#OnThisDay in 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. King became one of the most prolific leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement and one of the most influential historical figures in American history. Born into a ministerial family, King attended segregated public schools in Georgia before attending Morehouse College. He went on to study theology and completed his doctorate at Boston University, where he met his future wife and key partner in activism, Coretta Sco

Martin Luther King Jr.’s final birthday didn’t look like history. It looked like love. On January 15, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. turned 39 in Atlanta. No stage. No crowds. No speeches for the cameras. Instead, staff at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference quietly planned a surprise to lift his spirits. King had just returned from Dallas with Andrew Young, weighed down by the backlash from his anti–Vietnam War stance and the enormous pressure of the Poor People’s Campaign. What he thoug

Watch the moving, final speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave 54 years ago | NowThis Impact