Portal:1960s/Featured biography/3

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the civil rights movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities.