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[[Image:MartLK.jpg|right|thumb|Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: "I Have a Dream" (1964)]]

[[Image:MartLK.jpg|right|thumb|Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: "I Have a Dream" (1964)]]

Reverend '''Martin Luther King, Jr.''' (1929-1968) was the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia who became an advocate against discrimination based on race and the war in Vietnam.  He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  On Dec. 31, 1955, he led the nonviolent boycott of city buses of Montgomery, Alabama, after [[Rosa Parks]] was arrested for not moving to the back of the bus.

Reverend '''Martin Luther King, Jr'''., Ph.D. (1929-1968) was the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, who became an advocate against discrimination based on race and later a critic of the war in Vietnam.  He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  On Dec. 31, 1955, he led the nonviolent boycott of city buses of Montgomery, Alabama, after [[Rosa Parks]] was arrested for not moving to the back of the bus.<ref>http://www.thekingcenter.org/mlk/chronology.html</ref> 

Dr. King's most famous speech was "I Have a Dream," which he delivered to a huge crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., in 1964 to protest discrimination against African Americans.  He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.  Dr. King was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Rev. King wrote his most famous writing, “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” (1963), while imprisoned for demonstrating against segregated eating facilities.

On April 16, 1963, King wrote:  

Rev. King's most famous speech, delivered to a huge crowd gathered in Washington, D.C. in 1964, chanted the refrain "I Have a Dream" of an end to segregation and discrimination. It was a brilliant Christian sermon that drew upon verses and images in the Bible,<ref>For example, the speech recited Isaiah 40:4-5.</ref> ending in "Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"<ref>http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm</ref> 

"As the Apostle Paul carried the gospel of Jesus Christ ... so am I compelled to carry the gospel... I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers ...

The same year Rev. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968, Rev. King was assassinated by James Earl Ray.

I stand in the middle of two opposing forces ...  One is a force of complacency ...  The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups ... the largest being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement.  

On April 16, 1963, Rev. King wrote:

Nourished by frustration over racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America ...

:As the Apostle Paul carried the gospel of Jesus Christ ... so am I compelled to carry the gospel... I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers ...

I have tried to stand between these two forces ... for there is the more excellent way of love ...

:I stand in the middle of two opposing forces ... One is a force of complacency ...  The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups ... the largest being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement.  

One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our [[Judeo-Christian]] heritage."

:Nourished by frustration over racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America ...

In his 1964 book, WHY WE CAN'T WAIT, he wrote:

:I have tried to stand between these two forces ... for there is the more excellent way of love ...

"Whenever this issue of compensatory or preferential treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree, but he should ask for nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man enters the starting line of a race three hundred years after another man, the first would have to perform some incredible feat in order to catch up."  

:One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our [[Judeo-Christian]] heritage."

[[Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates]]

[[Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates]]

[[Category:Political people]]

[[Category:Political people]]