You have probably heard the phrase “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” It was born in the heart of a Baptist pastor who chose to carry his faith into the streets, the courts, and the prisons of the United States.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929, he was given the name Michael King Jr. at birth. Five years later, his father, also a pastor, changed his own name and his son’s to Martin Luther, in honor of the German reformer he had learned about on a trip to Europe.
He earned a degree in sociology from Morehouse College, studied theology at Crozer Theological Seminary, and completed his doctorate at Boston University in 1955. Still a student, he married Coretta Scott, his life partner and companion in the struggle until the end of his days.
In December 1955, at just 26 years old, he took the lead of the Montgomery bus boycott, sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks. The boycott lasted more than a year and launched King as a national voice of nonviolent resistance.
In 1957 he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a network of pastors that coordinated campaigns against segregation. Jailed in Birmingham in 1963, he wrote a letter that became a classic of Christian civil disobedience.
That same year, he spoke to 250,000 people in Washington, repeating the refrain “I have a dream” and quoting the prophets Amos and Isaiah. In 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming, at age 35, the youngest laureate up to that time.
His journey was not free of failings. In 1991, a panel at Boston University confirmed that about a third of his doctoral dissertation contained passages copied without proper citation of another author, a failing acknowledged by serious historians, though the degree was not revoked.
He was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, a day after speaking in support of striking sanitation workers. His life showed that Christian faith can confront injustice without abandoning love, even toward one’s adversary.
