Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 on January 15 th, and he died in 1968 on April 4th.

King was born into a comfortable middle-class life. His family followed the traditional Southern
black ministry. His father and grandfather were both preachers. They were preachers of the
prestigious Ebenezer Baptist Church. King experienced much discrimination growing up as an
African American in the south. Once, at the age of twelve, King attempted suicide after learning
that his grandmother died of a heart attack. Once, he spent some time in the north for one
summer. He was surprised to see blacks and whites getting along so well together in the north.
Eventually, in 1944 King attended Morehouse College. He joined a wartime program
meant to boast enrollment with high school students. He decided to go into ministry at his
father’s request. At college his mentor was Benjamin Mays. Mays was an activist who was
committed to fighting racial inequality. After he graduated, King went to a seminary where he
discovered Gandhi’s non-violent ideas of protest. Several years later King was chosen as the
leader for an activist group called the Montgomery Improvement Association. The association
was planning to boycott the transit system. After this action succeeded, King created the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King used this as his platform to lecture all over the
country.
King also joined other civil rights protesters and helped organize the march on
Washington. On August 28th in 1963 200,000 people peacefully gathered by the Lincoln
Memorial. They were demanding equal treatment for all American citizens. King gave his
famously know “I Have a Dream Speech” at this protest. His protests produced a strong effect
which helped result in the Civil rights act of 1964. King belongs in the hall of fame because he
was able to contribute in the desegregation of public spaces, and he was able to help outlaw
public discrimination. He also belongs in the hall of fame because he achieved his goals
peacefully and left a positive legacy behind. Overall, his leadership was one of the main reasons
that the movement succeeded in ending segregation.