Martin Luther King (Jr.)

Dr. King was a Baptist minister who became a leader in the African American Civil Rights Movement early in his career. In 1954, at age 25, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and completed his Ph.D. in systematic theology the following year. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found and became the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King organized nonviolent protests against African American segregation in Birmingham, Alabama as well as the 1963 March on Washington, where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. King received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his combating racial inequality through nonviolence and was assassinated by James Earl Ray four years later, at age 39.