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Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a clergyman and civil rights activist known for his doctrine of nonviolent protest. A graduate of Morehouse College and Crozer Theological Seminary, he was awarded a PhD in theology from Boston University in 1955. That same year, as a member of the executive committee of the NAACP, King led a boycott of the segregated bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott resulted in a Supreme Court ruling banning racial segregation on the city's buses. After this landmark case, King spoke and demonstrated tirelessly in the cause of civil rights. His efforts culminated in the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., in 1963 of more than a quarter of a million protesters, to whom he delivered his "I Have a Dream" address from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The next year King received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.