Martin Luther King Jr was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the AfricanAmerican Civil Rights Movement He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs King became a civil rights activist early in his career He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference SCLC in 1957 serving as its first president With the SCLC King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany Georgia the Albany Movement and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham Alabama King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech There he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history Wikipedia