One of the single most influential figures in the American Civil Rights Movement, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped organize and inspire people across the country to take non-violent action in the fight for equality.
MLK addressing a crowd in 1965
Original caption: MONTGOMERY, AL – MARCH 25: Dr Martin Luther King Jr speaking before crowd of 25,000 Selma To Montgomery, Alabama civil rights marchers, in front of Montgomery, Alabama state capital building. On March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by Stephen F. Somerstein/Getty Images)
MLK at time of his trial in 1960
King was fully acquitted. Original caption: Rev Martin Luther King Jr (center left) at time of his trial in front of Court House with others. (Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images)
MLK speaking at a student rally in 1960
Original caption: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr speaking at student rally against discrimination, Montgomery, Alabama. (Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images)
MLK with his family in 1960
Original caption: Civil Rights activist Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta, daughter Yolanda, 5, & Martin Luther III, 3, sitting together as they play piano in their livingroom, Atlanta, Georgia, 1960. (Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images)
MLK giving a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1960
Original caption: Civil Rights activist Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr gesturing during sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, 1960. (Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images)
MLK at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956
Original caption: American religious and Civil Rights leader Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929 – 1968) stands in front of a bus at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, December 26, 1956. (Photo by Don Cravens/Getty Images)
MLK listening to the radio while leading the Alabama Civil Rights march in 1965
Original caption: March 1965: American clergyman and civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr (1929 – 1968) listening to the radio whilst leading the Alabama Civil Rights march. On the left is his fellow clergyman and campaigner Ralph Abernathy (1926 – 1990). (Photo by William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images)
Headshot of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in his vestments in 1953
Original caption: circa 1953: Headshot of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr (1929 – 1968), American civil rights leader and pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, wearing his vestments. (Photo by Michael Evans/New York Times Co./Getty Images)
MLK and his speechwriter Clarence B. Jones in 1963
Original caption: American civil rights leader Rev Martin Luther King Jr (1929 – 1968) at a press conference at the AG Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama, February 1963. Behind Luther King is his speechwriter Clarence B. Jones. (Photo by Ernst Haas/Ernst Haas/Getty Images)
MLK has a mug shot taken at a police station in Montgomery, Alabama, 1956
Original caption: American civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr wearing a 7089 sign across his chest for a mug shot at a police station house in Montgomery County, Alabama, following his arrest for directing a city-wide boycott of segregated buses, February 21, 1956 . (Photo by Don Cravens/Getty Images)
MLK receives the Nobel Prize for Peace from Gunnar Jahn
Original caption: 10th December 1964: American civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968) (left) receives the Nobel Prize for Peace from Gunnar Jahn, president of the Nobel Prize Committee, in Oslo. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
MLK and Rev. Ralph Abernathy
Original caption: ALBANY, GEORGIA: July 12, 1962, Rev Ralph D Abernathy, desegregation leader, with Martin Luther King Jr (2R) and Dr William G Anderson (R), after release of King and Abernathy from Albany jail. (Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images)
MLK with a group in prayer prior to Selma, Alabama, march in 1965
Original caption: Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr (left) and Ralph Abernathy (center, rear) kneel with a group in prayer prior to going to jail in Selma, Alabama. The group was arrested on February 1st after attempting to gain the right to vote. Following the prayer, the group peacefully marched to jail. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
