Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who helped lead the fight for racial equality in the United States. His most famous work is his “I Have a Dream” speech in which he spoke of his dream of a United States that is without segregation or racism. King led many marches and protests, including the Montgomery bus boycott and some of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in Alabama. In 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.<br><br>King circa 1964.

Martin Luther King speaks during a meeting about the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, with Rosa Parks, Jan. 27, 1956.

Martin Luther King Jr. sits for his for police mugshot after his arrest for directing a boycott of segregated buses, Feb. 24, 1956, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Martin Luther King Jr. relaxes at home with his wife, Coretta, and first child, Yolanda, May 1956, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Police officers push Martin Luther King Jr. across a police desk as he is booked for loitering in Montgomery, Alabama, Sept. 3, 1958. His wife, fellow activist and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, watches.

Dr. Emil A. Naclerio stands at the bedside of Martin Luther King Jr. in Harlem Hospital in New York, after a ​three-hour operation to remove a knife from his chest, Sept. 20, 1958.

Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at the Gillfield Baptist Church, in Petersburg, Virginia, in May 1960.

Martin Luther King Jr., after his release from a Georgia prison for leading boycotts, is greeted by his wife, Coretta Scott King, and their children, Marty and Yoki, at the airport in Chamblee, Georgia, Oct. 1, 1960.

After being arrested during a civil rights march, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. waits in the chief of police's office in Albany, Georgia, Dec. 16, 1961.

Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr. sit on a church bench during the Freedom Rider crisis in May 1961.

Walk to Freedom marchers, including Martin Luther King Jr., center, and Detroit Mayor Jerome P. Cavanaugh, march for racial equality in Detroit, June 1, 1963.

Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders at the Lincoln Memorial are seen during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963.

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses marchers during his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Aug. 28, 1963.

Martin Luther King Jr. waves to supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington.

Martin Luther King Jr. waves with his children Yolanda and Martin Luther III from the Magic Skyway ride at the World's Fair, New York, Aug. 12, 1964.

Martin Luther King Jr. (center left), with John Lewis (second from left) of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy (third from left), Ralph Bunche (fifth from left), and Coretta Scott King (center right), arrive in Montgomery, Alabama. They led an estimated 10,000 civil rights demonstrators on the last leg of a Selma-to-Montgomery march, March 25, 1965.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King during the Selma-to-Montgomery march, held in support of voter rights, March 1965. With them are the Rev. Ralph Abernathy (second from left) and Pulitzer Prize–winning scientist Ralph Bunche.

President Lyndon Johnson hands a pen to the Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Voting Rights Act, in Washington, Aug. 6, 1965.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., with Dr. Benjamin Spock (center left), Father Frederick Reed (center right) and union leader Cleveland Robinson (second from right), March 16, 1967, during a demonstration against the Vietnam War, in New York.

Martin Luther King Jr., after being fatally shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, with Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson and others, April 4, 1968.

Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy walks through the streets with civil rights activist Bernard Lee during the funeral procession of Martin Luther King Jr., April 9, 1968, in Atlanta.

From left, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., Alberta King, the mother of Martin Luther King Jr., and Coretta Scott King attend a memorial service at Morehouse College, April 9, 1968, in Atlanta.

Mourners follow the casket of Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Atlanta, April 9, 1968.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are seen before he speaks at the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Oct. 16, 2011, in Washington.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the federal holiday that honors him, in Washington, Jan. 16, 2017.

Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., his daughter, Yolanda Renee King, and wife, Andrea Waters King, hold a banner during a demonstration to press for voting rights in Phoenix, Jan. 15, 2022.