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Martin Luther King A short biography

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Martin Luther King Junior was born in January 1929 in Atlanta , Georgia in the south of the USA. His father was a minister in the Baptist church. At only 15, he attended Morehouse College . At 17 ,he became a minister like his father. He went to Boston University for a doctorate in theology. He married Coretta Scott Scott in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, in Montgomery, a black woman called Rosa Parks was arrested in 1953, then started Coretta

because she was sitting in the front of a bus , where blacks were not allowed to sit . MLK and other leaders organized a boycott of the buses: it was the start of the civil rights movement. After one year of boycott, the US Supreme Court declared bus segregation was illegal. In 1957 King became president of the Southern Christian Leadership

Conference to fight for desegregation. He was very busy working for civil rights, giving speeches, signing books, travelling constantly , organizing sit-ins and

going to prison repeatedly . In August 1963, King organized a march in Washington to /commemorate the 100 anniversary of the end of slavery . At the foot of the Lincoln Memorial , he gave the greatest speech of his career : I Have a Dream . In November 1963, US President John Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas. In July 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. In October 1964, at the age of 35, Dr Martin Luther King Jr was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after fighting so hard for equality between black people and white people. In 1966, more radical movements emerge with people like the Black Panthers was
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and Malcolm X. The slogan Black Power is created. On April 4


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1968, the man who had always insisted on the need for non-

violence , the charismatic leader of the civil rights movement was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. Kings death at the age of 39 provoked terrible riots in the country. On his tomb was written: Free at last . The anniversary of his death is now a national holiday .

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