Martin Luther King, Jr. is best known for his contribution to the African American civil rights movement in the United States. Born Michael King, Jr. on January 15, 1929, King was the son of a reverend and a former teacher. The future activist was skeptical about Christianity from an early age. Despite his doubts about his own faith, King went on to graduate from Crozer Theological Seminary and became a Baptist minister when he was twenty-five, practicing public speaking skills that would eventually make him one of America's greatest orators.
By the same time, King was working as an executive committee member for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Having grown up in a segregated environment, King was already aware of the disparity in civil rights for African Americans. He took a stand against segregation in 1955, by leading the first nonviolent Negro demonstration - a bus boycott that resulted in a law that prevented segregation on public transportation. The next year, King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and began to write and deliver speeches across the United States and the world.
While he took the ideals for his organization and mission from Christianity, King was drawn to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. The Indian leader's philosophy proposed that non-violent resistance was the best way to promote social change. King agreed, leading numerous non-violent protests for civil rights in the United States. Despite being arrested, harassed, and having his home bombed, King continued leading the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1968.
To learn more about the life of the man who would become the world's youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, there is The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., which contains King's own writings and speeches on his life and is available as an audio download or audio CD. If you're interested King's historic speeches, A Call to Conscience is a collection of 12 of the great orator's original recordings of some of the most significant speeches he made, available as an MP3 download. A worthwhile introductory audio book is The Concise King, which includes 2 hours of notable speeches and sermons from this historic civil rights leader.
And for our ultimate resource on Dr. King which contains audio books about him and much more we urge you to check out our article: MLK Out Loud.