Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was a renowned African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia into a family of Baptist ministers. He was destined to become a man of faith like his father, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., and his grandfather, Adam Daniel Williams.
Martin Luther King Jr. has evolved from a prominent civil rights leader into the symbol for the civil rights movement in the United States. He greatly contributed in the fight for equality by leading civil rights campaigns such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a success, and participating in the Birmingham Protest March, another success, to end segregation in downtown stores and achieve equal opportunity in employment.
Severe police brutality against the march sent a shocking wave of negative publicity across the country. This outraged the Kennedy Administration, so troops were brought in to halt still uprising violence. Finally, an agreement was settled and slowly put in place. Shortly thereafter, Martin Luther King’s popularity soared and he was poised to assert himself as a new national leader.
On August 28, 1963 he delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ Address to more than 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. In January, 1964, he was the first black American to be named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.” And in December of 1964 he was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. Also, in that year he attended the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the law that ended segregation in public institutions.
Martin Luther King Jr. came to an untimely death on April 4, 1968, the day after a speech in Memphis, when he was assassinated while on his balcony at the Lorraine Motel. He is extremely important to America because he set the foundation for the rights of people from all different walks of life to be recognized. I think that without Martin Luther King Jr., America would be a much different place today, with less freedom and rights we all can enjoy now. He made a huge leap in the overall advancement of our society and his acknowledgments for these feats are well deserved!
