Primary. This was a clear signal that the movement toward political equality was beginning to catch up with the quest for social equality.” “On April 3, 1968, King delivered what would be his last public address. Before a packed crowd in the Mason Temple in Memphis, he reeled off the high points of the movements: the sit-ins, the Birmingham campaign, the movement in 1963 when he got up to ‘tell America about a dream that he had.” He then confessed to the audience that he did not know what would happen from there and that he knew there would be difficult days ahead. King stated, “But it really does not matter with me now, because I have been to the