Martin Luther King, Jr.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. is widely considered the most influential leader of the Civil Rights Movement in America. He was also a Baptist minister, an inspiring orator, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955; delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington in 1963; and played crucial roles in the Selma Voting Rights Movement, the Chicago Open Housing Movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, and the Poor People's campaign, among many other major humanitarian efforts. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929, King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed by Congress one week later, on April 11.