Author: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister, activist, and an icon of the civil rights movement in the United States. King was Pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and the founding President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that was integral to the civil rights movement. At the age of thirty-five, King was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for his methods of nonviolent protest. Assassinated on April 4, 1968, King is considered a martyr by some Christian churches and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. King's contributions to the struggle for civil rights have led to him often being considered one of the most influential leaders in our country's history.