About
Martin King
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and a key leader in the American civil-rights movement. He was co-pastor, with his father, of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and president and one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. An eloquent advocate of achieving civil rights through non-violent means, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was selected by Time magazine as one of the ten outstanding personalities of 1957 and was named its "Man of the Year" for 1963. Born in Atlanta, he obtained a B.A. degree at Morehouse College in 1948m a B.D. degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1951, and a Ph.D. degree in Systematic Theology from Boston University in 1955. He lectured extensively at academic institutions and authored a number of books including Stride Toward Freedom, Strength to Love, Why We Can't Wait, and Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community. Assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Meda of Freedom in 1977. Martin Luther King Day was established as a U.S. holiday in 1986.