Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life in photos

MLK50 Life of King Photo Gallery

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. embraces his wife, Coretta Scott King, in March 1956 after leaving court. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign to desegregate the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, but a judge suspended his $500 fine pending appeal.

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Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Atlanta in 1960.

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AP Was There-King Sentenced

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leaves court in October, 1960 after being given a four-month sentence in Decatur, Ga., for taking part in a lunch counter sit-in at Rich’s department store.

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Books-MLK Estate

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., appears at an integration rally in Montgomery, Ala., May 21, 1961.

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MLK50 King Family

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King pose with their children in their Atlanta home in March 1963. From left are: Martin Luther King III, 5, Dexter Scott, 2, and Yolanda Denise, 7.

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Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, Birmingham march

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy lead columns of protestors on a march against racial segregation to Birmingham City Hall on April 12, 1963.

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Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy are arrested by a policeman in Birmingham. King spent days in solitary confinement after being arrested, where he wrote his “Letter From Birmingham Jail” where he famously declared “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in front of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. King’s speech would later become known as his “I Have a Dream” speech.

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Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at the March on Washington.

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NBA At 75 1960s Timeline

Thousands gather on the National Mall for the March on Washington. Dr. King delivered his remarks in front of the Lincoln Memorial, while the Washington Monument was visible in the distance.

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Kennedy Civil Rights

Dr. Martin Luther King meets President John F. Kennedy alongside other leaders and organizers of the March on Washington. From left are Whitney Young, National Urban League; Martin Luther King Jr., Southern Christian Leadership Conference; John Lewis, Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee; Rabbi Joachim Prinz, American Jewish Congress; Dr. Eugene P. Donnaly, National Council of Churches; A. Philip Randolph, AFL-CIO vice president; Kennedy; Walter Reuther, United Auto Workers; Vice-President Johnson, rear, and Roy Wilkins, NAACP.

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Johnson King Wilkins Young

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alongside other civil rights leaders meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House on January 18, 1964.

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MLK50 Life of King Photo Gallery

Dr. Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize from Gunnar Jahn, chairman of the Nobel Committee, in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 1964.

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Racial Justice-NAACP Lawyers

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks with his wife, Coretta Scott King, and civil rights leader Constance Baker Motley before a banquet for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. King was the president of the S.C.LC., which played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement.

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King Day-Service

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads a five day, 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to protest voting rights in the southern state.

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King Day-Service

Dr. Martin Luther King crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on the Selma to Montgomery march. In the days prior, protestors attempting to cross the bridge faced intense violence from Alabama state police and vigilantes.

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Martin Luther King

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. displays a poster for his Poor People’s Campaign for economic justice in 1968.

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MLK50 Life of King Photo Gallery

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preaches at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on March 31, 1968. Speaking to a full capacity crowd, this event would be King’s last Sunday sermon before his death.

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NBA At 75 1960s Timeline

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. From left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King and Ralph Abernathy.

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Georgia Runoff Church

Mourners gather around the casket of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 8, 1968, as it arrives at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where he will lie in state until his funeral.

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