Martin Luther King was a black minister, who became a great leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Having earned a Ph. D. （Doctor of Philosophy）from Boston University, he became the political and religious leader of the non-violent civil rights movement in 1955. On August 28, 1963, he led over 250,000 Americans on a march in Washington D. C. to fight for the Civil Rights Law to guarantee equality for all people, and delivered his best-known speech " I have a Dream " before the Lincoln Memorial. The " dream " is a dream of love and equality for black and white. Thus he was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1964. But he was tragically murdered four years later. Though he died, he was greatly respected and loved by the Americans, both white and black. By vote of Congress in 1968, Martin Luther King's birthday is now a federal holiday in his honor. He lives in people's hearts forever.