Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream. Those rousing words, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. at an historic civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., brought hope to those who listened: hope that in the future there might not be two Americas–one black and one white–but instead a country united, with justice for all. Here is King’s inspiring story, which began in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929 and came to a tragic end on April 4, 1968 when an assassin fatally shot him. The pastor of a small Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, King became the driving force of the civil rights movement when he led a black boycott of the city’s bus lines. His philosophy of nonviolence, and his breathtaking eloquence, helped free African Americans from decades of oppression and finally won them the rights–and opportunities–they deserved.