Martin Luther King Jr. spent his life fighting injustice. But he didn’t fight with guns, tanks, or fists. He used peaceful means.
He thought that positive ideas and nonviolent action could change the world. In 1955, he was 26 years old. He was a pastor at a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. He soon became the main leader in America’s civil rights movement. This was an effort to end unequal treatment in all forms against all groups. For the rest of his short life, he moved people to fight for their rights using nonviolent means.
King paid a big price for his vision. From 1956 until the end of his life, he was arrested, stabbed, and stoned. Finally, in 1968, he was assassinated (murdered). He loved his family, but he was often away from home. He traveled from town to town and state to state. He even went to Europe, Africa, and Asia to share his dream of peace and love.
