King, Martin Luther, Jr.

King, Martin Luther, Jr.( 1929–68),
Baptist pastor in Montgomery, Ala., as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a leading spokesman of American blacks for nonviolence in the civil rights movement. Stride Toward Freedom (1958) tells of the boycott he led against the Jim Crow buses of Montgomery, Strength To Love (1963) collects sermons, and Why We Can't Wait (1964) treats both the Birmingham demonstrations of 1963 and his larger views on civil rights. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. He was assassinated while planning a peaceful march.