King, Martin Luther Jr.
1929-1968 · Contribution: 1955-1968
Baptist minister; civil rights leader
Baptist ministry and nonviolent civil rights leadership grounded in Christian theology and Gandhian nonviolence; sermons, speeches, and writings including 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' (1963) and the 'I Have a Dream' speech (1963)
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Quick facts
- Born
- 1929, Atlanta, Georgia
- Active since
- 1955
- Category
- Religious & Spiritual Leadership
- Best known for
- Leading the American civil rights movement through nonviolent Christian witness
Impact on the world
King made the Black church the moral engine of the civil rights movement, translating Christian theology and nonviolent discipline into a mass campaign that dismantled legal segregation and reshaped American history.
Sources
- The Nobel Prize
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Related visionaries
Shuttlesworth, Frederick Lee
1922-2011
Co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957 and led the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, organizing the 1963 Birmingham Campaign that Dr. King credited as decisive in securing passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while surviving multiple assassination attempts including the 1956 bombing of his church parsonage
Taylor, Gardner Calvin
1918-2015
Co-founded the Progressive National Baptist Convention in 1961 after a contested National Baptist Convention presidential election tied to support for Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights tactics
Thurman, Howard Washington
1899-1981
Theologian and mystic whose writings and personal mentorship directly shaped Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent philosophy; co-founded the first major interracial, interdenominational church in the United States
Hall, Prathia LauraAnn
1940-2002
Credited as the originator of the phrase “I have a dream,” spoken during a 1962 prayer vigil that Martin Luther King Jr. attended and later asked her permission to echo in his own preaching, while serving as one of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's first female field secretaries and later becoming a pioneering Baptist minister and womanist theologian