Martin Luther King, Jr., (1929-1968) accepted his first position as pastor of a Baptist congregation in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954, after receiving his doctorate in philosophy from Boston University. A year later he rose to national fame by advocating nonviolent civil disobedience in his organization of a successful boycott of Montgomery's segregated buses. King, determined to advance black equality in the United States, soon became the de facto leader of the new civil rights era, and proceeded to travel, write books, and deliver speeches for this cause. He delivered his climactic "I Have a Dream" speech before a crowd of more than 200,000 onlookers, 60,000 of whom were white. King's speech inspired a wide audience, galvanizing many to believe in the dream of racial equality. On this historic occasion, the civil rights movement was transformed from a Southern regional struggle into a national one. Before a live audience and all the major news networks, King declared 1963 the year to open the doors of social and economic opportunity. In retrospect, his speech and the March on Washington during which it was delivered formed a pinnacle in the 1960s quest for civil rights.
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