Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia to Baptist minister Michael Luther King and schoolteacher Alberta King. He received a bachelor's degree from Crozer Theological Seminary and a PhD from Boston University. King became a Baptist minister and led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-1956 after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. He advocated for nonviolent protest and gave his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech. King was assassinated in 1968 while standing on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee.