Guestling Bradshaw CE Primary School

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother a schoolteacher. He was originally named Michael, after his father, but after a family visit to Germany, his father changed both their names to Martin Luther in honour of the Protestant leader. He went to Morehouse College in 1944 and then to Crozer Religious Seminary, receiving his doctorate in 1955.

Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King first became widely known when he helped mobilise the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. This was organised after Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man: in the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of the bus. The boycott led the bus company to change its regulations, and the Supreme Court declared that segregation like this was unconstitutional.

In 1957 King was active in the organisation of the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), formed to help fight discrimination. He advocated non-violent direct action based on the methods of Gandhi, who led protests against British rule in India, culminating in India's independence in 1947.

He later led protests against discrimination in Birmingham, Alabama where the white population were violently resisting desegregation. The city became known as 'Bombingham' as attacks against civil rights protesters increased, and King was arrested and jailed for his part in the protests.

After his release, King participated in the enormous civil rights march on Washington in August 1963, and delivered his famous 'I have a dream' speech, predicting a day when the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America.

In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1965 he led a campaign to register blacks to vote. The same year the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing the discrimination that had barred black people from voting in the south.

King protested against the Vietnam War, arguing that the money would be better spent on social welfare due to the rising poverty levels in the US, particularly among black people. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968 during a visit to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was supporting the rights of black workers.

The third Monday in January, near King’s birthday, is an official holiday in the United States of America, in recognition of his tireless campaign for civil rights.