Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most prominent leader of the American civil rights movement from 1955 to his death by assassination in 1968. A Baptist minister who headed the influential Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King advocated for the end of segregation, racism, and disenfranchisement as well as economic and labor rights for Black Americans. Throughout his life, he encouraged nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. For his efforts, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

King was born in Atlanta in 1929, the second of three children born to the Reverend Michael King and his wife Alberta. Both King’s grandfather and father preached at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and King grew up in a middle-class home on Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue—“Sweet Auburn”—one of the most prosperous Black neighborhoods in the United States. Despite being financially secure, King witnessed segregation and oppression common in the South. Throughout his life, he recounted the White friend he had until they were six when the other child told him he would no longer be allowed to play with King due to their attending separate, segregated schools.

King attended Morehouse College, graduating in 1948. He was mentored by the college’s president, Benjamin Mays, whose advocacy for the social gospel and the need for Black churches to focus on improving life for people on Earth instead of salvation in the afterlife left a mark on King.