Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a well educated, middle-class Negro preacher who had earned his Doctorate Degree in Theology at the age of twenty-four years. His frustration with segregation in the South led his wife, Coretta, and him to accept the invitation to preach at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Shortly after his arrival, Negro people reached their limit for being pushed around on buses, and the Montgomery bus boycott was called. Originally called for only one day, it continued more than twelve months with ninety-nine percent of the Negro population refusing to ride the bus until integration and other demands for justice within the bus company had been resolved.

During this time, Dr. King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and the broader Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He worked with others in directing the necessary operations and...