Today's Google Doodle honors Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., a Baptist minister, community activist,
philosopher and humanitarian.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is best known for
his role in the advancement of civil rights
using nonviolent civil disobedience based
on his Christian beliefs.
King became a civil rights activist early
in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery
Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in
1957.
With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962
struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia
, and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent
protests in Birmingham, Alabama.
King also helped to organize the 1963 March
on Washington, where he delivered his famous
"I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established
his reputation as one of the greatest orators
in American history.
In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize
for combating racial inequality through nonviolence.
In 1965, he helped to organize the Selma to
Montgomery marches.
In the final years of his life, King expanded
his focus to include poverty and speak against
the Vietnam War.
In 1968, King was planning a national occupation
of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor
People's Campaign, when he was assassinated
on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death
was followed by riots in many U.S. cities.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established
as a holiday in numerous cities and states
beginning in 1971, and as a U.S. federal holiday
in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have
been renamed in his honor, and a county in
Washington State was also renamed for him.
