Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Junior was born on January 15th 1929, and he was shot dead on April 4th 1968.

Martin Luther, named « Michael » at his birth, became a national icon in the history of American progressivism. An American clergyman, he was a non violent activist for the civil rights of the Blacks in the United States. He also fought against poverty.

He organised some militant actions, like the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership in 1957 as its first president.

On August 28th 1963, during the march for employment and liberty, he pronounced his famous speech « I have a dream » behind the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. This fight against segregation was supported by president John Kennedy and most of these rights are written in the « Civil Rights Act » and the « Voting Rights Act ».

After that, he became the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and started a new campaign against the Vietnam War and poverty but it was stopped when he was assasinated in 1968. His death was assigned to James Earl Ray, but its continues to make debates.

Posthumously he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the first in 1977 and the second at 2004.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor. A memorial statue on the National Mall was opened to the public in 2011.

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