Milestones

1955
Organizes the Montgomery Bus
Boycott, which led to a Supreme
Court decision outlawing racial segregation on all public transport.

1957
Founds the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to organize
black churches in conducting
nonviolent protests in the service
of civil rights reform.

1963
Writes Letter from Birmingham
Jail arguing that individuals have the moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

1963
Delivers "I Have a Dream"
speech during the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom
to over 200,000 civil rights supporters.

1964
Becomes the youngest man to
be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1964
Organizes marches that led to
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in education and employment.

1965
Rallies outrage following Bloody
Sunday, a march from Selma to Montgomery that turned violent
after police used force against
demonstrators. Congress passes
the Voting Rights Act
of 1965.

1966
Takes the movement North and moves his family into the Chicago slums to demonstrate support and empathy
for the poor.

1968
Speaks out against the Vietnam War calling the US government "the
greatest purveyor of violence in
the world today."

1968
Mr. King is assassinated in
Memphis during a visit to support
striking black garbage collectors.

1986
Martin Luther King Day established
as a United States holiday.