Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (1929-1968) Baptist Minister, Civil Rights Leader

I think segregation was the South trying to push the limits and still hate the 'colored' people after they lost slavery. The goverment allowed it without checking constitustionality. Martin Luther King Jr. fought against it bravely doing things he knew were dangerous. While he was giving a speech in church, his house was bombed. Then he was shot in the head after a speech which he again knew was dangerous.

Later segregation was found unconstitutional. King was, in my opinion, the best fighter against rasicm. I wish I could have met him and talked, it would have been great.

--Harrison Reiser

Martin Luther King, Jr. came from a family that valued education. A brilliant student, he graduated from high school at the age of 15, earned his first college degree at 19, and by age 27 had earned a Ph.D..

In 1954, shortly after marrying Coretta Scott, he became a Baptist pastor in Montgomery, Alabama. A year later, he was chosen to lead the group that defended Rosa Parks and organized the bus boycott. A visit to India in 1957 increased his desire to use non-violent resistance, following Gandhi's example.

His civil rights involvement required him to leave his pastorate and he moved his family to Atlanta in 1960. His equal rights activities increased, as did the violence toward blacks as they peacefully tried to receive just treatment. He led several freedom marches, including the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. He was chosen as man of the year by Time magazine later that year, and received the Nobel Prize for Peace the following fall.

The life of this great equal rights and religious leader, and the father of four, came to an end April 4, 1968, when he was shot while in Memphis, Tennessee, supporting a sanitation workers strike. Millions mourned his death then, and new generations still honor his memory today. The epitaph remembers the words of his most famous speech, "Free at last, Free at last. Thank God, Almighty, I'm free at last."

His wife, Coretta Scott King founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-violent Social Change shortly after his death. Dr. King's grave site behind the center is surrounded by a reflecting pool.

--by Susan Reiser

His work will not be forgotten.