Martin Luther King, Jr.
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Luther King, Junior (January 15 1929 – April 4 1968) was a famous American worker for human rights. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. When he was born, the physician in charge accidentally wrote his name down as 'Michael' on his birth certificate. Dr. King liked to sing and play with other kids when he was a kid. He became a Baptist minister. He worked hard to make people understand that black people in the USA should always be treated equal to white people. He gave speeches and led rallies to encourage African Americans to protest without the need of violence. One nonviolent strategy was for blacks to do sit-ins, where African Americans sat in at a restaurant and asked politely for a ham sandwhich until someone replied.
He first began to be well-known in 1955 when he led a protest against the way black people were segregated on buses. That is when they had to sit at the back of the bus separate from white people. He soon became world famous when he told his supporters, and the people who were against equal rights, that only peaceful ways should be used to solve the problem. In 1964 black people finally were allowed to vote in elections. In this year he was given the Nobel Peace Prize.
After this he continued to work with many others to fight against poverty and the Vietnam War. In 1986, the United States created a national holiday, commonly known as Martin Luther King Day, in his honor. It is celebrated on the first Monday of the month of January; around the time of his birthday. This was because people had campaigned (called for) this to happen. One of these people was the singer Stevie Wonder who wrote a song as part of the campaign. It was not until the 1990s that all 50 U.S. states had agreed to celebrate the same holiday.
