Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15,
1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and
leader in the African-American 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 h