Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. was asocial activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the Americancivil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968.

King sought equality and humanrights for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and all victims ofinjustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershedevents such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington,which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act andthe Voting Rights Act.

King was awarded the Nobel PeacePrize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, aU.S. federal holiday since 1986.