Facts About Martin Luther King Jr.

January 15, 2024, marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The civil rights leader's assassination in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, caused an international outcry at the time. His campaign of non-violent resistance to further equal rights for all citizens in the United States, no matter the color of their skin, had made him one of the most iconic and popular leaders in American history.

King was a Baptist minister and drew on his faith for his campaigns. He held his best known and often quoted speech "I Have A Dream" at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 as part of the March on Washington, with a quarter of a million people attending. The father of four children he had with his wife Coretta Scott King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later, in 1964.

He was gunned down by convicted criminal James Earl Ray who was apprehended two months after King's murder and served 29 years in prison until his death. The FBI under its notorious director J. Edgar Hoover tried to brand King a communist and had him observed. King forcefully denied having anything to do with the communist movement, which by default is staunchly atheist.