Whose Civil Rights Leadership Changed America?

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was the most prominent leader of the American civil rights movement. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi philosophy of nonviolent resistance, King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56), organised the March on Washington (1963) where he delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech, and campaigned tirelessly against racial segregation and discrimination. His leadership was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which dismantled legal segregation in the United States. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at age 35, the youngest recipient at that time. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.