Martin Luther King Jr. Birth January 15, 1929 Atlanta, Georgia Death April 4, 1968 (39 yrs. old) King was assassinated Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Known for Leading the Civil Rights Movement in the United States advocating nonviolent protest against segregation and racial discrimination Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.

Martin Luther King, Jr. "I refuse to accept the view... that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality."

1954 Selected as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963.

Led a successful effort to desegregate Montgomery, Alabama, buses The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

1957 Helped found and served as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) “Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.” Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.

1958 Published Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten....America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness-- justice. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

1963 Wrote 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' arguing that it was his moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.

1963 Delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech to civil rights marchers at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

1964 Won the Nobel Peace Prize King's efforts were not limited to securing civil rights; he also spoke out against poverty and the Vietnam War. Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 1964.

1964 King became the first black American to be honored as to be honored as Time magazine's Man of the Year.

1965 Organized a mass march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that created national support for federal voting-rights legislation Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.

1968 Was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live. Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, Detroit, Michigan, June 23, 1963.

MLK Jr./ Robert F. Kennedy Announces assassination of MLK Jr. 2 months before his own assassination