Martin Luther King (1929 to 1968)

In 1935, King attended Younge Street Elementary School, a school for black children as a child. And in 1942, he skipped the ninth grade and enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School. He also skipped the eleventh grade. 

King then enrolled at Morehouse College, a private historically black men's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia, and successfully passed existing entrance examinations. And in 1948 he graduated and received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in sociology at the age of nineteen.

After learning a lot about things while studying there with his spiritual mentor, Morehouse's president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, King believes that he can be a "rational" minister with

preaching which is "a force that respects ideas, even social protest." This made King want to learn about theology. Although at first King didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps, he eventually enrolled at Crozer Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania. In 1951, King graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity (B.Div).

Not only that, but he also enrolled at Boston University in 1951 majoring in systematic theology to take doctoral courses. He was then called to be a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954. And in 1955 managed to hold a Doctorate Degree.

King wanted to find a potential life partner. He asked his friend Mary Powell, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music. And that's how he met Coretta Scott. They married on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of Coretta's mother. They are blessed with four children, Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice. All their children have become activists, fighting for civil rights.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott is a political and social protest campaign against the racial segregation policy of the public transit system in Montgomery, Alabama, United States (US). The civil society movement began on December 5, 1955, after Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her post to white people on December 1, 1955. At that time, King was appointed to be the leader of the protest movement.

The boycott ended on 20 December 1955, which ended in victory. The incident aroused the enthusiasm of civil rights activists, including King, who was said to be a great leader.

King and other well-known activists founded the African-American civil rights organization on January 10, 1957. The organization was originally called the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration. Then in August of that year, the organization officially changed to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), in order to explain where SCLC is moving to eradicate all forms of segregation.

King becomes president of SCLC. During King's time at SCLC, he has undergone many demonstrations concerning civil rights. “Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom” was the first speech he brought at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement demonstrations in Washington, D.C. on May 10, 1957.

King and SCLC joined the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) in April 1963, a campaign to promote equality of civil rights and segregation for African Americans that took place in Birmingham, Alabama.

King and Ralph Abernathy were briefly arrested on April 12 and released on April 19 for not complying with the protest ban rules that the city government made on April 10. While in prison, King wrote his letter which became known as the "Letter from Birmingham Prison".

It can be said that 1963 was the year when King went directly to the field to convey about equalizing civil rights in the demonstrations. On August 28, 1963, King and other well-known activists along with hundreds of thousands of citizens staged a demonstration in front of the Lincoln Memorial for equal civil rights, especially for African-Americans who at that time needed to have freedom in choosing rights and jobs.

And in the last turn, King delivered his 17-minute speech entitled "I Have a Dream". The speech spoke about Federal Law, unemployment, racial issues, and social justice. The speech was recognized as a masterpiece.

As an activist for equal rights, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In the same year, the American Congress ratified the Civil Rights Act which abolished the general separation of whites and blacks across the country. However, the implementation of the law has been quite slow.

In 1965, King led thousands of demonstrators on a three-day walk from Selma City to Montgomery, Alabama State to register black voters. This demonstration began with the attack of state troops against an unarmed black citizen, Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was about to be shot and finally died in February 1965. And on March 7 when he carried out the first march, many victims were injured during the incident, as we know as "Bloody Sunday".

On March 9, the second March was held. In this march, the demonstrators turned around from their known route and this event became known as "Turnaround Tuesday". King lost an activist friend, James Reeb during this march.

King not only fought against black discrimination but also against property and the Vietnam War. King opposed the Vietnam War and delivered a speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" on April 4 at Riverside Church, in New York City.

The content of the speech was that King said the United States government did not want to know about the war and stated that many Vietnamese people were killed because of the United States.

King's death shocked many. He was shot by James Earl Ray to death when he took action on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The shock of his death caused many riots and clashes in various cities across the United States.

The incident occurred when a sniper, Ray, fired a bullet that hit his throat. He was shot at exactly 6:01 pm local time and was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital, but he died at 7:05 pm.

On April 9, about 300,000 people walked slowly through the highways of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, for seven hours to deliver Martin Luther King Jr. or Dr. King's body to the "South View" cemetery on the outskirts of the city. The funeral ceremony for this character who has become a symbol of hope for millions of people began at the Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, accompanied by thousands of Americans from various groups.