Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta on Jan 15, 1929. He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and also attended Pennsylvania and Boston University. He married Coretta Scott in 1953 and became the pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954.
King rose to national prominence in 1955 during the Montgomery Bus Boycott which led to the Supreme Court's decision that Alabama's segregation laws were unconstitutional. This was a major victory which led to more non-violent protests against injustice.
Kings efforts eventually pressured Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Both of which helped to dismantle the systematic racism and oppression within American society. King was awarded the Nobel Peace price in 1964. He was assassinated in 1968. On August 22, 2011 the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was opened in Washington, D.C.
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