EuropaWorld2 6/10/2001Martin Luther King Jr

The man who would become one of the world's greatest civil rights leaders was born Michael (later renamed Martin) Luther King in 1929. He was the second of three children to be born to schoolteacher Alberta King and Baptist minister Michael Luther King, residents of the then racially-segregated Atlanta, Georgia.

An able student, the young Martin studied at the distinguished Morehouse College - the institution from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. His examiners were so impressed by his performance in the college entrance exam that his formal graduation from high school was not required and he entered higher education when he was just fifteen. Having received a BA degree four years later, he then moved on to theological study. Again following family tradition, the young man entered the Christian ministry and was ordained at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1948 at age nineteen. He gained a BD at Crozer Seminary in Pennsylvania three years later and a fellowship to study at Boston University. He gained a doctorate in theology in 1955, interrupting his studies in 1953 to marry Coretta Scott with whom he would have four children. In this time he also accepted a position as a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama.

Keenly aware of the injustices faced by the non-white population of America, King had enrolled as a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, an organisation at the forefront of the civil rights struggle. However it was as an ordinary citizen that he shot to fame when he defended a coloured woman who had refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on the racially-segregated bus system. This led to what would become, under King's leadership, the first great non-violent demonstration in America of contemporary times. The subsequent boycott of the bus system lasted for over a year until the Supreme Court of the United States declared the laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional. It was a major success in the struggle for equality and Martin Luther King emerged as a primary figure in the ever-burgeoning civil rights movement. However this came at great personal cost; King was arrested and harassed and he and his family were threatened and abused. The family home was bombed in 1956.

Undeterred, King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 and was elected as president. Following in the footsteps of one of his heroes - Mohandes Gandhi - King travelled thousands of miles to preach non-violent resistance to end discrimination. He was constantly at risk of arrest, abuse and imprisonment. It is estimated that he delivered upwards of 20,000 speeches in the decade that followed, also writing five books as well as numerous articles. In 1963 he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama against discriminatory hiring and trading practices. The protest - and King's subsequent imprisonment - caught the attention of the entire world. That year he was named Man of the Year by Time magazine. His incarceration also produced his 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail', a manifesto of the civil rights revolution.

Only months after his release King led a massive peaceful march on Washington calling for equal voting and social rights for non-white citizens. It was there that he delivered the famous 'I have a dream' speech to more than 250,000 civil rights supporters. The following year, at the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King became the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Martin Luther King had become both a spiritual and a political leader in the fight for racial equality in America. He met the President to discuss civil rights - a move unthinkable in earlier decades - and, in 1965, more than 3,000 people joined King on a march for justice and equality. He became a familiar and much-loved figure wherever protests against injustice and inequity took place. On the evening of April 4, 1968 however, while staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, he was assassinated. James Earl Ray was later sentenced to 99 years imprisonment for his murder.

In his lifetime, King received hundreds of awards in recognition of his contribution to civil rights and to the progress of humanity. In 1986, 20 January was named as Martin Luther King Day - a public holiday in America in commemoration of this great man and leader. His philosophy that "hate cannot drive out hate: only love can drive out hate." is one that still inspires today.