#Repost @nmaahc ・・・ #OnThisDay in 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. By 1963, King had become the most nationally recognized civil rights leader in the country. Schoolchildren across America heard of King’s work with the Montgomery bus boycott and witnessed the shocking images of dogs and fire hoses turned on children in Birmingham, Alabama. As president of the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition (SCLC), King moved quickly to sites of civil rights struggle and brought leadership experience and media attention to local campaigns. King and other religious leaders founded SCLC in 1957 as a leadership council. SCLC helped coordinate the nonviolent protests occurring across the nation by working with existing civil rights groups.⠀ ⠀ ⠀ At the age of 15, King was accepted into Morehouse College, where he studied medicine and law, and graduated in 1948. While continuing his education in theology at Boston University, he met Coretta Scott. After marrying in 1953, they moved to Montgomery, AL and King became pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. In less than a year, Montgomery, Alabama became the seedbed for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as one of its most prominent leaders. His efforts helped to elevate the inequality faced by African Americans and led to laws enforced by Congress to advance African American civil rights, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. #APeoplesJourney #ANationsStory ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ πΈ Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Bernard J. Kleina
