A Baptist minister with a doctorate in theology from Boston University, King became the leader of the American civil rights movement after the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955. Drawing on Jesus, Gandhi and Thoreau, he led marches, wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail and gave the I Have a Dream speech. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and was assassinated in Memphis four years later.
Core ideas
An unjust law is no law at all, and we have a duty to disobey it openly
Nonviolent resistance can defeat injustice without destroying the opponent
Love, not hatred, is the force that builds the beloved community
The tradition: Christian nonviolence
Christian nonviolence fights injustice through love, civil disobedience and the willingness to suffer rather than strike back. King made it the method of a mass movement that changed American law.
