1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Research via: www. Worldbook.com Student Name: Kevon Butts Date: January 19, 2010 MECPS, Mr. Jiang

2. Who is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches. 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 in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

3. Quotes from "I Have a Dream” --A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. --A man can't ride your back unless it's bent. --A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

4. Books Dr. King wrote? A Testament of Hope : The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1986) The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King Jr. and Clayborne Carson (1998) Books written by him: King, Martin Luther, Jr., Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. 1958. King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Measure of a Man. 1959. King, Martin Luther, Jr., Strength to Love. 1963. Sixteen sermons and one essay entitled "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence." King, Martin Luther, Jr., Why We Can't Wait. 1963. King, Martin Luther, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 1967. King, Martin Luther, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience. 1968.

5. His Early life: In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

6. The early civil rights movement The Civil Rights Movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. The movement has had a lasting impact on United States society, in its tactics, the increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights, and in its exposure of the prevalence and cost of racism. The American Civil Rights movement has been made up of many movements. The term usually refers to the political struggles and reform movements between 1945 and 1970 to end discrimination against African Americans and to end legal racial segregation, especially in the U.S. South.

7. He contributed to the Black Society by passing laws that affected future generation.