Martin Luther King Jr.

He was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929. Luther King was originally named Michael King Jr., but after a family trip to Germany, Michael King Sr. (father) decided to change his own and his son's name to Martin Luther King, in honor of the Augustinian theologian Martin Luther.

He then entered Morehouse College, a college for young African Americans, where he would graduate three years later. He earned a doctorate degree from Boston University four years later.

In 1954, at the age of 25, he was appointed pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Martin Luther King Jr.Minnesota Historical Society [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

In 1955, following the arrest of a black woman after she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, King decided to launch a nonviolent protest against the racial segregation his city was suffering. Building on his resonance as a pastor, he suggested that Montgomery's black population not use public transportation until such racist manifestations were completely eradicated. A year later, racial segregation in the city's public transportation was declared illegal.

In 1963, at the height of his cause, he led a march through Washington with 250,000 others, advocating in particular for better living conditions and integration of black people in the South. At this peaceful protest, the largest in the history of the American capital, he gave his famous "I have a dream" speech.

At only 35 years of age, he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

He continued his fight for black equality until he was murdered in a Memphis motel by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968.