I was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally named Michael King Jr, but later changed it to Martin. I am both a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, I would like to believe I have a seismic impact on race relations in the United States. It all began in the 1950’s. Among many efforts, I headed to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Through my activism, I would like to have the idea that I played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the South and other areas of the nation, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. I would like to be remembered as one
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Some may consider myself an extremist but the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. My father fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God's will. Although there are cases where we are treated unfairly we are making progress. After the Rosa Parks case the African-American community took legal action against the city of Montgomery ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's "separate is never equal" decision in Brown v. Board of Education. After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated public transportation. You can imagine the the happiness we felt and the sense of progress being made. As we are making progress towards the equality between whites and black, African-American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, Ralph Abernathy, myself and sixty ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches. They would help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. The organization felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than twenty mass meetings in key southern cities to register black voters in the South. I met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues. In the spring of
Some may consider myself an extremist but the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. My father fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God's will. Although there are cases where we are treated unfairly we are making progress. After the Rosa Parks case the African-American community took legal action against the city of Montgomery ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's "separate is never equal" decision in Brown v. Board of Education. After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated public transportation. You can imagine the the happiness we felt and the sense of progress being made. As we are making progress towards the equality between whites and black, African-American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, Ralph Abernathy, myself and sixty ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches. They would help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. The organization felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than twenty mass meetings in key southern cities to register black voters in the South. I met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues. In the spring of