Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1944, at the age of 15, King entered Morehouse College in Atlanta. He graduated in 1948 with a B.A. in Sociology.

1954: Marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Georgia.

1955: Became a minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

At this time, African American people and white people didn’t eat at the same lunch counter together. They didn’t sit together on buses. African American people were expected to use different water fountains and different public restrooms.

Martin Luther King wanted to change these things Martin Luther King wanted to change these things. He believed all people should be free and equal. He believed in peace.

He launched what became the national civil rights movement by mobilizing the black community in a 13-month boycott of the city's buses. The non-violent demonstration was ignited by a seamstress named Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. Courts later ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional.

By the late 1950s, King had become a national figure By the late 1950s, King had become a national figure. In 1957, he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which encouraged the use of non-violent civil disobedience to win civil rights for African-Americans. The movement began to see results between the years of 1960 and 1965, when legislation was passed to end racial segregation in public facilities and expand voting rights.

In August 1963, an interracial crowd of more than 250,000 people attended the March on Washington, during which Dr. King made his famous "I Have a Dream speech." Just one year after the March on Washington, King, at the age of 35, became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize to date.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

In April 1968, King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to support the city's striking garbage workers, who were demanding a raise and better working conditions. A sniper shot King as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He died later that day.

Dr. King’s funeral.

Four days after King's assassination, U. S. Rep Four days after King's assassination, U.S. Rep. John Conyers from Michigan proposed a law making King's birthday a national holiday. On August 2, 1983, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a law to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national legal holiday on the third Monday in January, beginning in 1986.

On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed it into law On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed it into law. The first observance of Dr. King's birthday as a legal national holiday was on January 20, 1986