Honoring Dr. King: America Celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

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1||January 17, 2011: Today the nation celebrates the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the most renowned speakers in American history and a leading figure of the Civil Rights movement, from the bus boycotts of the 1950s up until his assassination in 1968. His efforts fighting racial segregation won him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He is the youngest ever to receive the award.||ZUMA Press/Newscom&&
2||On August 28, 1963, King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of of the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall. The next year, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing many forms of civil inequality.||Handout/MCT/Newscom&&
3||August 28, 1963||akg-images/Newscom&&
4||August 28, 1963||akg-images/Newscom&&
5||August 28, 1963: More than 200,000 people came to the mall to march and hear King’s speech.||Fred Ward/Newscom&&
6||||akg-images/Newscom&&
7||King (front row, second from right) with the other organizers of the march.||akg-images/Newscom&&
8||King and other Civil Rights leaders meet with President John Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson in the Oval Office.||CECIL STOUGHTON/UPI/Newscom&&
9||||ZUMA Press/Newscom&&
10||||akg-images/Newscom&&
11||||Paul Schutzer/Courtesy of LIFE.com&&
12||||akg-images/Newscom&&
13||||akg-images/Newscom&&
14||||akg-images/Newscom&&
15||||Library of Congress&&

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