Born January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was a prominent figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. He was a religious leader and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. He helped establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization dedicated to full equality of African Americans in all aspects of American life. He promoted nonviolent tactics to achieve civil rights and led a number of peaceful protests, such as the famous March on Washington in 1963. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

His early demise was by assassination in 1968.

Martin graduated from one of the Historically Black colleges, Morehouse College. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1948. He then went on to study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1951.  1948 to 1951 .  

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the primary goal of providing higher education to African Americans. They have played a significant role in American culture and society by providing access to education, which was denied to African Americans during slavery and segregation ¹²³. HBCUs have always been the vehicles for liberty and equality in the journey toward black liberation within America. Black Americans have long understood the relationship between education and democracy. Following the Civil War, learning the rules of the American and southern political economy was necessary to take full advantage of one’s citizenship rights. However, at the time, not only did most people believe the formerly enslaved had no desire for education, they also thought black Americans did not possess the mental capacity to pursue it. The fervent efforts of the formerly enslaved to establish colleges in the post-bellum South ran counter to these beliefs, although the founding of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1854, even prior to the Civil War’s conclusion, proved beyond doubt that black Americans were keen to seek education.

Although Martin is most notably known for his "I Have a Dream" speech, his life was filled with many events that pushed civil rights forward for people of color.

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