MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is located in West Potomac Park at 1964 Independence Ave., referencing the year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist who became a notable figure during the U.S. civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until he was assassinated in 1968. He played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African American citizens in the U.S., influencing the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It all started because of a hurtful snub from a fellow child. When Martin Luther King Jr. was 6 years old, a White playmate told him they could not be friends anymore.

The boy's father demanded it. Little Martin went home and asked his parents, “Why?” It just didn't make sense. King never stopped asking that simple question and demanded a nation join him. Why do people hate?

EDUCATION

King was born Jan. 15,

1929, in Atlanta, Ga. Because of his high test scores, King skipped the ninth and 12th grades and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at the age of 15. In addition to a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Morehouse College, a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa., and a doctorate from Boston University, King was awarded 20 honorary degrees from institutions all over the world.

CIVIL RIGHTS

King's activities began in 1955 when he led a boycott of city buses in Montgomery, Ala., after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a White passenger.

King was arrested 30 times for his participation in civil rights activities. His leadership in the civil rights movement earned him hundreds of awards, including Time's Man of the Year in 1963 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

King was the youngest man (at age 35), the third American (after Theodore Roosevelt and Ralph Bunche), and the third Black man to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

ASSASSINATION

In 1968, King went to Memphis, Tenn., to support a strike by garbage workers. On April 4, he was assassinated. The night before his death, King said prophetically in his final speech: “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.”