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I HAD A DREAM. I BANGED A REALLY HOT CHICK. AND YOU WERE THERE, AND YOU WERE THERE, AND YOU WERE THERE.
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{{Infobox person
| name = Martin Luther King, Jr.
| birth_name = Michael King, Jr.
| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1929|1|15}}
| birth_place = {{nowrap|[[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], U.S.}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1968|4|4|1929|1|15}}
| death_place = {{nowrap|[[Memphis, Tennessee]], U.S.}}
| image = File:Martin Luther King Jr NYWTS.jpg
| caption = King in 1964
| signature = Martin Luther King Jr Signature2.svg
| parents = [[Martin Luther King, Sr.]]<br />[[Alberta Williams King]]
| spouse = [[Coretta Scott King]] (m. 1953–1968)
| children = {{unbulleted list
| [[Yolanda King|Yolanda Denise King]] (1955–2007)
| [[Martin Luther King III]] (b. 1957)
| [[Dexter Scott King]] (b. 1961)
| [[Bernice King|Bernice Albertine King]] (b. 1963)
}}
| occupation = Clergyman, activist
| movement = [[African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)|African-American Civil Rights Movement]], [[Peace movement]]
| organization = [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference|Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)]]
| monuments = [[Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial]]
| alma_mater = {{unbulleted list
| [[Morehouse College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]])
| [[Crozer Theological Seminary]] ([[Bachelor of Divinity|B.D.]])
| [[Boston University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]])
}}
| awards = [[Nobel Peace Prize]] (1964), [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] (1977, posthumous), [[Congressional Gold Medal]] (2004, posthumous)
| religion = [[Christianity]]
| denomination = [[Baptist]] ([[Progressive National Baptist Convention]])
<!---------- Sainthood ---------->
| feast_day = April 4 ([[Episcopalian Church (United States of America)|ECUSA]]), January 15 [[Evangelical Lutheran Church of America|ELCA]])
| venerated = {{unbulleted list|Anglican Communion|Lutheranism}}
| saint_title = Renewer of society, Martyr
| beatified_date =
| beatified_place =
| beatified_by =
| canonized_date =
| canonized_place =
| canonized_by =
| attributes =
| patronage =
| shrine =
| suppressed_date =
}}

'''Martin Luther King, Jr.''' (January 15, 1929&nbsp;– April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the [[African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)|African-American Civil Rights Movement]]. He is best known for his role in the advancement of [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] using nonviolent [[civil disobedience]] based on his [[Christianity|Christian]] beliefs.

He was born '''Michael King''', but his [[Martin Luther King, Sr.|father]] changed his name in honor of the [[Germans|German]] reformer [[Martin Luther]]. A [[Progressive National Baptist Convention|Baptist]] minister, 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, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in [[Albany, Georgia]], in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March on Washington]], where he delivered his famous "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest [[orator]]s in American history. [[J. Edgar Hoover]] considered him a radical and made him an object of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]'s [[COINTELPRO]] for the rest of his life.

On October 14, 1964, King received the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for combating racial inequality through [[nonviolence]]. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the [[Selma to Montgomery marches]] and the following year, he took the movement north to [[Chicago]] to work on segregated housing. In the final years of his life, King expanded his focus to include [[Poverty in the United States|poverty]] and the [[Vietnam War]], alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "[[Beyond Vietnam]]". In 1968 King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the [[Poor People's Campaign]], when he was [[Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.|assassinated]] on April 4 in [[Memphis, Tennessee]]. His death was followed by [[King assassination riots|riots in many U.S. cities]]. Allegations that [[James Earl Ray]], the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting. The jury of a 1999 civil trial found [[Loyd Jowers]] to be complicit in a conspiracy against King.

King was posthumously awarded the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] and the [[Congressional Gold Medal]]. [[Martin Luther King, Jr. Day]] was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971, and as a [[Federal holidays in the United States|U.S. federal holiday]] in 1986. [[List of streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr.|Hundreds of streets]] in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor. In addition, a [[King County, Washington|county]] was rededicated in his honor. A [[Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial|memorial statue]] on the [[National Mall]] was opened to the public in 2011.

==Early life and education==
[[File:Atlanta Trip 130.JPG|alt=|thumb|King's high school alma mater was named after African-American scholar [[Booker T. Washington]]]]
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in [[Atlanta, Georgia]], to Reverend [[Martin Luther King, Sr.]] and [[Alberta Williams King]].<ref>{{cite book|title=All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education| publisher=W W Norton & Co | page=138 | last=Ogletree | first=Charles J. | isbn=0-393-05897-2| year=2004}}
</ref>
His legal name at birth was "Michael King".<ref name="The King Center">{{cite web| url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies | title=Upbringing & Studies | publisher=The King Center | accessdate=September 2, 2012 |archivedate=January 9, 2013| archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXsUy7f3 |deadurl=no}}
</ref> King's father was also born ''Michael King''. The father "changed" both names on his own during a 1934 trip to [[Nazi Germany]] to attend the [[Baptist World Alliance|Fifth Baptist World Alliance Congress]] in [[Berlin]]. It was during this time he chose to be called Martin Luther King in honor of the great German reformer [[Martin Luther]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.german-way.com/famous-mlk-german.html |title=Martin Luther King, Jr. name change |publisher=German-way.com |accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref>

Martin, Jr., was a middle child, between an older sister, [[Christine King Farris|Willie Christine King]], and a younger brother, [[Alfred Daniel Williams King]].{{sfn|King|1992|p=76}} King sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]].''<ref>{{cite book | last=Katznelson| first=Ira| page=5| title=When Affirmative Action was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America| isbn=0-393-05213-3| year=2005| publisher=WW Norton & Co}}</ref>

King was originally skeptical of many of Christianity's claims.<ref name="tikkun.org">{{cite web| url=http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/nov_dec_09_scofield | title=King's God: The Unknown Faith of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr | work=Tikkun | date=November 2, 2001 | accessdate=February 8, 2010}}
</ref> At the age of thirteen, he denied the [[Resurrection of Jesus|bodily resurrection of Jesus]] during [[Sunday school]]. From this point, he stated, "doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly".{{sfn|King|1998|p=6}} However, he later concluded that the Bible has "many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter the [[seminary]].<ref name="tikkun.org"/>

Growing up in Atlanta, King attended [[Booker T. Washington High School (Atlanta, Georgia)|Booker T. Washington High School]]. A precocious student, he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grades and entered [[Morehouse College]] at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr| last=Ching|first=Jacqueline|page=18 | isbn=0-8239-3543-4| publisher=Rosen Publishing | year=2002}}
</ref>
In 1948, he graduated from Morehouse with a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] degree in [[sociology]], and enrolled in [[Crozer Theological Seminary]] in [[Chester, Pennsylvania]], from which he graduated with a [[Bachelor of Divinity|B.Div.]] degree in 1951.<ref>{{cite book| title=To See the Promised Land: The Faith Pilgrimage of Martin Luther King, Jr | page=150| last=Downing | first=Frederick L.| publisher=Mercer University Press| year=1986| isbn=0-86554-207-4}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book | title=Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance|last=Nojeim|first=Michael J.| page=179|isbn=0-275-96574-0| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2004}}
</ref>
King married [[Coretta Scott King|Coretta Scott]], on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents' house in her hometown of [[Heiberger, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1509338/Coretta-Scott-King.html | title=Coretta Scott King| work=The Daily Telegraph | accessdate=September 8, 2008 | date=February 1, 2006 | archivedate=January 9, 2013 | archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXtM7XCQ |deadurl=no}}
</ref> They became the parents of four children: [[Yolanda King]], [[Martin Luther King III]], [[Dexter Scott King]], and [[Bernice King]].<ref name=fam>{{cite book|title=King Came Preaching: The Pulpit Power of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr |page=35|last= Warren|first= Mervyn A. |isbn= 0-8308-2658-0 |year= 2001 | publisher=InterVarsity Press}}</ref> During their marriage, King limited Coretta's role in the civil rights movement, and expected her to be a housewife.<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=gwVbfvfYEZkC&pg=PA408&lpg=PA408&dq=rosa+parks+%22You've+said+enough%22&source=bl&ots=rOsSH_BAPw&sig=boOoZWgenR2iHSw50Ots6duyqcc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=aK2kUojKF6_gsATI5IH4Aw&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=rosa%20parks%20%22You've%20said%20enough%22&f=false</ref>

===Doctoral studies===
{{see also|Martin Luther King, Jr. authorship issues}}
King then began doctoral studies in [[systematic theology]] at [[Boston University]] and received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] degree on June 5, 1955, with a [[dissertation]] on "A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of [[Paul Tillich]] and [[Henry Nelson Wieman]]". An academic inquiry concluded in October 1991 that portions of his dissertation had been [[plagiarism|plagiarized]] and he had acted improperly. However, "[d]espite its finding, the committee said that 'no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King's doctoral degree,' an action that the panel said would serve no purpose."<ref name=Radin>{{cite news |title=Panel Confirms Plagiarism by King at BU |first=Charles A. |last=Radin |work=The Boston Globe |date=October 11, 1991 |page=1}}
</ref><ref name="snopes">{{cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/mlking.asp |title=Martin Luther King |work=[[Urban Legends Reference Pages|Snopes]] |accessdate=March 14, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html |title=Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King |date=October 11, 1991 |work=The New York Times |accessdate=November 13, 2013 |archivedate=November 13, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6L6jeBjcA |deadurl=no}}</ref> The committee also found that the dissertation still "makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship."

==Ideas, influences, and political stances==

===Religion===
King became pastor of the [[Dexter Avenue Baptist Church]] in [[Montgomery, Alabama]], when he was twenty-five years old, in 1954.<ref>{{cite book| last=Fuller | first=Linda K.| page=314| publisher=Greenwood Publishing| year=2004| isbn=0-275-97270-4 | title=National Days, National Ways: Historical, Political, And Religious Celebrations around the World}}</ref>
As a [[Christian]] minister, his main influence was [[Jesus Christ]] and the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings, speeches at church, and in public discourses. King's faith was strongly based in Jesus' commandment of [[Golden Rule|loving your neighbor as yourself]], loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His [[nonviolence|non-violent]] thought was also based in the injuction to ''[[turn the other cheek]]'' in the [[Sermon on the Mount]], and Jesus' teaching of putting the sword back into its place (Matthew 26:52).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/king_quotes_on_war_and_peace/ |title=Martin Luther King, Jr., Justice Without Violence- April 3, 1957 |publisher=Mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu |accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref> In his famous [[Letter from Birmingham Jail]], King urged action consistent with what he describes as Jesus' "extremist" love, and also quoted numerous other [[Christian pacifism|Christian pacifist]] authors, which was very usual for him. In his speech [[I've Been to the Mountaintop]], he stated that he just wanted to do [[God's will]].

===Non-violence===
[[File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mathew Ahmann in a crowd.) - NARA - 542015.tif|thumb|King at a Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.]]

Veteran African-American civil rights activist [[Bayard Rustin]] served as King's main advisor and mentor in the late 1950s.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Spirit of the Sixties: Making Postwar Radicalism| last= Farrell|first= James J.|page= 90|isbn= 0-415-91385-3|publisher= Routledge| year= 1997}}
</ref> Rustin came from the [[Christian pacifist]] tradition; he had also studied Gandhi's teachings and applied them with the [[Journey of Reconciliation]] campaign in the 1940s.<ref>{{cite news| title= Book Review: Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen| last=Kahlenberg| first=Richard D.| work=Washington Monthly | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n4_v29/ai_19279952 | accessdate=June 12, 2008 | year=1997}}</ref> Rustin counseled King to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence.<ref>{{cite book| page= 217| last=Bennett | first=Scott H.| title=Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915–1963 | publisher=Syracuse University Press| year=2003| isbn=0-8156-3003-4}}</ref>

Inspired by [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s success with non-violent activism, King had "for a long time...wanted to take a trip to India".<ref>{{cite book | last = King, Jr. | first = Martin Luther | coauthors = Clayborne Carson, et al | title = The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume V: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959&nbsp;– December 1960 | publisher = University of California Press | year = 2005 | page = 231 |url = http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol5/July1959_MyTriptotheLandofGandhi.pdf | isbn = 0-520-24239-4 }}</ref> With assistance from the [[Quaker]] group the [[American Friends Service Committee]], he was able to make the journey in April 1959.{{sfn|King|1992|p=13}} The trip to India affected King, deepening his understanding of [[non-violent resistance]] and his commitment to America's struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity".

Bayard Rustin's open homosexuality, support of [[democratic socialism]], and his former ties to the [[Communist Party USA]] caused many white and African-American leaders to demand King distance himself from Rustin,<ref>{{cite book | page=62 | last=Arsenault|first=Raymond|title=Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice|isbn= 0-19-513674-8| publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006}}</ref> which King agreed to do.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=42}} However, King agreed that Rustin should be one of the main organizers of the 1963 March on Washington.<ref>{{cite book|page= 138|first= David|last= De Leon|title= Leaders from the 1960s: a biographical sourcebook of American activism|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Publishing |isbn= 0-313-27414-2}}
</ref>

King's admiration of Gandhi's non-violence did not diminish in later years, he went so far as to hold up his example when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, hailing the "successful precedent" of using non-violence "in a magnificent way by Mohandas K. Gandhi to Challenge the might of the British Empire...He struggled only with the weapons of truth, soul force, non-injury and courage."<ref>{{cite web|title=Nobel Lecture by MLK|date=December 11, 1964|author=Dr. Martin Luther King|page=12|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/nobel-lecture-mlk|publisher=The King Center}}</ref>

Gandhi seemed to have influenced him with certain moral principles,{{sfn|King|1992|pp=135–36}} though Gandhi himself had been influenced by ''[[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]]'', a nonviolent classic written by Christian anarchist [[Leo Tolstoy]]. In turn, both Gandhi and Martin Luther King had read Tolstoy. King quoted Tolstoy's ''[[War and Peace]]'' in 1959.<ref>{{cite book | last = King, Jr. | first = Martin Luther | coauthors = Clayborne Carson, et al | title = The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume V: Threshold of a New Decade, January 1959&nbsp;– December 1960 | publisher = University of California Press | year = 2005 | pages = 149, 269, 248 |url = http://books.google.com/books?id=TU_HozbJSC8C&pg=PA269 | isbn = 0-520-24239-4 }}</ref>

Another influence for King's non-violent method was [[Thoreau]]'s essay ''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|On Civil Disobedience]]'', which King read in his student days influenced by the idea of refusing to cooperate with an evil system.<ref>King, M. L. Morehouse College (Chapter 2 of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.)</ref> He also was greatly influenced by the works of Protestant theologians [[Reinhold Niebuhr]] and [[Paul Tillich]],<ref>Reinhold Niebuhr and Contemporary Politics: God and Power</ref> as well as [[Walter Rauschenbusch]]'s ''Christianity and the Social Crisis''. In his later career, King used the concept of "[[agape]]" (the deepest form of Christian love), which may have represented an influence of [[Paul Ramsey (ethicist)|Paul Ramsey]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Blakely |first=Gregg |url=http://peacemagazine.org/archive/v17n2p21.htm |title=Peace Magazine v17n2p21: The Formative Influences on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr |publisher=Peacemagazine.org |accessdate=July 9, 2013}}</ref>

===Politics===
As the leader of the SCLC, King maintained a policy of not publicly endorsing a U.S. political party or candidate: "I feel someone must remain in the position of non-alignment, so that he can look objectively at both parties and be the conscience of both—not the servant or master of either."<ref name="Oates1993">{{cite book|first=Stephen B.|last=Oates|title=Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=85fOOMQaNaQC&pg=PA159|date=December 13, 1993|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-092473-7|page=159}}
</ref>
In a 1958 interview, he expressed his view that neither party was perfect, saying, "I don't think the Republican party is a party full of the almighty God nor is the Democratic party. They both have weaknesses&nbsp;... And I'm not inextricably bound to either party."<ref name="King-Carson2000p364">{{cite book|first=Martin Luther|last=King, Jr.|editor1-first=Clayborne|editor1-last=Carson|editor2-first=Peter|editor2-last=Holloran|editor3-first=Ralph|editor3-last=Luker|editor4-first=Penny A.|editor4-last=Russell|displayeditors=4|title=The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957&nbsp;– December 1958|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qW-NYdIefPgC&pg=PA364|year=2000|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22231-1|page=364}}</ref>

King critiqued both parties' performance on promoting racial equality: {{Quote|Actually, the Negro has been betrayed by both the Republican and the Democratic party. The Democrats have betrayed him by capitulating to the whims and caprices of the Southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans have betrayed him by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of reactionary right wing northern Republicans. And this coalition of southern Dixiecrats and right wing reactionary northern Republicans defeats every bill and every move towards liberal legislation in the area of civil rights.<ref name="King-Carson2000p84">{{cite book|first=Martin Luther|last=King, Jr.|editor1-first=Clayborne|editor1-last=Carson|editor2-first=Peter|editor2-last=Holloran|editor3-first=Ralph|editor3-last=Luker|editor4-first=Penny A.|editor4-last=Russell|displayeditors=4|title=The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957&nbsp;– December 1958|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qW-NYdIefPgC&pg=PA84|year=2000|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-22231-1|page=84}}</ref>}}

Although King never publicly supported a political party or candidate for president, in a letter to a civil rights supporter in October 1956 he said that he was undecided as to whether he would vote for [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] or [[Dwight Eisenhower]], but that "In the past I always voted the Democratic ticket."<ref name="King-Carson1992p384">{{cite book|first=Martin Luther|last=King, Jr.|editor1-first=Clayborne|editor1-last=Carson|editor2-first=Peter|editor2-last=Holloran|editor3-first=Ralph|editor3-last=Luker|editor4-first=Penny A.|editor4-last=Russell|displayeditors=4|title=The papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4ysIWgsSr9AC&pg=PA384|year=1992|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-07951-9|page=384}}
</ref>
In his autobiography, King says that in 1960 he privately voted for Democratic candidate [[John F. Kennedy]]: "I felt that Kennedy would make the best president. I never came out with an endorsement. My father did, but I never made one." King adds that he likely would have made an exception to his non-endorsement policy for a second Kennedy term, saying "Had President Kennedy lived, I would probably have endorsed him in 1964."<ref name="King-Carson1998p187">{{cite book|first=Martin Luther|last=King, Jr.|first2=Clayborne|last2=Carson|title=The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=pynSnGuC964C&pg=PT187|year=1998|publisher=Hachette Digital|isbn=978-0-446-52412-4|page=187}}</ref>

===Compensation===
King stated that black Americans, as well as other disadvantaged Americans, should be compensated for historical wrongs. In an interview conducted for ''[[Playboy]]'' in 1965, he said that granting black Americans only equality could not realistically close the economic gap between them and whites. King said that he did not seek a full restitution of wages lost to slavery, which he believed impossible, but proposed a government compensatory program of $50&nbsp;billion over ten years to all disadvantaged groups.{{sfn|Washington|1991}}

He posited that "the money spent would be more than amply justified by the benefits that would accrue to the nation through a spectacular decline in school dropouts, family breakups, crime rates, illegitimacy, swollen relief rolls, rioting and other social evils".{{sfn|Washington|1991|pp=365–67}} He presented this idea as an application of the [[common law]] regarding settlement of unpaid labor, but clarified that he felt that the money should not be spent exclusively on blacks. He stated, "It should benefit the disadvantaged of ''all'' races".{{sfn|Washington|1991|pp=367–68}}

==Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955==
{{Main|Montgomery Bus Boycott|Jim Crow laws#Public arena}}
[[File:Rosa Parks (detail).tiff|thumb|[[Rosa Parks]] with King, 1955]]
In March 1955, a fifteen-year-old school girl in Montgomery, [[Claudette Colvin]], refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in compliance with [[Jim Crow laws#Public arena|Jim Crow laws]], laws in the US South that enforced [[racial segregation]]. King was on the committee from the Birmingham African-American community that looked into the case; because Colvin was pregnant and unmarried, [[Edgar Nixon|E.D. Nixon]] and [[Clifford Durr]] decided to wait for a better case to pursue.<ref>{{cite book|title=Martin Luther King Jr.: Dreaming of Equality |last=Manheimer|first=Ann S. |page=103|year=2004|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|isbn=1-57505-627-5}}</ref>

On December 1, 1955, [[Rosa Parks]] was arrested for refusing to give up her seat.<ref>{{cite news| title=December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks arrested| date=March 11, 2003|publisher=CNN|accessdate=June 8, 2008|url= http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/10/sprj.80.1955.parks/}}
</ref> The Montgomery Bus Boycott, urged and planned by Nixon and led by King, soon followed.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Montgomery Bus Boycott|page=24|last=Walsh|first=Frank|publisher=Gareth Stevens|year= 2003|isbn= 0-8368-5403-9}}
</ref> The boycott lasted for 385 days,<ref>{{cite book|title=Ethical Leadership Through Transforming Justice| last=McMahon|first=Thomas F.|page=25|isbn=0-7618-2908-3|publisher=University Press of America|year=2004}}
</ref> and the situation became so tense that [[Coretta Scott King#House bombing|King's house was bombed]].<ref>{{cite book| title= Patterns of Conflict, Paths to Peace|last= Fisk | first= Larry J.|page=115|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn= 1-55111-154-3|first2=John|last2=Schellenberg|year= 1999}}</ref> King was arrested during this campaign, which concluded with a United States District Court ruling in ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses.{{sfn|King|1992|p=9}}{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=53}} King's role in the bus boycott transformed him into a national figure and the best-known spokesman of the civil rights movement.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=52}}

==Southern Christian Leadership Conference==
In 1957, King, [[Ralph Abernathy]], [[Fred Shuttlesworth]], [[Joseph Lowery]], and other civil rights activists founded the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC). The group was created to harness the [[moral authority]] and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the service of civil rights reform. King led the SCLC until his death.<ref>{{cite book|title=Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal: an African American Anthology|last= Marable| first= Manning | first2=Leith|last2=Mullings|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=0-8476-8346-X|year=2000|pages=391–2}}</ref>

On September 20, 1958, while signing copies of his book ''[[Stride Toward Freedom]]'' in Blumstein's department store in Harlem,<ref>Pearson, Hugh (2002). ''When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr''. Seven Stories Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-1-58322-614-8.
</ref> King narrowly escaped death when [[Izola Curry]], a mentally ill black woman who believed he was conspiring against her with communists, stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. After emergency surgery, King was hospitalized for several weeks, while Curry was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7694472.html |title='King' is a Deft Exploration of the Civil Rights Leader's Stabbing |date=February 4, 2002 |author=Graham, Renee |work=The Boston Globe |publisher= {{Subscription required|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}|accessdate=January 20, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-51d3eceac5094ac7a08d8dd326287c79.html |title=Today in History, September 20 |agency=Associated Press |date=September 19, 2012|publisher= {{Subscription required|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}|accessdate=January 20, 2013}}</ref> In 1959, he published a short book called ''The Measure of A Man'', which contained his sermons "[[What Is Man? (essay)|What is Man?]]" and "The Dimensions of a Complete Life". The sermons argued for man's need for God's love and criticized the racial injustices of Western civilization.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_the_measure_of_man_1959/ |title=Measure of a Man, The (1959)|work=Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle |publisher=Stanford University |accessdate=January 24, 2013 |archivedate=January 24, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DukPjX2x |deadurl=no}}</ref>

Harry Wachtel who joined King's legal advisor Clarence B. Jones in defending four ministers of the SCLC in a libel suit over a newspaper advertisement (''[[New York Times Co. v. Sullivan]]'') founded a tax-exempt fund to cover the expenses of the suit and to assist the nonviolent civil rights movement through a more effective means of fundraising. This organization was named the "Gandhi Society for Human Rights". King served as honorary president for the group. Displeased with the pace of President Kennedy's addressing the issue of segregation, King and the Gandhi Society produced a document in 1962 calling on the President to follow in the footsteps of [[Abraham Lincoln]] and use an Executive Order to deliver a blow for Civil Rights as a kind of [[Second Emancipation Proclamation]] - Kennedy did not execute the order.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_gandhi_society_for_human_rights/|title=Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle: Gandhi Society for Human Rights|publisher=Stanford University}}</ref>

[[File:Photograph of White House Meeting with Civil Rights Leaders. June 22, 1963 - NARA - 194190 (no border).tif|thumb|[[Lyndon Johnson]] and [[Robert Kennedy]] with Civil Rights leaders, June 22, 1963]]
The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], under written directive from Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]], began [[telephone tapping|tapping]] King's telephone in the fall of 1963.<ref>{{cite book|title=The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide|last= Theoharis | first= Athan G. |first2=Tony G.|last2=Poveda|first3=Richard Gid|last3=Powers|first4=Susan|last4=Rosenfeld|page=148|isbn=0-89774-991-X| publisher=Greenwood Publishing | year=1999}}
</ref>
Concerned that allegations of communists in the SCLC, if made public, would derail the administration's civil rights initiatives, Kennedy warned King to discontinue the suspect associations, and later felt compelled to issue the written directive authorizing the FBI to wiretap King and other SCLC leaders.<ref>{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-04195-7 |page=41 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8EUtP_lvCqIC&q=tapping}}</ref> J. Edgar Hoover feared Communists were trying to infiltrate the Civil Rights movement, but when no such evidence emerged, the bureau used the incidental details caught on tape over the next five years in attempts to force King out of the preeminent leadership position.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite book| title=The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide|last=Theoharis|first=Athan G.|first2=Tony G.|last2=Poveda|first3=Richard Gid|last3=Powers|first4=Susan|last4=Rosenfeld| page=123|isbn=0-89774-991-X|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=1999}}</ref>

King believed that organized, nonviolent protest against the system of southern segregation known as [[Jim Crow laws]] would lead to extensive media coverage of the struggle for black equality and voting rights. Journalistic accounts and televised footage of the daily deprivation and indignities suffered by southern blacks, and of segregationist violence and harassment of civil rights workers and marchers, produced a wave of sympathetic public opinion that convinced the majority of Americans that the [[Civil rights|Civil Rights]] Movement was the most important issue in American politics in the early 1960s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Race and Labor Matters in the New U.S. Economy|last=Wilson|first=Joseph|first2=Manning|last2=Marable|first3=Immanuel|last3=Ness| page= 47|isbn= 0-7425-4691-8|publisher= Rowman & Littlefield|year= 2006}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|title= Architects of Political Change: Constitutional Quandaries and Social Choice Theory|last= Schofield|first= Norman|isbn= 0-521-83202-0 | publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|page=189}}</ref>

King organized and led marches for blacks' right to [[Voting|vote]], [[desegregation]], [[labor rights]] and other basic civil rights.{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=53}} The SCLC's 1957 [[Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom]] was the first time King addressed a national audience.<ref>{{cite web|title=Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom|url=http://crdl.usg.edu/events/prayer_pilgrimage/?Welcome|publisher=Civil Rights Digital Library|accessdate=25 October 2013}}</ref> Most of these rights were successfully enacted into the [[law of the United States]] with the passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and the 1965 [[Voting Rights Act]].<ref>{{cite book| title= International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration|last=Shafritz|first= Jay M.|page= 1242|year= 1998| isbn=0-8133-9974-2| publisher= Westview Press}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book| title= The Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Passage of the Law that Ended Racial Segregation| last=Loevy | first=Robert D.|first2=Hubert H.|last2=Humphrey|first3=John G.|last3=Stewart|isbn= 0-7914-3361-7 |publisher=SUNY Press|year= 1997| page=337}}</ref>

King and the SCLC put into practice many of the principles of the [[Christian Left]] and applied the tactics of nonviolent protest with great success by strategically choosing the method of protest and the places in which protests were carried out. There were often dramatic stand-offs with segregationist authorities. Sometimes these confrontations turned violent.{{sfn|Glisson|2006|p=190}}

Throughout his participation in the civil rights movement, King was criticized by many groups. This included opposition by more militant blacks such as [[Nation of Islam (religious movement)|Nation of Islam]] member [[Malcolm X]].<ref>{{cite book|page= 105| publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2007|isbn=0-7425-2928-2|last=Bobbitt|first=David|title=The Rhetoric of Redemption: Kenneth Burke's Redemption Drama and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech}}
</ref>
[[Stokely Carmichael]] was a [[separatist]] and disagreed with King's plea for [[racial integration]] because he considered it an insult to a uniquely African-American culture.<ref>{{cite book|title= Martin Luther King, Jr | last=Ling| first= Peter J. | pages=250–1| publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=0-415-21664-8}}
</ref>
[[Omali Yeshitela]] urged Africans to remember the history of violent European [[colonization]] and how power was not secured by Europeans through integration, but by violence and force.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.apspuhuru.org/publications/repnow/ReparationsNow-OCR.txt| title= Abbreviated Report from the International Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S.|publisher=African People's Socialist Party| accessdate=June 15, 2008|last=Yeshitela|first=Omali |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517082245/http://www.apspuhuru.org/publications/repnow/ReparationsNow-OCR.txt | archivedate=May 17, 2008}}</ref>

===Albany movement===
{{Main|Albany movement}}
The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in [[Albany, Georgia]] in November 1961. In December, King and the SCLC became involved. The movement mobilized thousands of citizens for a broad-front nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation within the city and attracted nationwide attention. When King first visited on December 15, 1961, he "had planned to stay a day or so and return home after giving counsel."<ref name=Hatchette>King, Martin Luther. [http://books.google.com/books?id=pynSnGuC964C&pg=PT147 The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.] Hatchette Digital. 2001. Accessed 2013-01-04.
</ref>
The following day he was swept up in a [[mass arrest]] of peaceful demonstrators, and he declined bail until the city made concessions. According to King, "that agreement was dishonored and violated by the city" after he left town.<ref name=Hatchette />

King returned in July 1962, and was sentenced to forty-five days in jail or a $178 fine. He chose jail. Three days into his sentence, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett discreetly arranged for King's fine to be paid and ordered his release. "We had witnessed persons being kicked off lunch counter stools&nbsp;... ejected from churches&nbsp;... and thrown into jail&nbsp;... But for the first time, we witnessed being persons kicked out of jail."<ref>{{cite book |title=A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. |last=King |first=Martin Luther |year=1990 |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=978-0-06-064691-2 |page=105 |url=http://books.google.com/?id=qnoc3JhV5iUC&pg=PA106}}</ref>

After nearly a year of intense activism with few tangible results, the movement began to deteriorate. King requested a halt to all demonstrations and a "Day of Penance" to promote non-violence and maintain the moral high ground. Divisions within the black community and the canny, low-key response by local government defeated efforts.{{sfn|Glisson|2006|pp=190–93}} Though the Albany effort proved a key lesson in tactics for Dr. King and the national civil rights movement,<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany| title= Albany, GA Movement|publisher= Civil Rights Movement Veterans | accessdate=September 8, 2008}}</ref> the national media was highly critical of King's role in the defeat, and the SCLC's lack of results contributed to a growing gulf between the organization and the more radical SNCC. After Albany, King sought to choose engagements for the SCLC in which he could control the circumstances, rather than entering into pre-existing situations.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=96}}

===Birmingham campaign===
{{Main|Birmingham campaign}}
[[File:MLK mugshot birmingham.jpg|thumb|upright|King following his arrest in Birmingham]]
In April 1963, the SCLC began a campaign against racial segregation and economic injustice in [[Birmingham, Alabama]]. The campaign used nonviolent but intentionally confrontational tactics, developed in part by Rev. [[Wyatt Tee Walker]]. Black people in Birmingham, organizing with the SCLC, occupied public spaces with marches and [[sit-in]]s, openly violating laws that they considered unjust.

King's intent was to provoke mass arrests and "create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation".<ref>Garrow, (1986) p.&nbsp;246.
</ref>
However, the campaign's early volunteers did not succeed in shutting down the city, or in drawing media attention to the police's actions. Over the concerns of an uncertain King, SCLC strategist [[James Bevel]] changed the course of the campaign by recruiting children and young adults to join in the demonstrations.<ref name="McWhorter 2001">{{cite book|last=McWhorter|first=Diane|title=Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution|year=2001|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-2648-6|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7jnr8GdvSZcC|chapter=Two Mayors and a King}}</ref>
''[[Newsweek]]'' called this strategy a [[Children's Crusade]].<ref name="Harrell 2005 1055">{{cite book|title=Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People, Volume 2|page=1055|first2=Edwin S.|last2=Gaustad|first3=Randall M.|last3=Miller|first4=John B.|last4=Boles|first5=Randall Bennett|last5=Woods|first6=Sally Foreman|last6=Griffith|last=Harrell|first=David Edwin|isbn= 0-8028-2945-7 |publisher=Wm B Eerdmans Publishing|year=2005}}
</ref><ref name="newsweek5-13">
{{cite journal|title=Birmingham USA: Look at Them Run|journal=[[Newsweek]]|date=May 13, 1963|pages=&nbsp;27}}</ref>

During the protests, the Birmingham Police Department, led by [[Eugene "Bull" Connor]], used high-pressure water jets and police dogs against protesters, including children. Footage of the police response was broadcast on national television news and dominated the nation's attention, shocking many white Americans and consolidating black Americans behind the movement.{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=113–14}} Not all of the demonstrators were peaceful, despite the avowed intentions of the SCLC. In some cases, bystanders attacked the police, who responded with force. King and the SCLC were criticized for putting children in harm's way. But the campaign was a success: Connor lost his job, the "Jim Crow" signs came down, and public places became more open to blacks. King's reputation improved immensely.<ref name="Harrell 2005 1055"/>

King was arrested and jailed early in the campaign—his 13th arrest<ref name="newsweek4-22">{{cite journal|title=Integration: Connor and King|journal=[[Newsweek]]|date=April 22, 1963|pages=&nbsp;28,&nbsp;33}}
</ref>
out of 29.<ref name="C.S. King - King Holiday">{{cite web|last=King|first=Coretta Scott|title=The Meaning of The King Holiday|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday|publisher=The King Center|accessdate=August 22, 2012|archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXtPnY4E |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
From his cell, he composed the now-famous "[[Letter from Birmingham Jail]]" which responds to [[A Call for Unity|calls on the movement]] to pursue legal channels for social change. King argues that the crisis of racism is too urgent, and the current system too entrenched: "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."<ref name=LetterFromBirmJail /> He points out that the [[Boston Tea Party]], a celebrated act of rebellion in the American colonies, was illegal civil disobedience, and that, conversely, "everything [[Adolf Hitler]] did in Germany was 'legal'".<ref name=LetterFromBirmJail /> King also expresses his frustration with white moderates and clergymen too timid to oppose an unjust system:
<blockquote>I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistic-ally believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season".<ref name=LetterFromBirmJail>{{cite web|last=King|first=Martin Luther|title=Letter from Birmingham Jail|date=April 16, 1963|publisher=The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute|url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/annotated_letter_from_birmingham/|accessdate=August 22, 2012|archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXtUBxxX |deadurl=no}} King began writing the letter on newspaper margins and continued on bits of paper brought by friends.</ref></blockquote>

===St. Augustine, Florida===
{{Main|St. Augustine Movement}}
In March 1964, King and the SCLC joined forces with Robert Hayling's then-controversial movement in St. Augustine, Florida. Hayling's group had been affiliated with the NAACP but was forced out of the organization for advocating armed self-defense alongside nonviolent tactics. Ironically, the pacifist SCLC accepted them.<ref>[http://www.augustine.com/history/black_history/dr_robert_hayling/ Augustine.com - "Black History: Dr. Robert B. Hayling"] ; David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Harper Collins, 1987) p 316-318</ref> King and the SCLC worked to bring white Northern activists to [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], including a delegation of rabbis and the 72-year-old mother of the governor of Massachusetts, all of whom were arrested.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/f1.htm Lincolnville Historic District - National Park Service]</ref><ref>{{cite book| title= African Americans in Florida: An Illustrated History|pages= 113–5| last= Jones| first= Maxine D.|first2=Kevin M.|last2=McCarthy| isbn= 1-56164-031-X|publisher= Pineapple Press | year= 1993}}
</ref>
During June, the movement marched nightly through the city, "often facing counter demonstrations by the Klan, and provoking violence that garnered national media attention." Hundreds of the marchers were arrested and jailed. During the course of this movement, the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] was passed.<ref name="KOE - St. Augustine movement">{{cite web|title=St. Augustine Movement|url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_st_augustine_movement/|work=King Online Encyclopedia|publisher=Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute|accessdate=August 22, 2012|archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXtaBV4v |deadurl=no}}</ref>

===Selma, Alabama===
In December 1964, King and the SCLC joined forces with the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) in [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]], Alabama, where the SNCC had been working on voter registration for several months.<ref>{{cite news | last=Haley | first=Alex| title=Martin Luther King| work=Interview| authorlink=Alex Haley| publisher=[[Playboy]]| date=January 1965 | url=http://www.alex-haley.com/alex_haley_martin_luther_king_interview.htm |accessdate=June 10, 2012|archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXtex9A3 |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
A local judge issued an injunction that barred any gathering of 3 or more people affiliated with the SNCC, SCLC, DCVL, or any of 41 named civil rights leaders. This injunction temporarily halted civil rights activity until King defied it by speaking at [[Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church (Selma, Alabama)|Brown Chapel]] on January 2, 1965.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis64.htm#1964selmainj|title=The Selma Injunction|publisher= Civil Rights Movement Veterans|accessdate=September 8, 2008|archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXtiFr13 |deadurl=no}}</ref>

===New York City===
On February 6, 1964, King delivered the inaugural speech of a lecture series initiated at the [[New School]] called "The American Race Crisis". No audio record of his speech has been found, but in August 2013, almost 50 years later, the school discovered an audiotape with 15 minutes of a question-and-answer session that followed King's address. In these remarks, King referred to a conversation he had recently had with [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] in which he compared the sad condition of many African Americans to that of India's [[Dalit|untouchables]].<ref name="El Naggar">{{cite news|last=El Naggar|first=Mona|title=Found After Decades, a Forgotten Tape of King 'Thinking on His Feet{{'-}}|url=http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/found-after-decades-a-forgotten-tape-of-king-thinking-on-his-feet/|accessdate=August 31, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 22, 2013}}</ref>

==March on Washington, 1963==
{{Main|March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom}}
[[File:March on Washington edit.jpg|thumb|upright|[[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]]|405x405px]]

King, representing the SCLC, was among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on August 28, 1963. The other leaders and organizations comprising the Big Six were [[Roy Wilkins]] from the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]]; [[Whitney Young]], [[National Urban League]]; [[A. Philip Randolph]], [[Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters]]; [[John Lewis (politician)|John Lewis]], SNCC; and [[James L. Farmer, Jr.]] of the [[Congress of Racial Equality]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|last=Gates|first=Henry Louis|first2=Anthony|last2=Appiah|publisher=Basic Civitas Books|isbn= 0-465-00071-1| year=1999| page=1251}}</ref>

The primary logistical and strategic organizer was King's colleague Bayard Rustin.<ref>{{cite book| title= African-Americans and the Quest for Civil Rights, 1900–1990| last= Cashman| first= Sean Dennis| page=162 | isbn=0-8147-1441-2|publisher=NYU Press|year=1991}}
</ref>
For King, this role was another which courted controversy, since he was one of the key figures who acceded to the wishes of President John F. Kennedy in changing the focus of the march.<ref>{{cite book|title=Robert Kennedy and His Times|last=Schlesinger, Jr. |first= Arthur M. |page= 351| isbn=0-618-21928-5|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Books|origyear=1978 | year=2002}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|page=74| last= Marable | first= Manning|isbn=0-87805-493-6|year=1991|publisher= Univ. Press of Mississippi|title= Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945–1990}}
</ref>
Kennedy initially opposed the march outright, because he was concerned it would negatively impact the drive for passage of civil rights legislation. However, the organizers were firm that the march would proceed.<ref>{{cite book| title= Kennedy, Johnson, and the Quest for Justice: The Civil Rights Tapes| last= Rosenberg|first= Jonathan|first2=Zachary|last2=Karabell| page= 130| isbn= 0-393-05122-6| year= 2003| publisher=WW Norton & Co}}</ref> With the march going forward, the Kennedys decided it was important to work to ensure its success. President Kennedy was concerned the turnout would be less than 100,000. Therefore, he enlisted the aid of additional church leaders and the [[United Auto Workers|UAW]] union to help mobilize demonstrators for the cause.<ref>{{cite book|title=Robert Kennedy and His Times|last=Schlesinger, Jr. |first= Arthur M. |pages= 350, 351| isbn=0-618-21928-5|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Books|origyear=1978 | year=2002}}</ref>

[[File:Martin Luther King - March on Washington.jpg|thumb|upright|King is most famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech, given in front of the [[Lincoln Memorial]] during the 1963 [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]].|283x283px]]
The march originally was conceived as an event to dramatize the desperate condition of blacks in the southern U.S. and an opportunity to place organizers' concerns and grievances squarely before the seat of power in the nation's capital. Organizers intended to denounce the federal government for its failure to safeguard the civil rights and physical safety of civil rights workers and blacks. However, the group acquiesced to presidential pressure and influence, and the event ultimately took on a far less strident tone.<ref name=farce>{{cite book | title=Living for Change: An Autobiography|last=Boggs|first=Grace Lee|page= 127|publisher= U of Minnesota Press|year= 1998 | isbn=0-8166-2955-2}}
</ref>
As a result, some civil rights activists felt it presented an inaccurate, sanitized pageant of racial harmony; Malcolm X called it the "Farce on Washington", and the Nation of Islam forbade its members from attending the march.<ref name=farce/><ref>{{cite book|title= Mysteries in History: From Prehistory to the Present| last=Aron| first=Paul| page=399|isbn=1-85109-899-2|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2005}}
</ref>
{{listen
|filename=I Have A Dream sample.ogg
|title=I Have a Dream
|description=30-second sample from "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] on August 28, 1963
|filetype=[[Ogg]]
|image=none}}

The march did, however, make specific demands: an end to racial segregation in public schools; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality; a $2 [[minimum wage]] for all workers; and self-government for [[Washington, D.C.]], then governed by congressional committee.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Sixties in America|last=Singleton|first=Carl|first2=Rowena|last2=Wildin|page= 454|isbn= 0-89356-982-8 |publisher=Salem Press|year=1999}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Scott H.|page= 225|year= 2003| publisher =Syracuse University Press|isbn=0-8156-3003-4|title=Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915–1963}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite journal|title= Celebrating the Birthday and Public Holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr |last=Davis|first=Danny|authorlink=Danny K. Davis|publisher=Library of Congress|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:H16JA7-0046: |work=Congressional Record| accessdate=July 11, 2011| date=January 16, 2007| archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXuOq6kv |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
Despite tensions, the march was a resounding success.<ref name="Powers 1997 313">{{cite book|page=313|last=Powers|first=Roger S.|first2=William B.|last2=Vogele|first3=Christopher |last3=Kruegler|first4=Ronald M.|last4=McCarthy|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1997|isbn=0-8153-0913-9|title=Protest, power, and change: an encyclopedia of nonviolent action from ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage}}</ref> More than a quarter of a million people of diverse ethnicities attended the event, sprawling from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial onto the [[National Mall]] and around the reflecting pool. At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington, D.C.'s history.<ref name="Powers 1997 313"/>

King delivered a 17-minute speech, later known as "[[I Have a Dream]]". In the speech's most famous passage—in which he departed from his prepared text, possibly at the prompting of [[Mahalia Jackson]], who shouted behind him, "Tell them about the dream!"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/aug/21/usa.comment |title=I have a dream |author=Younge, Gary |date=August 21, 2003 |work=The Guardian |accessdate=January 9, 2013|archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXt7UL2D |deadurl=no}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book |title=The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation |last=Hansen |first=Drew |year=2005 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-008477-6 |page=98 |url=http://books.google.com/?id=sUWP_SM7IrEC&pg=PA98}}</ref>—King said:

<blockquote>I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.<br>
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'<br>
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.<br>
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.<br>
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.<br>
I have a dream today.<br>
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.<br>
I have a dream today.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Second Edition |last=King |first=Martin Luther |coauthor=King, Coretta Scott |year=2008 |publisher=Newmarket Press |isbn= 978-1-55704-815-8 |page=95 |url=http://books.google.com/?id=irMxJS36904C&pg=PA95}}</ref></blockquote>

"I Have a Dream" came to be regarded as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dream Assignment|work=Smithsonian|date=August 1, 2003|accessdate=August 27, 2008|last=Moore|first=Lucinda|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dream-speech.html}}
</ref>
The March, and especially King's speech, helped put civil rights at the top of the agenda of reformers in the United States and facilitated passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<ref>James T. Patterson, ''Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974'' (Oxford University Press 1996) pp 482–85, 542–46
</ref><ref>
Harvard Sitkoff, ''The Struggle for Black Equality'' (Hill and Wang; 2008) pp 152–53</ref>

The original, typewritten copy of the speech, including Dr. King's handwritten notes on it, was discovered in 1984 to be in the hands of [[George Raveling]], the first African-American basketball coach of the [[University of Iowa]]. In 1963, Raveling, then 26, was standing near the podium, and immediately after the oration, impulsively asked King if he could have his copy of the speech. He got it.<ref name=CBS>{{cite web|last=Patrick|first=Alvin|title=Guardian of history: MLK's "I have a dream speech" lives on|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57596990/guardian-of-history-mlks-i-have-a-dream-speech-lives-on/|work=CBS News|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc|accessdate=31 August 2013}}</ref>

==Selma Voting Rights Movement and "Bloody Sunday", 1965==
{{Main|Selma to Montgomery marches}}

Acting on [[James Bevel]]'s call for a march from Selma to Montgomery, King, Bevel, and the SCLC, in partial collaboration with SNCC, attempted to organize the march to the state's capital. The first attempt to march on March 7, 1965, was aborted because of mob and police violence against the demonstrators. This day has become known as [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Bloody Sunday]], and was a major turning point in the effort to gain public support for the Civil Rights Movement. It was the clearest demonstration up to that time of the dramatic potential of King's nonviolence strategy. King, however, was not present.{{sfn|King|1998}}
[[File:Selma to Montgomery Marches protesters.jpg|thumb|left|The civil rights [[Selma to Montgomery marches|march from Selma to Montgomery]], Alabama in 1965]]

King met with officials in the [[Lyndon B. Johnson Administration]] on March 5 in order to request an [[injunction]] against any prosecution of the demonstrators. He did not attend the march due to church duties, but he later wrote, "If I had any idea that the state troopers would use the kind of brutality they did, I would have felt compelled to give up my church duties altogether to lead the line."{{sfn|King|1998|pp=276–79}} Footage of [[police brutality]] against the protesters was broadcast extensively and aroused national public outrage.{{sfn|Jackson|2006|pp=222–23}}

King next attempted to organize a march for March 9. The SCLC petitioned for an injunction in federal court against the State of Alabama; this was denied and the judge issued an order blocking the march until after a hearing. Nonetheless, King led marchers on March 9 to the [[Edmund Pettus Bridge]] in Selma, then held a short prayer session before turning the marchers around and asking them to disperse so as not to violate the court order. The unexpected ending of this second march aroused the surprise and anger of many within the local movement.{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=223}} The march finally went ahead fully on March 25, 1965.<ref>{{cite book|last= Isserman|first= Maurice|title= America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s |first2=Michael|last2=Kazin|page=175|publisher=Oxford University Pressk|year= 2000|isbn= 0-19-509190-6}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|title=The Riotmakers|last=Azbell|first=Joe|publisher= Oak Tree Books|year= 1968|page= 176}}
</ref>
At the conclusion of the march on the steps of the [[Alabama State Capitol|state capitol]], King delivered a speech that became known as "[[How Long, Not Long]]". In it, King stated that equal rights for African Americans could not be far away, "because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice".{{efn|Though commonly attributed to King, this expression originated with 19th-century abolitionist [[Theodore Parker]].<ref name=NPR />}}<ref name=NPR>{{cite web |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129609461 |title=Theodore Parker And The 'Moral Universe' |author= |date=September 2, 2010 |publisher=National Public Radio |accessdate=January 24, 2013 |archivedate=January 24, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DumX05kw |deadurl=no}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last= Leeman|first= Richard W.| title= African-American Orators: A Bio-critical Sourcebook|page=220|isbn=0-313-29014-8|publisher=Greenwood Publishing |year=1996}}</ref>

==Chicago Open Housing Movement, 1966==
{{Main|Chicago Freedom Movement}}
[[File:Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon Johnson 2.jpg|thumb|King with President [[Lyndon Johnson]] in 1966]]
In 1966, after several successes in the South, King, Bevel, and others in the civil rights organizations tried to spread the movement to the North, with [[Chicago]] as their first destination. King and Ralph Abernathy, both from the middle class, moved into a building at 1550 S. Hamlin Ave., in the slums of [[North Lawndale]]<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/901.html | title= North Lawndale | work=Encyclopedia | publisher=Chicago History | accessdate=September 8, 2008 |archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXxKlutX |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
on Chicago's West Side, as an educational experience and to demonstrate their support and empathy for the poor.{{sfn|Cohen|2000|pp=360–62}}

The SCLC formed a coalition with CCCO, Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, an organization founded by [[Albert Raby]], and the combined organizations' efforts were fostered under the aegis of the [[Chicago Freedom Movement]].<ref name=Ralph>{{cite book | last=Ralph| first= James| isbn=0-674-62687-7| publisher=Harvard University Press| year=1993| title=Northern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement|page=1}}</ref>
During that spring, several white couple / black couple tests of real estate offices uncovered [[racial steering]]: discriminatory processing of housing requests by couples who were exact matches in income, background, number of children, and other attributes.{{sfn|Cohen|2000|p=347}} Several larger marches were planned and executed: in Bogan, [[Belmont Cragin, Chicago|Belmont Cragin]], [[Jefferson Park, Chicago|Jefferson Park]], [[Evergreen Park, Illinois|Evergreen Park]] (a suburb southwest of Chicago), [[Gage Park, Chicago|Gage Park]], [[Marquette Park (Chicago)|Marquette Park]], and others.<ref name=Ralph />{{sfn|Cohen|2000|p=416}}<ref>{{cite book | last= Fairclough|first= Adam|page= 299| title= To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference & Martin Luther King, Jr.| year= 1987| publisher=University of Georgia Press | isbn=0-8203-2346-2}}</ref>

Abernathy later wrote that the movement received a worse reception in Chicago than in the South. Marches, especially the one through Marquette Park on August 5, 1966, were met by thrown bottles and screaming throngs. Rioting seemed very possible.<ref>{{cite book | title=Chicago: City Guide | last=Baty | first=Chris| page=52| publisher=Lonely Planet| isbn=1-74104-032-9| year=2004}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book| title=Jesse Jackson| last=Stone| first=Eddie| pages=59–60| isbn=0-87067-840-X| publisher= Holloway House Publishing| year=1988}}
</ref>
King's beliefs militated against his staging a violent event, and he negotiated an agreement with Mayor [[Richard J. Daley]] to cancel a march in order to avoid the violence that he feared would result.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lentz|first=Richard|title=Symbols, the News Magazines, and Martin Luther King|page=230|publisher=LSU Press|year=1990|isbn=0-8071-2524-5}}
</ref>
King was hit by a brick during one march but continued to lead marches in the face of personal danger.<ref>{{cite book|last=Isserman|first=Maurice|title=America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s|first2=Michael|last2=Kazin|page=200|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=0-19-509190-6}} See also: {{cite book|page=139|last=Miller|first=Keith D.|title=Voice of Deliverance: The Language of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Its Sources|isbn=0-8203-2013-7|publisher=University of Georgia Press|year=1998}}</ref>

When King and his allies returned to the South, they left [[Jesse Jackson]], a seminary student who had previously joined the movement in the South, in charge of their organization.<ref>{{cite book|title=Meet Martin Luther King, Jr|page=20|last=Mis|isbn=1-4042-4209-0|publisher=Rosen Publishing Group|year=2008|first=Melody S.}}
</ref>
Jackson continued their struggle for civil rights by organizing the [[Operation Breadbasket]] movement that targeted chain stores that did not deal fairly with blacks.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Betrayal of the Urban Poor|last=Slessarev|first=Helene|page=140|publisher=Temple University Press|year=1997|isbn=1-56639-543-7}}</ref>

==Opposition to the Vietnam War==
{{see also|Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War}}
{{external media
| align = center
| audio1 = You may watch the speech, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam", by Martin Luther King [http://archive.org/details/MartinLutherKingJr.whyIAmOpposedToTheWarInVietnam '''here'''].
}}
In 1965 King began to publicly express doubts about the Vietnam War. In an April 4, 1967 appearance at the New York City [[Riverside Church]]—exactly one year before his death—King delivered a speech titled "[[Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence]]".<ref name=vwar29>{{cite book|title= The African American Voice in U.S. Foreign Policy Since World War II| last=Krenn|first=Michael L.|page=29|isbn=0-8153-3418-4|publisher= Taylor & Francis|year= 1998}}
</ref>
He spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony"{{sfn|Robbins|2007|p=107}}
and calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today".{{sfn|Robbins|2007|p=102}} He also connected the war with economic injustice, arguing that the country needed serious moral change:

{{Quote|A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just."{{sfn|Robbins|2007|p=109}}}}

King also opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on [[social welfare]] at home. The [[United States Congress]] was spending more and more on the military and less and less on [[poverty reduction|anti-poverty programs]] at the same time. He summed up this aspect by saying, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death".{{sfn|Robbins|2007|p=109}} He stated that North Vietnam "did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had arrived in the tens of thousands",{{sfn|Robbins|2007|p=106}} and accused the U.S. of having killed a million Vietnamese, "mostly children".<ref>{{cite book|last=Baldwin|first= Lewis V.|page=273|title= To Make the Wounded Whole: The Cultural Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr |isbn= 0-8006-2543-9| publisher=Fortress Press|year=1992}}
</ref>
King also criticized American opposition to North Vietnam's land reforms.<ref>{{cite book | title=Against Us, But for Us: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the State|page=199|last=Long|first=Michael G.|isbn=0-86554-768-8|publisher=Mercer University Press|year= 2002}}</ref>

King's opposition cost him significant support among white allies, including President Johnson, union leaders and powerful publishers.<ref name=MED08>{{cite book|last=Dyson|first=Michael Eric|title=April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death and how it changed America|year=2008|publisher=Basic Civitas Books|isbn=978-0-465-00212-2|chapter=Facing Death}}
</ref>
"The press is being stacked against me", King said,<ref>David J. Garrow, ''Bearing the Cross'' (1986), pp. 440, 445.
</ref>
complaining of a double standard that applauded his non-violence at home, but deplored it when applied "toward little brown Vietnamese children".<ref name=Pierre2011>{{cite news|last=Pierre|first=Robert E.|title=Martin Luther King Jr. made our nation uncomfortable|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/martin-luther-king-jr-made-our-nation-uncomfortable/2011/10/16/gIQA78NPoL_blog.html|accessdate=August 17, 2012|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=October 16, 2011}}
</ref>
''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for [[Radio Hanoi]]",{{sfn|Robbins|2007|p=109}} and ''[[The Washington Post]]'' declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people".<ref name=Pierre2011 />{{sfn|Lawson|2006|p=148}}

[[File:Martin Luther King Jr St Paul Campus U MN.jpg|thumb|King speaking to an anti-Vietnam war rally at the [[University of Minnesota]], St. Paul on April 27, 1967]]
The "Beyond Vietnam" speech reflected King's evolving political advocacy in his later years, which paralleled the teachings of the progressive [[Highlander Research and Education Center]], with which he was affiliated.<ref>{{cite book|title= Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theaters and Their Legacies|page=297|last=Harding|first2=Cindy|last2=Rosenthal|isbn= 0-472-06954-3| publisher =University of Michigan Press|year=2006|first= James M.}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book| title= Symbols, the News Magazines, and Martin Luther King|last=Lentz|first=Richard|page=64|publisher=LSU Press|year=1990|isbn=0-8071-2524-5}}
</ref>
King began to speak of the need for fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the nation, and more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic injustice.<ref>{{cite book| title= Martin Luther King, Jr | last= Ling| first= Peter J. |page=277|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=0-415-21664-8}}
</ref>
He guarded his language in public to avoid being linked to [[communism]] by his enemies, but in private he sometimes spoke of his support for [[democratic socialism]].<ref>Sturm, Douglas. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/40015109 "Martin Luther King, Jr., as Democratic Socialist."] ''The Journal of Religious Ethics,'' 18, no. 2 (1990): 79-105. Retrieved March 11, 2014.</ref> In a 1952 letter to Coretta Scott, he said "I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic..."<ref>Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Ph.D. (20 January 2014). [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/obery-m-hendricks-jr-phd/the-uncompromising-anti-capitalism-of-martin-luther-king-jr_b_4629609.html The Uncompromising Anti-Capitalism of Martin Luther King Jr.] ''[[The Huffington Post]].'' Retrieved 21 January 2014.</ref> In one speech, he stated that "something is wrong with capitalism" and claimed, "There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."<ref>{{cite book|title=Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African-American Thought|last=Franklin|first=Robert Michael|page= 125| publisher =Fortress Press|year=1990|isbn=0-8006-2392-4}}
</ref>
King had read [[Karl Marx|Marx]] while at Morehouse, but while he rejected "traditional capitalism", he also rejected communism because of its "materialistic interpretation of history" that denied religion, its "ethical relativism", and its "political totalitarianism".<ref>{{cite book|page=39|last= King, Jr. |title= The Martin Luther King, Jr. Companion: Quotations from the Speeches, Essays, and Books of Martin Luther King, Jr |first=Martin Luther|first2= Coretta Scott|last2=King|first3=Dexter Scott|last3=King|isbn=0-312-19990-2|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1998}}</ref>

King also stated in "Beyond Vietnam" that "true compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar&nbsp;... it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring".<ref name="Zinn 2002">{{cite book|title=The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace| last= Zinn|first= Howard|publisher= Beacon Press| isbn= 0-8070-1407-9| year =2002|pages=122–123}}
</ref> King quoted a United States official who said that, from Vietnam to Latin America, the country was "on the wrong side of a world revolution".<ref name="Zinn 2002" /> King condemned America's "alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America", and said that the U.S. should support "the shirtless and barefoot people" in the [[Third World]] rather than suppressing their attempts at revolution.<ref name="Zinn 2002" />

On April 15, 1967, King participated in and spoke at an anti-war march from New York's Central Park to the [[United Nations]] organized by the [[Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]] and initiated by its chairman, James Bevel. At the U.N. King also brought up issues of civil rights and the draft.

{{Quote |I have not urged a mechanical fusion of the civil rights and peace movements. There are people who have come to see the moral imperative of equality, but who cannot yet see the moral imperative of world brotherhood. I would like to see the fervor of the civil-rights movement imbued into the peace movement to instill it with greater strength. And I believe everyone has a duty to be in both the civil-rights and peace movements. But for those who presently choose but one, I would hope they will finally come to see the moral roots common to both.<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1967/Protests/12303074818188-15/ |title=1967 Year In Review |agency=United Press International | accessdate=November 30, 2010| archivedate=January 4, 2013| archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DQCktVvP |deadurl=no}}</ref>}}

On January 13, 1968, the day after President Johnson's [[State of the Union Address]], King called for a large march on Washington against "one of history's most cruel and senseless wars".<ref name="kurlansky2004">{{cite book| title= 1968| last =Kurlansky|first=Mark|authorlink=Mark Kurlansky|page=46|year=2004|publisher=[[Jonathan Cape]] ([[Random House]])|isbn=0-224-06251-4}}
</ref><ref name="nyt-13jan1968">
{{cite news|url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0B1EFD3C5E1A7B93C1A8178AD85F4C8685F9|title=Dr. King Calls for Antiwar Rally in Capital February 5–6| last =Robinson|first=Douglas|page=4|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 13, 1968| accessdate=April 22, 2010}}</ref>

{{Quote |We need to make clear in this political year, to congressmen on both sides of the aisle and to the president of the United States, that we will no longer tolerate, we will no longer vote for men who continue to see the killings of Vietnamese and Americans as the best way of advancing the goals of freedom and self-determination in Southeast Asia.<ref name="kurlansky2004"/><ref name="nyt-13jan1968"/>}}

==Poor People's Campaign, 1968==
{{Main|Poor People's Campaign}}
In 1968, King and the SCLC organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. King traveled the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would march on Washington to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol until Congress created an 'economic bill of rights' for poor Americans.<ref>{{cite book| first= Ernesto B.|last=Vigil|title=The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government's War on Dissent|page= 54| publisher =University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=0-299-16224-9|year=1999}}
</ref><ref name=lied>
{{cite book|last= Kick|first= Russell |page=1991|isbn=0-9664100-7-6 |publisher=The Disinformation Campaign|year=2001|title=You are Being Lied to: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths}}
</ref>
The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C., demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States.

King and the SCLC called on the government to invest in rebuilding America's cities. He felt that Congress had shown "hostility to the poor" by spending "military funds with alacrity and generosity". He contrasted this with the situation faced by poor Americans, claiming that Congress had merely provided "poverty funds with miserliness".<ref name=lied/> His vision was for change that was more revolutionary than mere reform: he cited systematic flaws of "racism, poverty, militarism and materialism", and argued that "reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced".{{sfn|Lawson|2006|p=148–49}}

The Poor People's Campaign was controversial even within the civil rights movement. Rustin resigned from the march stating that the goals of the campaign were too broad, the demands unrealizable, and thought that these campaigns would accelerate the backlash and repression on the poor and the black.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington|last=Isserman|first=Maurice|page=281|isbn=1-58648-036-7|publisher=Public Affairs|year=2001}}</ref>

===After King's death===
The plan to set up a [[shantytown]] in Washington, D.C. was carried out soon after the April 4 [[assassination]]. Criticism of King's plan was subdued in the wake of his death, and the SCLC received an unprecedented wave of donations for the purpose of carrying it out. The campaign officially began in Memphis, on May 2, at the hotel where King was murdered.<ref name=McKnight>{{cite book|last=McKnight|first=Gerald D.|title=The last crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the FBI, and the poor people's campaign|year=1998|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-8133-3384-9|chapter='The Poor People Are Coming!' 'The Poor People Are Coming!'}}</ref>

Thousands of demonstrators arrived on the National Mall and established a camp they called "Resurrection City". They stayed for six weeks.<ref name=Engler15Jan10>{{cite news|last=Engler|first=Mark|title=Dr. Martin Luther King's Economics: Through Jobs, Freedom|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/dr-martin-luther-kings-economics-through-jobs-freedom#|accessdate=July 19, 2012|newspaper=The Nation|date=January 15, 2010 |archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXwtqifF |deadurl=no}}</ref>

==Assassination and its aftermath==
{{Main|Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.}}
[[File:Martin Luther King was shot here Small Web view.jpg|thumb|The Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated, is now the site of the [[National Civil Rights Museum]].]]
{{listen
|filename=I've Been To The Mountaintop.ogg
|title=I've Been to the Mountaintop
|description=Final 30 seconds of "[[I've Been to the Mountaintop]]" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.
|filetype=[[Ogg]]
|image=none}}
On March 29, 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, represented by [[American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees|AFSCME]] Local 1733, who had been [[Memphis Sanitation Strike|on strike]] since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. In one incident, black street repairmen received pay for two hours when they were sent home because of bad weather, but white employees were paid for the full day.<ref name=AFSCME-WEB1>{{cite web
|title=1,300 Members Participate in Memphis Garbage Strike
|publisher=[[AFSCME]]
|date=February 1968
|url=http://www.afscme.org/about/1529.cfm
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102004632/http://www.afscme.org/about/1529.cfm
|archivedate=November 2, 2006
|accessdate=January 16, 2012}}
</ref><ref name="AFSCME-WEB2">
{{cite web
|title=Memphis Strikers Stand Firm
|publisher=[[AFSCME]]
|date=March 1968
|url=http://www.afscme.org/about/1532.cfm
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102004516/http://www.afscme.org/about/1532.cfm
|archivedate=November 2, 2006
|accessdate=January 16, 2012}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|title= Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement|last=Davis|first= Townsend|page= 364|isbn= 0-393-31819-2 | publisher =WW Norton & Co |year=1998}}</ref>

On April 3, King addressed a rally and delivered his "[[I've Been to the Mountaintop]]" address at [[Mason Temple]], the world headquarters of the [[Church of God in Christ]]. King's flight to Memphis had been delayed by a bomb threat against his plane.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.newsweek.com/id/69542/page/2| title=The Worst Week of 1968 | page=2| work=Newsweek | accessdate=August 27, 2008| date=November 19, 2007| last=Thomas| first=Evan}}
</ref>
In the close of the last speech of his career, in reference to the bomb threat, King said the following:

{{Quote |And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.<ref>{{cite book| last= Montefiore| first= Simon Sebag| page =155 | publisher= Quercus|year=2006|isbn=1-905204-16-7|title= Speeches that Changed the World: The Stories and Transcripts of the Moments that Made History}}</ref>}}

King was booked in room 306 at the [[Lorraine Motel]], owned by Walter Bailey, in Memphis. Abernathy, who was present at the assassination, testified to the [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]] that King and his entourage stayed at room 306 at the Lorraine Motel so often it was known as the "King-Abernathy suite".<ref name="usdoj">{{cite journal| title= United States Department of Justice Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr|chapter=King V. Jowers Conspiracy Allegations |publisher=[[U.S. Department of Justice]]|date=June 2000|url=http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/mlk/part1.php|chapterurl=http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/mlk/part6.php#conspire|accessdate=July 11, 2011}}
</ref>
According to Jesse Jackson, who was present, King's last words on the balcony before his assassination were spoken to musician [[Ben Branch]], who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was attending: "Ben, make sure you play '[[Take My Hand, Precious Lord]]' in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty."<ref>{{cite news| title= 40 years after King's death, Jackson hails first steps into promised land|last=Pilkington| first=Ed| date=April 3, 2008 | accessdate=June 11, 2008 |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/03/usa.race}}</ref>

Then, at 6:01 p.m., April 4, 1968, a shot rang out as King stood on the motel's second-floor balcony. The bullet entered through his right cheek, smashing his jaw, then traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder.<ref name="CHI">{{cite book|last=Garner|first=Joe|page=62|first2=Walter|last2=Cronkite|first3=Bill|last3=Kurtis|publisher=Sourcebooks |year= 2002|isbn= 1-57071-974-8|title=[[We Interrupt This Broadcast]]: The Events that Stopped Our Lives&nbsp;... from the Hindenburg Explosion to the Attacks of September 11}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book| title= An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King |last=Pepper|first=William|page= 159|year= 2003|publisher= Verso|isbn= 1-85984-695-5}}
</ref>
Abernathy heard the shot from inside the motel room and ran to the balcony to find King on the floor.{{sfn|Frady|2005|pp=204–05}}
Jackson stated after the shooting that he cradled King's head as King lay on the balcony, but this account was disputed by other colleagues of King's; Jackson later changed his statement to say that he had "reached out" for King.<ref>{{cite news|title=Koch Says Jackson Lied About Actions After Dr. King Was Slain|date=April 18, 1988|last=Purnick|first=Joyce| accessdate=June 11, 2008|work= The New York Times|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEED7133EF93BA25757C0A96E948260 |archivedate=January 4, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DQKbK1JD |deadurl=no}}</ref>

After emergency chest surgery, King was pronounced dead at [[St. Joseph's Hospital (Memphis, Tennessee)|St. Joseph's Hospital]] at 7:05 p.m.<ref>{{cite book| title= House Divided: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King|page= 48|last= Lokos | first= Lionel|publisher= Arlington House|year= 1968}}
</ref>
According to biographer [[Taylor Branch]], King's autopsy revealed that though only 39 years old, he "had the heart of a 60 year old", which Branch attributed to the stress of 13 years in the civil rights movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/filmmore/pt.html|title= Citizen King Transcript |publisher=PBS|accessdate=June 12, 2008|archivedate=January 4, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DQGWuE6s |deadurl=no}}</ref>

===Aftermath===
{{Further|King assassination riots}}

The assassination led to a nationwide wave of [[Mass racial violence in the United States|race riots]] in [[1968 Washington, D.C. riots|Washington D.C.]], [[1968 Chicago riots|Chicago]], [[Baltimore riot of 1968|Baltimore]], [[Louisville riots of 1968|Louisville]], [[1968 Kansas City riot|Kansas City]], and dozens of other cities.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news | title=1968: Martin Luther King shot dead| work=On this Day| publisher= BBC | year=2006 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4/newsid_2453000/2453987.stm| accessdate=August 27, 2008 |date=April 4, 1968}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|last=Risen|first=Clay|title=A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination|year=2009|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=0-470-17710-1}}
</ref>
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was on his way to [[Indianapolis]] for a campaign rally when he was informed of King's death. He gave [[Robert F. Kennedy's speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.|a short speech]] to the gathering of supporters informing them of the tragedy and urging them to continue King's ideal of non-violence.<ref>Klein, Joe (2006). ''Politics Lost: How American Democracy was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid''. New York: Doubleday. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-385-51027-1
</ref>
[[James Farmer, Jr.]] and other civil rights leaders also called for non-violent action, while the more militant Stokely Carmichael called for a more forceful response.<ref name="1968 Year In Review, UPI.com">{{cite news|url= http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1968/Martin-Luther-King-Assasination/12303153093431-4/ |title=1968 Year In Review |agency= United Press International | accessdate=November 30, 2010 |archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXw4ObQ7 |deadurl=no}}
</ref> The city of Memphis quickly settled the strike on terms favorable to the sanitation workers.<ref name="AFSCME-WEB3">{{cite web
|title=AFSCME Wins in Memphis
|publisher=[[AFSCME]] ''The Public Employee''
|date=April 1968
|url=http://www.afscme.org/about/1533.cfm
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102004802/http://www.afscme.org/about/1533.cfm
|archivedate=November 2, 2006
|accessdate=January 16, 2012}}
</ref>

President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April 7 a national day of mourning for the civil rights leader.<ref>{{cite book| title =Martin Luther King Jr.: Dreaming of Equality|last=Manheimer|first=Ann S. |page= 97|isbn= 1-57505-627-5|year=2004| publisher=Twenty-First Century Books}}
</ref>
Vice President [[Hubert Humphrey]] attended King's funeral on behalf of the President, as there were fears that Johnson's presence might incite protests and perhaps violence.<ref>{{cite book|page=169 |last= Dickerson | first= James|publisher= ME Sharpe|year= 1998|isbn= 0-7656-0340-3 |title= Dixie's Dirty Secret: The True Story of how the Government, the Media, and the Mob Conspired to Combat Immigration and the Vietnam Antiwar Movement}}
</ref>
At his widow's request, King's last sermon at [[Ebenezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, Georgia)|Ebenezer Baptist Church]] was played at the funeral,<ref>{{cite book| title =The American Book of Days| last=Hatch |first=Jane M. |first2=George William|last2=Douglas|publisher=Wilson|year=1978 |page= 321}}
</ref>
a recording of his "Drum Major" sermon, given on February 4, 1968. In that sermon, King made a request that at his funeral no mention of his awards and honors be made, but that it be said that he tried to "feed the hungry", "clothe the naked", "be right on the [Vietnam] war question", and "love and serve humanity".<ref>{{cite book|title=Dream: The Words and Inspiration of Martin Luther King, Jr |last=King, Jr. |first= Martin Luther|page= 26|publisher= Blue Mountain Arts |year= 2007 | isbn= 1-59842-240-5}}
</ref>
His good friend Mahalia Jackson sang his favorite hymn, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", at the funeral.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America|last=Werner |first= Craig| page =9 |isbn=0-472-03147-3 |publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2006}}</ref>

Two months after King's death, escaped convict [[James Earl Ray]] was captured at [[London Heathrow Airport]] while trying to leave the United Kingdom on a false Canadian passport in the name of Ramon George Sneyd on his way to white-ruled [[Rhodesia]].<ref>{{cite book|title= Martin Luther King, Jr |last= Ling|first= Peter J. |page= 296| publisher= Routledge| year =2002| isbn= 0-415-21664-8}}
</ref>
Ray was quickly extradited to Tennessee and charged with King's murder. He confessed to the assassination on March 10, 1969, though he recanted this confession three days later.<ref name=extradite>{{cite book|last= Flowers|first=R. Barri|first2=H. Loraine|last2=Flowers|page= 38|title= Murders in the United States: Crimes, Killers And Victims Of The Twentieth Century|publisher=McFarland|year=2004 |isbn=0-7864-2075-8}}
</ref>
On the advice of his attorney [[Percy Foreman]], Ray pled guilty to avoid a trial conviction and thus the possibility of receiving the death penalty. He was sentenced to a 99-year prison term.<ref name=extradite/><ref name=cbs>{{cite web| title=James Earl Ray Dead At 70| date=April 23, 1998 |publisher=CBS | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/04/23/national/main7900.shtml| accessdate=June 12, 2008 | archivedate=January 9, 2013| archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXwIWuEs |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
Ray later claimed a man he met in [[Montreal]], Quebec, with the alias "Raoul" was involved and that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy.<ref>{{cite book| page=17 |author= House Select Committee on Assassinations|title=Compilation of the Statements of James Earl Ray: Staff Report|publisher=The Minerva Group |isbn=0-89875-297-3|year=2001}}
</ref><ref name=davis>
{{cite book|title= Assassination: 20 Assassinations that Changed the World|page=105 |last=Davis|first=Lee|year=1995|publisher=JG Press|isbn= 1-57215-235-4}}
</ref>
He spent the remainder of his life attempting, unsuccessfully, to withdraw his guilty plea and secure the trial he never had.<ref name=cbs/>

===Allegations of conspiracy===
Ray's lawyers maintained he was a [[scapegoat]] similar to the way that John F. Kennedy assassin [[Lee Harvey Oswald]] is seen by conspiracy theorists.<ref name=CNN1>{{cite news| title =From small-time criminal to notorious assassin | publisher =CNN | url= http://edition.cnn.com/US/9804/03/james.ray.profile/ | accessdate=September 17, 2006 |year=1998 |archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXuo91SV |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
One of the claims used to support this assertion is that Ray's confession was given under pressure, and he had been threatened with the death penalty.<ref name=cbs/><ref>{{cite book| title= Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia| last =Knight | first =Peter| page= 402| isbn= 1-57607-812-4| publisher= ABC-CLIO| year= 2003}}
</ref>
Ray was a thief and burglar, but he had no record of committing violent crimes with a weapon.<ref name=davis/>

Those suspecting a conspiracy in the assassination point to the two successive [[ballistics]] tests which proved that a rifle similar to Ray's [[Remington Arms|Remington]] Gamemaster had been the murder weapon, but did not prove that his specific rifle had been the one used.<ref name=cbs/><ref name=BBC-WEB1>{{cite news|title=Questions left hanging by James Earl Ray's death|publisher=BBC |date=April 23, 1998|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/82893.stm|accessdate=August 27, 2008}}
</ref>
Moreover, witnesses surrounding King at the moment of his death say the shot came from another location, from behind thick shrubbery near the rooming house—which had been cut away in the days following the assassination—and not from the rooming house window.<ref name=Gerold>{{cite book|page=283|last= Frank|first= Gerold|year= 1972|publisher= Doubleday|title=An American Death: The True Story of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Greatest Manhunt of our Time}}</ref>

[[File:Martin Luther King Jr Coretta Scott King Tomb.jpg|thumb|Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King's tomb, located on the grounds of the [[Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site]] in [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]]]]
In 1997, King's son Dexter Scott King met with Ray, and publicly supported Ray's efforts to obtain a [[new trial]].<ref name=CNN2>{{cite news|title=James Earl Ray, convicted King assassin, dies|publisher=CNN|date=April 23, 1998|url=http://edition.cnn.com/US/9804/23/ray.obit/#2|accessdate=September 17, 2006}}
</ref>
Two years later, Coretta Scott King, King's widow, along with the rest of King's family, won a [[wrongful death claim]] against [[Loyd Jowers]] and "other unknown co-conspirators". Jowers claimed to have received $100,000 to arrange King's assassination. The jury of six whites and six blacks found Jowers guilty and that government agencies were party to the assassination.<ref>{{cite web|title=Trial Transcript Volume XIV|publisher=The King Center|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/trial/Volume14.html|accessdate=August 27, 2008 |archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20080506041106/http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/trial/Volume14.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate=May 6, 2008}}
</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/10/us/dr-king-s-slaying-finally-draws-a-jury-verdict-but-to-little-effect.html |title=Dr. King's Slaying Finally Draws A Jury Verdict, but to Little Effect |author=Sack, Kevin; Yellin, Emily |date=December 10, 1999 |work=The New York Times |accessdate=January 20, 2013 |archivedate=January 20, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DofXtoVz |deadurl=no}}</ref>
[[William F. Pepper]] represented the King family in the trial.<ref>{{cite book|title=Contemporary Controversies and the American Racial Divide|page=97|last=Smith|first=Robert Charles|first2=Richard|last2=Seltzer|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2000|isbn=0-7425-0025-X}}</ref>

In 2000, the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] completed the investigation about Jowers' claims but did not find evidence to support allegations about conspiracy. The investigation report recommended no further investigation unless some new reliable facts are presented.<ref name="usdoj2">{{cite journal| title=United States Department of Justice Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr|chapter=Overview|publisher=[[U.S. Department of Justice]]|date=June 2000|url=http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/mlk/part1.php|chapterurl=http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/mlk/part2.php#over|accessdate=July 11, 2011 |archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXx6C0YY |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
In 2002, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that a church minister, Rev. Ronald Denton Wilson, claimed his father, Henry Clay Wilson—not James Earl Ray—assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. He stated, "It wasn't a racist thing; he thought Martin Luther King was connected with communism, and he wanted to get him out of the way." Wilson provided no evidence to back up his claims.<ref name=NYTORIG>{{cite news|title=A Minister Says His Father, Now Dead, Killed Dr. King|work=The New York Times|date=April 5, 2002| first=Dana|last=Canedy|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/us/a-minister-says-his-father-now-dead-killed-dr-king.html}}</ref>

King researchers [[David Garrow]] and [[Gerald Posner]] disagreed with William F. Pepper's claims that the government killed King.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Civil Rights Revolution: Events and Leaders, 1955–1968|last=Sargent|first=Frederic O.|page=129|publisher=McFarland|year=2004|isbn=0-7864-1914-8}}
</ref>
In 2003, William Pepper published a book about the long investigation and trial, as well as his representation of James Earl Ray in his bid for a trial, laying out the evidence and criticizing other accounts.<ref>{{cite book|title=An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King|last=Pepper|first=William|page=182|publisher=Verso|year=2003|isbn=1-85984-695-5}}
</ref>
King's friend and colleague, James Bevel, also disputed the argument that Ray acted alone, stating, "There is no way a ten-cent white boy could develop a plan to kill a million-dollar black man."<ref>{{cite book|last=Branch|first=Taylor|title=[[At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–68]]|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2006|isbn=978-0-684-85712-1|page=770}}
</ref>
In 2004, Jesse Jackson stated:
{{Quote|The fact is there were saboteurs to disrupt the march. And within our own organization, we found a very key person who was on the government payroll. So infiltration within, saboteurs from without and the press attacks.&nbsp;... I will never believe that James Earl Ray had the motive, the money and the mobility to have done it himself. Our government was very involved in setting the stage for and I think the escape route for James Earl Ray.<ref name=Demo>{{cite news|last=Goodman|first=Amy|first2=Juan|last2=Gonzalez|title=Jesse Jackson On 'Mad Dean Disease', the 2000 Elections and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King|publisher=[[Democracy Now!]]|date=January 15, 2004| url=http://www.democracynow.org/2004/1/15/rev_jesse_jackson_on_mad_dean|accessdate=September 18, 2006}}</ref>}}

==FBI and King's personal life==

===FBI surveillance and wiretapping===
FBI director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] personally ordered surveillance of King, with the intent to undermine his power as a civil rights leader.<ref name="MED08"/><ref name=Honey2007ch4>{{cite book|last=Honey|first=Michael K.|title=Going down Jericho Road the Memphis strike, Martin Luther King's last campaign|year=2007|publisher=Norton|isbn=978-0-393-04339-6|edition=1|chapter=Standing at the Crossroads|quote=Hoover developed a round-the-clock surveillance campaign aimed at destroying King.}}
</ref>
According to the [[Church Committee]], a 1975 investigation by the [[U.S. Congress]], "From December 1963 until his death in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the target of an intensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to 'neutralize' him as an effective civil rights leader."<ref name=Church />

The Bureau received authorization to proceed with wiretapping from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in the fall of 1963<ref name="the atlantic">{{cite news | title= The FBI and Martin Luther King | last= Garrow | first =David J.| authorlink =David Garrow |date=July–August 2002|work=The Atlantic Monthly |url= http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200207/garrow}}</ref> and informed President John F. Kennedy, both of whom unsuccessfully tried to persuade King to dissociate himself from [[Stanley Levison]], a New York lawyer who had been involved with Communist Party USA.<ref name=right />{{sfn|Kotz|2005}} Although Robert Kennedy only gave written approval for limited wiretapping of King's phones "on a trial basis, for a month or so",{{sfn|Herst|2007|p=372}} Hoover extended the clearance so his men were "unshackled" to look for evidence in any areas of King's life they deemed worthy.{{sfn|Herst|2007|pp=372–74}} The Bureau placed wiretaps on Levison's and King's home and office phones, and bugged King's rooms in hotels as he traveled across the country.<ref name=right>{{cite news | title=JFK and RFK Were Right to Wiretap MLK | last=Ryskind | first=Allan H. | url =http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200602/ai_n17173432/pg_2 | accessdate=August 27, 2008 | work=Human Events | date=February 27, 2006}}
</ref><ref name=track>{{cite news |publisher= CNN |title= FBI tracked King's every move |date=April 7, 2008 |first=Jen |last=Christensen |accessdate=June 14, 2008 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/31/mlk.fbi.conspiracy/index.html}}</ref>
In 1967, Hoover listed the SCLC as a black nationalist hate group, with the instructions: "No opportunity should be missed to exploit through counterintelligence techniques the organizational and personal conflicts of the leaderships of the groups&nbsp;... to insure the targeted group is disrupted, ridiculed, or discredited."<ref name=Honey2007ch4 /><ref>{{cite book |title=War at Home: Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Can Do About It |last=Glick |first=Brian |year=1989 |publisher=South End Press |isbn=978-0-89608-349-3 |page=77 |url=http://books.google.com/?id=M4uvwy_C3egC&pg=PA77}}</ref>

===NSA monitoring of King's communications ===
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret," the [[National Security Agency]] (NSA) monitored the communications of leading Americans, including King, who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam.<ref name="theguardian.com">The Guardian, 26 September 2013, "Declassified NSA Files Show Agency Spied on Muhammad Ali and MLK Operation Minaret Set Up in 1960s to Monitor Anti-Vietnam Critics, Branded 'Disreputable If Not Outright Illegal' by NSA Itself," http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/nsa-surveillance-anti-vietnam-muhammad-ali-mlk</ref> A review by NSA of the NSA's Minaret program concluded that Minaret was "disreputable if not outright illegal."<ref name="theguardian.com"/>

===Allegations of communism===
For years, Hoover had been suspicious about potential influence of communists in social movements such as labor unions and civil rights.<ref>{{cite book|title= To See the Promised Land: The Faith Pilgrimage of Martin Luther King, Jr|pages=246–7|last= Downing|first= Frederick L.|publisher= Mercer University Press| year= 1986| isbn =0-86554-207-4}}
</ref>
Hoover directed the FBI to track King in 1957, and the SCLC as it was established (it did not have a full-time executive director until 1960).<ref name="autogenerated1" /> The investigations were largely superficial until 1962, when the FBI learned that one of King's most trusted advisers was New York City lawyer Stanley Levison.{{sfn|Kotz|2005|p=233}}

The FBI feared Levison was working as an "agent of influence" over King, in spite of its own reports in 1963 that Levison had left the Party and was no longer associated in business dealings with them.{{sfn|Kotz|2005|pp=70–74}} Another King lieutenant, [[Hunter Pitts O'Dell]], was also linked to the Communist Party by sworn testimony before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC).<ref>{{cite book| last= Woods | first= Jeff|page=126|year=2004|publisher=LSU Press|isbn= 0-8071-2926-7|title= Black Struggle, Red Scare: Segregation and Anti-communism in the South, 1948–1968}} See also: {{cite book| page= 87| title= The Real J. Edgar Hoover: For the Record | last =Wannall|first=Ray|isbn=1-56311-553-0|year=2000|publisher= Turner Publishing}}
</ref>
However, by 1976 the FBI had acknowledged that it had not obtained any evidence that King himself or the SCLC were actually involved with any communist organizations.<ref name=Church>{{citation|last=Church|first= Frank|authorlink= Frank Church|title= Church Committee Book III| work =Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Case Study| publisher= [[Church Committee]]| date=April 23, 1976}}</ref>

For his part, King adamantly denied having any connections to communism, stating in a 1965 ''Playboy'' interview that "there are as many Communists in this freedom movement as there are Eskimos in Florida".{{sfn|Washington|1991|p=362}} He argued that Hoover was "following the path of appeasement of political powers in the South" and that his concern for communist infiltration of the civil rights movement was meant to "aid and abet the salacious claims of southern racists and the extreme right-wing elements".<ref name=Church />
Hoover did not believe King's pledge of innocence and replied by saying that King was "the most notorious liar in the country".<ref>{{cite book |title=Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Biography |last=Bruns |first=Roger |page=67 |isbn=0-313-33686-5 | publisher =Greenwood Publishing |year= 2006}}
</ref>
After King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, the FBI described King as "the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country".<ref name=track /> It alleged that he was "knowingly, willingly and regularly cooperating with and taking guidance from communists".{{sfn|Kotz|2005|p=83}}

The attempt to prove that King was a communist was related to the feeling of many segregationists that blacks in the South were happy with their lot but had been stirred up by "communists" and "outside agitators".<ref>{{cite book |title= Democratic Individuality: A Theory of Moral Progress |page=435 |last=Gilbert |first=Alan |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-521-38709-4}}
</ref>
However, the civil rights movement arose from activism within the black community dating back to before World War I. King said that "the Negro revolution is a genuine revolution, born from the same womb that produces all massive social upheavals—the womb of intolerable conditions and unendurable situations."{{sfn|Washington|1991|p=363}}

===Allegations of adultery===
[[File:MLK and Malcolm X USNWR cropped.jpg|thumb|Martin Luther King, Jr. and [[Malcolm X]], March 26, 1964]]
Having concluded that King was dangerous due to communist infiltration, the FBI shifted to attempting to discredit King through revelations regarding his private life. FBI surveillance of King, some of it since made public, attempted to demonstrate that he also engaged in numerous extramarital affairs.<ref name=track/> Lyndon Johnson once said that King was a "hypocritical preacher".<ref>{{cite news | title=L.B.J., Hoover and Domestic Spying |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912799-2,00.html |work=Time | last=Sidey | first=Hugh | accessdate=June 14, 2008| date=February 10, 1975|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921122310/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912799-2,00.html|archivedate=September 21, 2011}}
</ref>

Ralph Abernathy stated in his 1989 autobiography ''And the Walls Came Tumbling Down'' that King had a "weakness for women", although they "all understood and believed in the biblical prohibition against sex outside of marriage. It was just that he had a particularly difficult time with that temptation".<ref>{{cite book |title=And the walls came tumbling down: an autobiography |last=Abernathy |first=Ralph |year=1989 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-016192-7 |page=471 |url=http://books.google.com/?id=JFx2AAAAMAAJ&q=%22all+understood+and+believed+in+the+biblical+prohibition+against+sex+outside+of+marriage.+It+was+just+that+he+had+a+particularly+difficult+time+with+that+temptation%22&dq=%22all+understood+and+believed+in+the+biblical+prohibition+against+sex+outside+of+marriage.+It+was+just+that+he+had+a+particularly+difficult+time+with+that+temptation%22 }}</ref> In a later interview, Abernathy said that he only wrote the term "womanizing", that he did not specifically say King had [[extramarital sex]] and that the infidelities King had were [[emotional affair|emotional]] rather than sexual.<ref name=abertappva>{{cite web |url= http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1442 | archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20071211111242/http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1442 | archivedate=December 11, 2007 | title=And the Walls Came Tumbling Down | first=Ralph David |last=Abernathy |publisher=Booknotes |date=October 29, 1989 | accessdate=June 14, 2008}}</ref> Abernathy criticized the media for sensationalizing the statements he wrote about King's affairs,<ref name=abertappva /> such as the allegation that he admitted in his book that King had a sexual affair the night before he was assassinated.<ref name=abertappva /> In his original wording, Abertnathy had claimed he saw King coming out of his room with a lady when he awoke the next morning and later claimed that "he may have been in there discussing and debating and trying to get her to go along with the movement, I don't know."<ref name=abertappva />

In his 1986 book ''Bearing the Cross'', [[David Garrow]] wrote about a number of extramarital affairs, including one woman King saw almost daily. According to Garrow, "that relationship&nbsp;... increasingly became the emotional centerpiece of King's life, but it did not eliminate the incidental couplings&nbsp;... of King's travels." He alleged that King explained his extramarital affairs as "a form of anxiety reduction". Garrow asserted that King's supposed promiscuity caused him "painful and at times overwhelming guilt".<ref>{{cite book| title =Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference|year=1986|pages=375–6 | publisher=William Morrow & Co}}</ref> King's wife Coretta appeared to have accepted his affairs with equanimity, saying once that "all that other business just doesn't have a place in the very high level relationship we enjoyed."{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=67}} Shortly after ''Bearing the Cross'' was released, civil rights author [[Howell Raines]] gave the book a positive review but opined that Garrow's allegations about King's sex life were "sensational" and stated that Garrow was "amassing facts rather than analyzing them".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/07/nnp/garrow.html|title=Driven to Martyrdom|author=Raines, Howell |work=The New York Times|date=November 30, 1986|accessdate=July 12, 2013}}</ref>

The FBI distributed reports regarding such affairs to the executive branch, friendly reporters, potential coalition partners and funding sources of the SCLC, and King's family.<ref>{{cite book |title=[[Conspiracy Encyclopedia]] |last= Burnett | first =Thom |isbn=1-84340-287-4 |publisher=Collins & Brown |year= 2005 |page= 58}}
</ref> The Bureau also sent anonymous letters to King threatening to reveal information if he did not cease his civil rights work.<ref>{{cite book |page=532 | last =Thragens |first=William C. |title=Popular Images of American Presidents |isbn=0-313-22899-X |publisher=Greenwood Publishing | year =1988}}
</ref> One anonymous letter sent to King just before he received the Nobel Peace Prize read, in part, <blockquote>The American public, the church organizations that have been helping—Protestants, Catholics and Jews will know you for what you are—an evil beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done. King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significant {{sic}}). You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy fraudulent self is bared to the nation.{{sfn|Kotz|2005|p=247}}</blockquote>

A tape recording of several of King's extramarital liaisons, excerpted from FBI wiretaps, accompanied the letter.{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=158–159}} King interpreted this package as an attempt to drive him to suicide,<ref>{{cite book |page= 466 |last= Wilson |first= Sondra K. | publisher =Oxford University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-19-511633-X |title=In Search of Democracy: The NAACP Writings of James Weldon Johnson, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins (1920–1977)}}
</ref> although William Sullivan, head of the Domestic Intelligence Division at the time, argued that it may have only been intended to "convince Dr. King to resign from the SCLC".<ref name=Church /> King refused to give in to the FBI's threats.<ref name=track/>

[[United States district court#United States district judges|Judge]] [[John Lewis Smith, Jr.]] in 1977 ordered that all known copies of the recorded audiotapes and written transcripts resulting from the FBI's electronic surveillance of King between 1963 and 1968 to be held in the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] and sealed from public access until 2027.<ref>{{cite journal| title=Documenting the Struggle for Racial Equality in the Decade of the Sixties | publisher=The National Archives and Records Administration | url =http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/summer/equality-in-the-sixties.html#f3 |date=Summer 1997 | last=Phillips | first=Geraldine N. | work=Prologue | accessdate=June 15, 2008}}</ref>

===Presence during the assassination===
Across from the Lorraine Motel, next to the boarding house in which Ray was staying, was a fire station. Police officers were stationed in the fire station to keep King under surveillance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hvc-inc.com/clients/cnn/bia/featured.html | publisher= CNN |work= Black in America | title= Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination Featured Individuals | accessdate=June 16, 2008|archiveurl=http://archive.is/8urD|archivedate=September 6, 2012}}
</ref>
Agents were watching King at the time he was shot.<ref>{{cite book |last= McKnight |first =Gerald |page=76 |title =The Last Crusade: Martin Luther King, Jr., the FBI, and the Poor People's Crusade |year =1998 |isbn =0-8133-3384-9 |publisher =Westview Press }}
</ref>
Immediately following the shooting, officers rushed out of the station to the motel. Marrell McCollough, an undercover police officer, was the first person to administer first aid to King.<ref>{{cite book |title=Martin Luther King, Jr.: The FBI Files |pages=40–2 |publisher= Filiquarian Publishing |isbn= 1-59986-253-0 |year=2007}} See also: {{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/28/conspiracy.theories/ | title= King conspiracy theories still thrive 40 years later |last= Polk |first= James |publisher= CNN |date=April 7, 2008 |accessdate=June 16, 2008}} and {{cite web |url=http://vault.fbi.gov/Martin%20Luther%20King,%20Jr./Martin%20Luther%20King,%20Jr.%20Part%201%20of%202/view |title=King's FBI file Part 1 of 2|format=PDF |publisher=FBI |accessdate=January 16, 2012}} and {{cite web |url=http://vault.fbi.gov/Martin%20Luther%20King,%20Jr./Martin%20Luther%20King,%20Jr.%20Part%202%20of%202/view |title=King's FBI file Part 2 of 2|format=PDF |publisher=FBI |accessdate=January 16, 2012}}
</ref>
The antagonism between King and the FBI, the lack of an [[all points bulletin]] to find the killer, and the police presence nearby led to speculation that the FBI was involved in the assassination.<ref>{{cite book | pages= 408–9 |title= Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia |last=Knight |first=Peter |isbn=1-57607-812-4 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2003}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Lyndon Johnson signing Civil Rights Act, July 2, 1964.jpg|thumb|President Johnson signs the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. Among the guests behind him is Martin Luther King.]]
[[File:Martin Luther King memorial Westminster Abbey.jpg|thumb|Martin Luther King, Jr. statue over the west entrance of [[Westminster Abbey]], installed in 1998.]]
[[File:'Today capitalism has outlived its usefulness' MLK.jpg|thumb|Protestors at the [[2012 Republican National Convention]] display Dr. King's words and image on a banner.]]
King's main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the U.S. Just days after King's assassination, Congress passed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1968]].<ref name=HUDHistory>{{cite web|title=The History of Fair Housing|url=http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/aboutfheo/history|publisher=U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development|accessdate=April 19, 2012}}
</ref>
Title VIII of the Act, commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, prohibited discrimination in housing and housing-related transactions on the basis of race, religion, or national origin (later expanded to include sex, familial status, and disability). This legislation was seen as a tribute to King's struggle in his final years to combat residential discrimination in the U.S.<ref name=HUDHistory />

Internationally, King's legacy includes influences on the [[Black Consciousness Movement]] and Civil Rights Movement in South Africa.<ref>{{cite book |title=Soweto Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Politics in South Africa |last= Ansell |first=Gwen |page=139 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |year=2005 |isbn=0-8264-1753-1}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book |title= It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us |last= Clinton |first= Hillary Rodham | page =137 |isbn=1-4165-4064-4 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2007}}
</ref>
King's work was cited by and served as an inspiration for South African leader [[Albert Lutuli]], who fought for racial justice in his country and was later awarded the Nobel Prize.{{sfn|King|1992|pp=307–08}} The day following King's assassination, school teacher [[Jane Elliott]] conducted her first "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise with her class of elementary school students in [[Riceville, Iowa|Riceville]], Iowa. Her purpose was to help them understand King's death as it related to racism, something they little understood as they lived in a predominately white community.<ref>{{cite web| title= A Class Divided: One Friday in April, 1968|work= Frontline|publisher= PBS|last= Peters| first= William| url= http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/friday.html |accessdate=June 15, 2008}}</ref> King has become a national icon in the history of [[American progressivism]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Conscience of a Liberal |last=Krugman |first=Paul R. |year=2009 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn= 978-0-393-33313-8 |page=84 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=AHgZib2fngIC&q=Martin+Luther+King}}</ref>

King's wife, [[Coretta Scott King]], followed in her husband's footsteps and was active in matters of social justice and civil rights until her death in 2006. The same year that Martin Luther King was assassinated, she established the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, dedicated to preserving his legacy and the work of championing nonviolent conflict resolution and tolerance worldwide.<ref name=KC-WEB1>{{cite web|title=The King Center's Mission|publisher=[[Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site|The King Center]]|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/mission.asp| accessdate=June 15, 2008 | archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20080412114756/http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/mission.asp |archivedate=April 12, 2008}}
</ref>
Their son, Dexter King, serves as the center's chairman.<ref>{{cite news|title=Future of Atlanta's King Center in limbo | work=USA Today|last=Copeland|first=Larry|date=February 1, 2006|url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-01-31-king-center_x.htm | accessdate=August 27, 2008}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web| url =http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/chairman.asp |title= Chairman's Message: Introduction to the King Center and its Mission| publisher =The King Center| accessdate=June 15, 2008 | archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20080118102950/http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/chairman.asp | archivedate=January 18, 2008}}
</ref>
Daughter Yolanda King, who died in 2007, was a motivational speaker, author and founder of Higher Ground Productions, an organization specializing in diversity training.<ref>{{cite web| publisher =Higher Ground Productions|url= http://www.highergroundproductions.com/index2.htm| title= Welcome | accessdate=June 15, 2008}}</ref>

Even within the King family, members disagree about his religious and political views about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. King's widow Coretta said publicly that she believed her husband would have supported [[gay rights]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Triple Evils|publisher= [[The King Center]]| url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/misc/triple_evils.htm| accessdate=August 27, 2008 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803150448/http://www.thekingcenter.org/misc/triple_evils.htm | archivedate=August 3, 2008}}</ref> However, his youngest child, [[Bernice King]], has said publicly that he would have been opposed to [[gay marriage]].<ref name=MPR-WEB1>{{cite news|last=Williams|first= Brandt|title= What would Martin Luther King do?|publisher= [[Minnesota Public Radio]]| date=January 16, 2005 | url= http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/01/17_williamsb_wwmlkd/| accessdate=August 27, 2008}}
</ref>

On February 4, 1968, at the [[Ebenezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, Georgia)|Ebenezer Baptist Church]], in speaking about how he wished to be remembered after his death, King stated:

{{Quote|I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.<ref name="1968 Year In Review, UPI.com"/><ref>{{cite news|title=IBM advertisement|date=January 14, 1985|first=|last=|newspaper=[[The Dallas Morning News]]|page=13A}}</ref>}}

===Martin Luther King, Jr. Day===
{{Main|Martin Luther King, Jr. Day}}
Beginning in 1971, cities such as [[St. Louis, Missouri]], and states established annual holidays to honor King.<ref name="stlouis">[http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st-louis-remains-stronghold-dr-kings-dream Joseph Leahy, "St. Louis Remains A Stronghold For Dr. King's Dream"], ''News for St. Louis'', St. Louis Public Radio, 20 January 2014</ref> At the [[White House]] Rose Garden on November 2, 1983, President [[Ronald Reagan]] signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King. Observed for the first time on January 20, 1986, it is called [[Martin Luther King, Jr. Day]]. Following President [[George H. W. Bush]]'s 1992 proclamation, the holiday is observed on the third Monday of January each year, near the time of King's birthday.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=47329|title=Proclamation 6401&nbsp;– Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday | year =1992|publisher=The American Presidency Project| accessdate=September 8, 2008}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web|title=Martin Luther King Day|publisher=U.S. Department of State| url= http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/mlkbday.htm|accessdate=June 15, 2008 |archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20080328081425/http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/mlkbday.htm |archivedate=March 28, 2008}}
</ref>
On January 17, 2000, for the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all fifty U.S. states.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E0DC1031F935A15756C0A96F958260| title= Contrarian New Hampshire To Honor Dr. King, at Last|work=The New York Times|last= Goldberg|first=Carey|date=May 26, 1999 | accessdate=June 15, 2008}}
</ref>
[[Arizona]] (1992), [[New Hampshire]] (1999) and [[Utah]] (2000) were the last three states to recognized the holiday. Utah previously celebrated the holiday at the same time but under the name Human Rights Day.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mlkhistory1.html| title=The History of Martin Luther King Day| publisher=Infoplease| year=2007| accessdate=July 4, 2011}}</ref>

===Liturgical commemorations===
King is remembered as a martyr by the [[Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)|Episcopal Church in the United States of America]] with an annual [[feast day]] on the anniversary of his death, April 4.<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/sites/default/files/downloads/bi011512_half_0.pdf |title=Martin Luther King Day Weekend 2012 |publisher=Episcopal Church |accessdate=January 4, 2013 |archivedate=January 4, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DQHJtiDM |format=PDF |deadurl=no}}
</ref> The [[Calendar of Saints (Lutheran)|Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] commemorates King liturgically on the anniversary of his birth, January 15.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stbartlutheran.org/churchyearcalendar.htm |title=Church Year and Calendar |publisher=St. Bartholomew Lutheran Church |accessdate=January 10, 2013 |archivedate=January 10, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DZHr7pzU |deadurl=no}}</ref>

==Awards and recognition==
[[File:KellyIngramMLKStatue.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Statue of King in Birmingham's [[Kelly Ingram Park]]]]
[[File:Dexter Avenue Baptist.jpg|alt=|thumb|upright|Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where King ministered was renamed Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in 1978]]
King was awarded at least fifty honorary degrees from colleges and universities.<ref name=merv>
{{cite book| title=King Came Preaching: The Pulpit Power of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr | page=79| last=Warren| first=Mervyn A. | isbn=0-8308-2658-0 | year=2001 | publisher=InterVarsity Press}}
</ref>
On October 14, 1964, King became the youngest recipient of the [[Nobel Peace Prize]], which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to racial prejudice in the U.S.<ref>{{cite book|title=Makers of Modern Culture: Makers of Culture | last=Wintle | first=Justin | page=272 | publisher=Routledge | year=2001|isbn=0-415-26583-5}}
</ref>
In 1965, he was awarded the American Liberties Medallion by the [[American Jewish Committee]] for his "exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty".<ref name=merv/><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843719&ct=1052921| publisher =American Jewish Committee | title =Commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.: Presentation of American Liberties Medallion|last=Engel|first=Irving M| accessdate=June 13, 2008}}
</ref>
In his acceptance remarks, King said, "Freedom is one thing. You have it all or you are not free."<ref>{{cite web| title =Commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.: Response to Award of American Liberties Medallion | last =King, Jr. |first=Martin Luther|publisher=American Jewish Committee|url=http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=843719&ct=1052923| accessdate=June 13, 2008}}</ref>

In 1957, he was awarded the [[Spingarn Medal]] from the [[NAACP]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.naacp.org/pages/spingarn-medal-winners |title=Spingarn Medal Winners: 1915 to Today |publisher=NAACP |accessdate=January 16, 2013 }}</ref> Two years later, he won the [[Anisfield-Wolf Book Award]] for his book ''Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Martin Luther King Jr.|url=http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/stride-toward-freedom-the-montgomery-story/?sortby=author&auth=KINGJR.MARTINLUTHER|publisher=[[Anisfield-Wolf Book Award]]s|accessdate=October 2, 2011}}
</ref>
In 1966, the [[Planned Parenthood Federation of America]] awarded King the [[Margaret Sanger]] Award for "his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity".<ref name=PP>{{cite web|title=The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. upon accepting The Planned Parenthood Federation Of America Margaret Sanger Award| publisher= [[Planned Parenthood|PPFA]]| url= http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/the-reverend-martin-luther-king-jr.htm|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080224104928/http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/the-reverend-martin-luther-king-jr.htm|archivedate=February 24, 2008| accessdate=August 27, 2008}}
</ref>
Also in 1966, King was elected as a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name="King AAAS fellow">{{cite web|title=SCLC Press Release|url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/document/sclc-press-release|publisher=SCLC via the King Center|accessdate=August 31, 2012|date=May 16, 1966 |archivedate=January 9, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DXxViq3n |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
In 1971 he was posthumously awarded a [[Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album]] for his ''Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam''.<ref>{{cite book| page= 1348|title= Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience| last =Gates |first= Henry Louis|first2=Anthony|last2=Appiah|publisher= Basic Civitas Books|isbn= 0-465-00071-1|year= 1999}}</ref>

In 1977, the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] was posthumously awarded to King by President [[Jimmy Carter]]. The citation read:
<blockquote>Martin Luther King, Jr., was the conscience of his generation. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humblest citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better. His dream sustains us yet.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=7784 |title=Presidential Medal of Freedom Remarks on Presenting the Medal to Dr. Jonas E. Salk and to Martin Luther King, Jr. |author=Carter, Jimmy |date=July 11, 1977 |publisher=The American Presidency Project |accessdate=January 4, 2013 |archivedate=January 4, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DQRPr4NK |deadurl=no}}</ref></blockquote>
King and his wife were also awarded the [[Congressional Gold Medal]] in 2004.<ref>{{cite web|title=Congressional Gold Medal Recipients (1776 to Present)| publisher= Office of the Clerk: U.S. House of Representatives| url=http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/goldMedal.html| accessdate=June 16, 2008}}</ref>

King was second in [[Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1999|last=Gallup|first=George|first2=Alec|last2=Gallup, Jr. |page=249|isbn=0-8420-2699-1|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield | year= 2000}}
</ref>
In 1963, he was named [[Time Person of the Year]], and in 2000, he was voted sixth in an online "Person of the Century" poll by the same magazine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-24394267.html |title=Time Names Einstein as Person of the Century |author=Harpaz, Beth J. |date=December 27, 1999 |agency=Associated Press |publisher= {{Subscription required|via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}|accessdate=January 20, 2013}}</ref> King placed third in the [[Greatest American]] contest conducted by the [[Discovery Channel]] and [[America Online|AOL]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Reagan voted 'greatest American'|date=June 28, 2005|accessdate=August 27, 2008|publisher=BBC |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4631421.stm}}</ref>

More than 730 cities in the United States have [[Streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr.|streets named after King]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://personal.ecu.edu/aldermand/pubs/alderman_chapter.pdf|last=Alderman|first=Derek H. |title=Naming Streets for Martin Luther King, Jr.: No Easy Road|work=Landscape and Race in the United States|publisher=Routledge Press| date=February 13, 2006|accessdate=July 4, 2011}}{{dead link|date=September 2013}}
</ref>
[[King County, Washington|King County]], Washington rededicated its name in his honor in 1986, and changed its logo to an image of his face in 2007.<ref>{{cite web|title=King County Was Rededicated For MLK | work=The Seattle Times|accessdate=June 13, 2008|date=January 18, 1998|url=http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980118&slug=2729257}} See also: {{cite web|title=New logo is an image of civil rights leader|publisher= King County| url= http://www.kingcounty.gov/operations/logo.aspx| accessdate=June 13, 2008}}
</ref>
The city government center in [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]], Pennsylvania, is named in honor of King.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Essay Competition Winners Announced|publisher=City of Harrisburg|url=http://www.harrisburgpa.gov/pressReleases/prArchives/2003/01/20030119_mlkEssay.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071207045944/http://www.harrisburgpa.gov/pressReleases/prArchives/2003/01/20030119_mlkEssay.html| archivedate=December 7, 2007| date=January 19, 2003| accessdate=August 27, 2008}}
</ref>

In 1980, the U.S. [[Department of the Interior]] designated King's boyhood home in Atlanta and several nearby buildings the [[Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site]]. In 1996, Congress authorized the [[Alpha Phi Alpha]] fraternity, of which King had been a member, to establish a foundation to manage fund raising and design of a national [[Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial]] on the Mall in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web|title=Washington, DC Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation Breaks Ground On Historic $100 Million Memorial On The National Mall In Washington, D.C. | date=November 6, 2006 | accessdate=August 27, 2008|publisher= Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation| url=http://www.mlkmemorial.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=hkIUL9MVJxE&b=1601407&ct=3612187|archiveurl=http://archive.is/Wicn|archivedate=September 8, 2012}}
</ref>
King was the first African American and the fourth non-president honored with his own memorial in the National Mall area.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Celebrating the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
|publisher=U.S. Department of State
|last=Tobias
|first=Randall L.
|url=http://www.state.gov/f/releases/remarks2007/87649.htm
|date=January 18, 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071115141138/http://www.state.gov/f/releases/remarks2007/87649.htm
|archivedate=November 15, 2007
|accessdate=January 16, 2012}}
</ref>
The memorial opened in August 2011<ref>{{cite news |title=A Dream Fulfilled, Martin Luther King Memorial Opens |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/us/23mlk.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=US-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-ADF-082311-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click |work=New York Times|date=August 23, 2011 |first=Sabrina |last=Tavernise|archivedate=January 4, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DQEaTSBT |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
and is administered by the [[National Park Service]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/mlkm/index.htm |title=Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial |publisher=National Park Service |accessdate=January 4, 2013 |archivedate=January 4, 2013 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/6DQPYa1Eo |deadurl=no}}
</ref>
The address of the monument, 1964 Independence Avenue, S.W., commemorates the year that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonlife.com/2011/07/26/fyidc-paying-tribute-to-dr-king/ |title=FYIDC: Paying Tribute To Dr. King |author=Guevara, Brittni |date=July 26, 2011 |work=Washington Life |accessdate=January 20, 2013}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story]]'' (1958) ISBN 978-0-06-250490-6
* ''The Measure of a Man'' (1959) ISBN 978-0-8006-0877-4
* ''[[Strength to Love]]'' (1963) ISBN 978-0-8006-9740-2
* ''[[Why We Can't Wait]]'' (1964) ISBN 978-0-8070-0112-7
* ''[[Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?]]'' (1967) ISBN 978-0-8070-0571-2
* ''[[Conscience for Change|The Trumpet of Conscience]]'' (1968) ISBN 978-0-8070-0170-7
* ''A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' (1986) ISBN 978-0-06-250931-4
* ''The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' (1998), ed. Clayborne Carson ISBN 978-0-446-67650-2
* ''"All Labor Has Dignity"'' (2011) ed. [[Michael Honey]] ISBN 978-0-8070-8600-1
* ''"Thou, Dear God": Prayers That Open Hearts and Spirits'' Collection of Dr. King's prayers. (2011), ed. Dr. [[Lewis Baldwin]] ISBN 978-0-8070-8603-2
* ''MLK: A Celebration in Word and Image'' Photographed by [[Bob Adelman]], introduced by Charles Johnson ISBN 978-0-8070-0316-9

==See also==
{{Portal|African American|Atlanta|Biography|Saints|Social movements}}
* [[Martin Luther King, Jr. authorship issues]]
* [[Sermons and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.]]
* ''[[The Meeting (play)|The Meeting]]''

'''Concepts:'''
* [[Christian radicalism]]
* [[Equality before the law]]

'''General:'''
* [[List of American philosophers]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[List of peace activists]]

'''After Martin Luther King:'''
* [[Post–Civil Rights era in African-American history]]

==References==

===Notes===
{{notelist|30em}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite book|authorlink=Ralph Abernathy|last=Abernathy|first=Ralph|title=And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography|publisher=Harper & Row|year=1989|isbn=0-06-016192-2}}
* {{Cite book|authorlink=Taylor Branch|last=Branch|first=Taylor|title=At Canaan's Edge: America In the King Years, 1965–1968|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2006|isbn=0-684-85712-X}}
* {{cite book| last= Cohen| first= Adam Seth |first2= Elizabeth|last2=Taylor| publisher= Back Bay|year=2000|isbn= 0-316-83489-0|title= Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book |title=Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life |last=Frady |first=Marshall |authorlink=Marshall Frady |year=2002 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-303648-7 |url=http://books.google.com/books/about/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.html?id=dOR4QpEE0g8C |ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|authorlink=David Garrow|last=Garrow|first=David J.|title=The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1981|isbn=0-14-006486-9}}
* Garrow, David. ''Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference'' (1989). Pulitzer Prize. ISBN 978-0-06-056692-0
* {{cite book| title= The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement| last= Glisson| first=Susan M.| isbn=0-7425-4409-5 | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2006|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|title=Bobby and J. Edger|last=Herst|first=Burton|year=2007|publisher=Carroll & Graf|isbn=0-7867-1982-6|ref=harv}}
* {{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Thomas F.|title=From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8122-3969-0|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book| title=Autobiography | first=Martin Luther | last=King, Jr. | editor-last=Carson | editor-first=Clayborne | page=6 | publisher=Warner Books | year=1998| isbn=0-446-52412-3|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book | last=King, Jr. | first=Martin Luther | first2=Clayborne |last2=Carson|first3=Peter|last3=Holloran |first4=Ralph|last4=Luker |first5=Penny A. |last5=Russell| title=The papers of Martin Luther King, Jr | publisher=University of California Press| year=1992| isbn=0-520-07950-7|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|last= Kotz|first=Nick| isbn=0-618-08825-3|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Books|year=2005|title=Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed America|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book| title =Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1968 | last= Lawson|first=Steven F.|first2=Charles M.|last2=Payne|first3=James T.|last3=Patterson| isbn= 0-7425-5109-1 | publisher =Rowman & Littlefield|year=2006|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book | title= Against the Vietnam War: Writings by Activists| last= Robbins|first= Mary Susannah | isbn=0-7425-5914-9 | publisher= Rowman & Littlefield|year= 2007|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|title=A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr |last= Washington| first= James M. | year=1991 | publisher= HarperCollins|isbn= 0-06-064691-8|ref=harv}}
{{Refend}}

===Further reading===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite book|last=Ayton|first=Mel|title=A Racial Crime: James Earl Ray And The Murder Of Martin Luther King Jr|publisher=Archebooks Publishing|year=2005|isbn=1-59507-075-3}}
* {{Cite book|authorlink=Taylor Branch|last=Branch|first=Taylor|title=Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1988|isbn=0-671-46097-8}}
* {{Cite book|last=Branch|first=Taylor|title=Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–1965|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1998|isbn=0-684-80819-6}}
* {{Cite book|authorlink=Coretta Scott King|last=King|first=Coretta Scott|title=My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr|publisher=Henry Holth & Co|origyear=1969|year=1993|isbn=0-8050-2445-X}}
* Kirk, John A., ed. ''Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates'' (2007). pp.&nbsp;224
* Schulke, Flip; McPhee, Penelope. ''King Remembered'', Foreword by Jesse Jackson (1986). ISBN 978-1-4039-9654-1
* Waldschmidt-Nelson, Britta. ''Dreams and Nightmares: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Struggle for Black Equality.'' Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2012. ISBN 0-8130-3723-9.
{{refend}}

==External links==
'''General'''
{{Sister project links |wikt=no |commons=Martin Luther King, Jr. |b=no |n=no |q=Martin Luther King, Jr. |s=Author:Martin Luther King, Jr. |v=Nonkilling Leadership Lessons from Martin Luther King, Jr. |species=no |voy=no |d=Q8027}}
* [http://www.thekingcenter.org/ The King Center]
* [http://www.auctr.edu/mlkcollection/ "Martin Luther King Jr. Collection"], Morehouse College, RWWL
* [http://www.kinginstitute.info/ The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project]
* [http://vault.fbi.gov/Martin%20Luther%20King%2C%20Jr. FBI file on Martin Luther King, Jr.]
* {{Worldcat id|lccn-n79-84324}}

'''Speeches and interviews'''
* [http://saidatsouthern.com/martin-luther-king-mp3/ Audio from April 1961 King, "The Church on the Frontier of Racial Tensions"], speech at Southern Seminary
* [http://www.dalnet.lib.mi.us/king/ "Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Speeches and Interviews"]
* [http://www.archive.org/movies/movies-details-db.php?collection=open_mind&amp;collectionid=openmind_ep727 The New Negro], King interviewed by [[J. Waites Waring]]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/sfeature/sf_video_pop_02_tr_qry.html "Interview with Dr. Kenneth Clark"], PBS
* [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm "Beyond Vietnam" speech text and audio]
* [http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/multimedia_contents King Institute Encyclopedia multimedia]
* [http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4731 Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam], sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967 (audio of speech with video 23:31)
* [https://reuther.wayne.edu/audio/user "Walk to Freedom", Detroit, June 23, 1963.] Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Wayne State University.
* [http://www.davidicchiasmus.com/blog/authors-non-lds/martin-luther-king-jr-dream Chiastic outline of Martin Luther King, Junior's "I Have a Dream" speech]

{{S-start}}
{{S-ach}}
{{s-bef|before=[[International Committee of the Red Cross]]<br />and<br />[[International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies|League of Red Cross Societies]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Nobel Peace Prize|Nobel Peace Prize Laureate]]|years=1964}}
{{s-aft|after=[[UNICEF]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{Martin Luther King}}
{{SCLC presidents}}
{{African-American Civil Rights Movement}}
{{African American topics}}
{{Gandhi}}
{{Leo Tolstoy}}
{{Nobel Peace Prize Laureates 1951–1975}}
{{Time Persons of the Year 1951–1975}}
{{Pacem in Terris Award laureates|collapsed}}
{{Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album 1970s}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=100170140|LCCN=n/79/084324}}

{{Persondata
| NAME = King, Martin Luther, Jr.
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = King, Martin Luther; MLK
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Political activist
| DATE OF BIRTH = January 15, 1929
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], United States
| DATE OF DEATH = April 4, 1968
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Lorraine Motel]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], Tennessee, United States}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:King 2, Martin Luther}}
[[Category:Martin Luther King, Jr.| ]]
[[Category:1929 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
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[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of Alabama]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of Florida]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Social democrats]]
[[Category:Spingarn Medal winners]]

{{Link GA|de}}
{{Link FA|fr}}

Revision as of 04:21, 11 May 2014

I HAD A DREAM. I BANGED A REALLY HOT CHICK. AND YOU WERE THERE, AND YOU WERE THERE, AND YOU WERE THERE.

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