Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in Photos

Today, in the United States, we observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday established in 1986 to honor the slain civil rights leader and his accomplishments. In the 1950s and 60s, King grew into a powerful speaker and promoter of nonviolent resistance to unjust laws, inspiring thousands to protest the injustices of segregation and fight these laws in the courts. Arrested many times, his life under constant threat, King and his supporters started to see some progress with the passing of the civil rights bill in 1964, and global recognition for his efforts when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that same year. In April of 1968, Dr. King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, setting off riots across the nation. Nearly 47 years later, a nation looks back at the Reverend Martin Luther King's public life in photos.

 
1. Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. waves to supporters on August 28, 1963 on the Mall in Washington DC during the "March on Washington". King said the march was "the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of the United States." Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. King's killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark event in recent US history

 

2. Two black ministers who were active in the long boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama were among the first to ride after a Supreme Court integration order went into effect on December 21, 1956. At left, front seat, is the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, while at left in the second seat is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beside King is white minister, Rev. Glenn Smiley of New York, who said he was in Montgomery as an observer. 

 

3. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., right, accompanied by Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, center, is booked by city police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 23, 1956. The civil rights leaders were arrested on indictments turned by the Grand Jury in a bus boycott.

 

4. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss by his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgomery, Alabama on March 22, 1956. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign to desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspended his $500 fine pending appeal.

 

5. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shakes hands with Vice President Richard Nixon as they meet to discuss race issues in the South, on June 13, 1957. Senator Irving M. Ives (R-NY) and Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, far left and far right, look on.

 

6. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pulls up a cross that was burned on lawn of his home, as his son stands next to him, in Atlanta in 1960

 

7. The home of the Rev. A.D. King, brother of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is a shambles after it was dynamited in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 12, 1963.  No one was injured in the blast.

 

8. Revs. Ralph Abernathy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., right are taken by a policeman as they led a line of demonstrators into the business section of Birmingham, Alabama, on April 12, 1963.

 

9. A police officer holds the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by his belt as he leads him to the paddy wagon, following arrest at an anti-segregation protest in downtown Birmingham, Alabama on April 13, 1963.

 

10. At the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., people march along the mall next to the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument on August 28, 1963. 

 

 11. On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., addresses marchers during his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.



12. From left: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Lyndon B. Johnson, Whitney Young, and James Farmer attend a meeting on Civil Rights in the Oval Office of the White House on January 18, 1964, in Washington, D.C.



13. Dr. Martin Luther King looks at a glass door of his rented beach cottage in St. Augustine, Florida, that was shot into by someone unknown on June 5, 1964. King took time out from conferring with St. Augustine integration leaders to inspect the house, which no one was in at the time of the shooting.



14. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gives a young protester a pat on the back as a group of youngsters started to picket in St. Augustine, Florida, on June 10, 1964.



15. On June 12, 1964, Andrew Young leans into a police car to talk to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the back seat with a police dog as he is returned to jail in St. Augustine, Florida, after testifying before a grand jury investigating racial unrest in the city.



16. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reacts in St. Augustine, Florida, after learning that the senate passed the civil rights bill on June 19, 1964.



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



18. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is interviewed by a reporter as he tries to check into the Hotel Albert in Selma, Alabama, on January 18, 1965.

19.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is attacked by States Rights Party member Jimmy Robinson as King tries to register at the Hotel Albert in Selma, Alabama, on January 18, 1965. The woman at left is trying to avoid the altercation. King was not injured.

20. Wilson Baker, left, Selma, Alabama's director of public safety, holds up his hand in front of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on February 1, 1965 to tell him that he and his followers, about 250 of them, were under arrest for parading without a permit.

	21. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gets a big welcome from several youngsters at Marion, Alabama on February 5, 1965 during a visit after his release from jail at nearby Selma. The integration leader had sparked voter registration drives in both Perry and Dallas counties.

22. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads a parade of several thousand civil rights supporters to the courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1965. King said the march is to protest rough police treatment of voter rights demonstrators the previous day. Dr. King can be seen in first row of people linking arms together, seventh person from left.

	23. Six-year-old Robin Arrington, daughter of a Miami Southern Christian Leadership Conference attorney, leans on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s shoulder as King holds a press conference in Miami, Florida, on April 11, 1966.

	24. Members of the American Nazi Party march with signs across the street from the Greater Mount Hope Baptist Church on Chicago's south side, on August 19, 1966. The church was the scene of a meeting between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights workers at which plans were announced for further marches into white neighborhoods.

	25. A little boy plays “Dixie” on a clarinet and a girl beside him waves a Confederate flag as marchers led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. approach along the shoulder of U.S. 51 near Como, Mississippi, on June 9, 1966

	26. Mississippi Highway Patrolmen shove the Rev. Martin Luther King and members of his marching group off the traffic lane of Highway 51 south of Hernando, Mississippi, on June 7, 1966. The Rev. King, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael (head visible at upper right) and other civil rights leaders had taken up the march begun by James Meredith.

	27. Armed Mississippi highway patrolmen and Philadelphia policemen confine a group of white spectators to the sidewalk as a civil rights march led by Dr. Martin Luther King passes in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 25, 1966.

	28. A large portion of the estimated 5,000 who attended Dr. Martin Luther King's speech from Sproul Hall, University of California administration building in Berkeley, California, listening intently on May 17, 1967. In the speech, King reiterated his stand for non-violence and urged that young people support a peace bloc that would influence the 1968 elections.

	29. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives a press conference in Chicago on March 24, 1967, in which he says that civil rights demonstrations in Chicago "will be on a much more massive scale than last summer.” King said marches will include some by black pupils to all-white schools.

	30. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recruiting for a march on Washington, D.C. in Batesville, Mississippi, on March, 19, 1968.

	31. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on 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.

	32. The day after the shooting, aerial view shows clouds of smoke rising from burning buildings in northeast Washington, D.C. on April 5, 1968. The fires resulted from rioting and demonstrations after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

	33. Firemen battle a blaze on 125th Street in Harlem on April 4, 1968, after a furniture store and other buildings were set on fire after it was learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis.

	34. An unidentified woman weeps uncontrollably at a Memphis funeral home early Friday morning, April 5, 1968, as hundreds of mourners filed past the body of Dr. Martin Luther King before it was to be sent to Atlanta.

	35. Soldiers attend a memorial service for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Da Nang, Vietnam, on April 8, 1968. The chaplain eulogized King as “America’s voice for the wisdom of non-violence” and deplored the violence following his death.

	36. Two men, one black and one white, join hands as they sing during a solemn tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 9, 1968. Between 3,500 and 4,000 people, black and white, gathered in a downtown Minneapolis park for the service which coincided with the funeral in Atlanta.

 

 

37.  Ebenezer Baptist Church where people came in great numbers to pay respects to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta on April 8, 1968.