MLK Milestones

Milestones in the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.

1929
  • Born in Atlanta
1948
  • Graduates from Morehouse College in Atlanta
1951
  • Graduates from Crozer Theological Seminary
1954
  • Supreme Court rules racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional
    (Brown v. Board of Education)
1955
  • Supreme Court orders desegregation of public schools
  • Earns Ph.D. from Boston University
  • Rosa Parks is arrested on Montgomery bus
  • Leads protest involving Rosa Parks, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
1956
  • Supreme Court rules bus segregation unconstitutional
1957
  • Becomes president of new Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
  • Featured on Time Magazine cover
  • Delivers his first national address, “Give Us The Ballot”
  • Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957
1959
  • Visits India to study nonviolent tactics, meets Gandhi’s family
1960
  • President Eisenhower signs Civil Rights Act of 1960 covering voter registration
1961
  • Negotiates for Freedom Riders
  • Segregation in interstate travel formally banned
  • Makes his only visit to Seattle, speaking at Mt. Zion and leading a march  with community on Denny Way, close to Seattle Central campus
1963
  • Writes his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
  • Meets with President John F. Kennedy
  • Delivers “I Have a Dream” speech at Lincoln Memorial to 250,000 people at the
  • March on Washington
1964
  • Named Time Magazine “Man of the Year”
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed into law
  • Receives Nobel Peace Prize, youngest person ever
1965
  • 1965 Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson
  • Marches from Selma to Montgomery and is arrested
1966
  • Leads demonstrations in Chicago
  • Leads “March against Fear” from Memphis to Jackson
1967
  • Thurgood Marshall appointed first black on U.S. Supreme Court
1968
  • Organizes (with the SCLC) the “Poor People’s Campaign” on Washington
  • Leads striking sanitation workers in a march in Memphis
  • Delivers his last speech,“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”
  • Assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis
  • More than 300,000 people march with his coffin through Atlanta
1977
  • Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter
1983
  • Dr. King’s birthday declared a federal holiday by President Ronald Reagan
2004
  • Awarded a Congressional Gold Medal
2011