
An American Baptist minister and prominent leader in the Civil Rights Movement who championed nonviolent resistance against racial segregation.
Một mục sư Baptist người Mỹ và nhà lãnh đạo nổi bật của phong trào Dân quyền, người cổ vũ đấu tranh bất bạo động chống phân biệt chủng tộc.
This biography of Martin Luther King helps you learn English through real historical stories. Explore Martin Luther King's impact on the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, into a family of Baptist ministers. Growing up in the deeply segregated American South, he experienced the harsh realities of racial discrimination firsthand. A brilliant student, he entered college at the age of 15 and eventually earned a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University. Inspired by his Christian faith and the peaceful teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, King emerged as a powerful voice for justice and equality.
King first gained national prominence in 1955 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott, a pivotal campaign that successfully challenged segregated public transit. He helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to organize nonviolent protests against Jim Crow laws across the South. His leadership was defined by a steadfast commitment to peaceful civil disobedience, even in the face of violent police crackdowns, bombings, and numerous unjust arrests.
In 1963, King helped organize the historic March on Washington, where he delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd of over 250,000 people. His soaring rhetoric galvanized the nation and played a direct role in the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Though he was tragically assassinated in 1968, his ultimate sacrifice and visionary message of racial harmony permanently transformed American society, cementing his legacy as a global icon of human rights.