How did martin luther king changed the world

00:00It was

00:29a powerful orator, a charismatic leader, and one of the greatest Americans of all time.

00:35Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a revolution in the 1950s and 60s that ended racial segregation

00:43and pushed civil rights to the forefront of the political agenda.

00:48King excelled academically and graduated with a Ph.D. in theology.

00:52He was only 24 when he became pastor at a Baptist church in Alabama and quickly gained

00:58a reputation with authorities for being an agitator.

01:09King rocketed to prominence as the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, a response

01:14to Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white man, as required under

01:19the Jim Crow law.

01:24King was arrested and his house firebombed during the campaign, but it led to a United

01:29States Supreme Court decision that the segregation laws were unconstitutional.

01:36King found himself tapping into a powerful mood for protest and change.

01:41Feelings ran strongly within the African-American community, and he opposed violence and, through

01:46the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, made churches the forefront of the struggle

01:51for racial equality.

01:55King's success as an agent for social change was viewed with suspicion by the FBI, and

02:00they put him under surveillance in an attempt to gather evidence that communists were infiltrating

02:04the civil rights movement.

02:08No such evidence was forthcoming, so the agency attempted to blackmail King into abandoning

02:12his public role.

02:19A quarter of a million Americans from many different racial backgrounds marched on the

02:23nation's capital to demand an end to racial segregation, legislation to ensure racial

02:28equality, and protection for civil rights workers from police brutality.

02:36It was at this demonstration that King gave his historic speech, I Have a Dream.

02:42One day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join

02:47hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

02:51I have a dream today.

02:55The following year, King became the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and

03:00had the ears of the world when he delivered his acceptance speech.

03:04Let us ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed

03:11to unrelenting struggle.

03:14Throughout the 1960s, King worked to build bridges between civil rights groups and mobilize

03:18social protesters.

03:20He took his family to live in Chicago's slums to highlight the injustices faced by northern

03:25African Americans.

03:28King also spoke out against the Vietnam War, questioning why the United States government

03:33was propping up the dictators of Southeast Asia.

03:35He met Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X many times, but refused to renounce his policy

03:40of anti-violence.

03:42King's politics made him the target of hate from a range of people, and he constantly

03:46faced threats of violence.

03:48But the civil rights leader refused to be cowed.

03:50On the evening of April 4, 1968, he was standing on the balcony of his motel in Memphis, Tennessee,

03:56when an assassin fired several shots at him.

03:59An hour later, King was pronounced dead at the hospital.

04:02An entire nation was plunged into mourning.

04:07300,000 people attended his funeral, and many millions more mourned the man who, more than

04:12any other, had brought lasting changes to the conditions and attitudes endured by black

04:17Americans.

04:18And we know that as long as a Negro in this county, as well as over other sections of

04:31the state, can't vote, then many of the other conditions that exist will continue to exist.

04:483, 2, 1.