Martin Luther King Jr.
Learn about Martin Luther King Jr. — the American civil rights leader whose nonviolent activism and powerful oratory transformed the struggle for racial equality.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) was the most prominent leader of the American civil rights movement and one of the 20th century's most influential advocates for nonviolent social change. His eloquent articulation of the moral case against racial segregation, combined with disciplined nonviolent protest, transformed American law and society and inspired movements for justice worldwide.
King emerged as a national figure during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–56, which he led at age 26. Drawing on the nonviolent philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi and the social gospel tradition of Black Christianity, King organized campaigns of civil disobedience that exposed the brutality of segregation to a national audience. The Birmingham campaign of 1963, the March on Washington where he delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech, and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches were turning points that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
King's vision expanded beyond legal equality to address economic injustice and militarism. He opposed the Vietnam War and organized the Poor People's Campaign before his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968, at age 39. His legacy transcends American politics: King demonstrated that nonviolent resistance could dismantle entrenched systems of injustice, that moral courage could change nations, and that the arc of the moral universe, while long, could be bent toward justice.