Martin Luther King, Freedom Award

Freedom Award for the affirmation of equality between men

Martin Luter King, American activist, politician and Protestant pastor, leader of the African-American civil rights movement, represents a point of reference for the builders of a world of peace. He was an undisputed promoter of the struggle for the emancipation of blacks and for the conquest of human rights, embracing the fundamental dictates of Gandhi's non-violence.

The King Prize is awarded to individuals or organizations who, with their actions and work, spread the ideas, principles and philosophical thought of Martin Luther King through initiatives aimed at seeking equality and non-discrimination which are the basis of his American dream and the human dream.

I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by what is in their person. I have a dream today!

• Born and dead

  Atlanta, January 15, 19298
  Memphis, April 4, 1968

• Nobel Prize nominations

  Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

• Short biography

  Martin Luther King Jr., was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, into a deeply religious family. His father, Martin Luther King Sr., is a Baptist minister, and his mother, Alberta Williams King, an organist and singer in the church choir.
  
  He attended Booker T. Washington High School and, thanks to his excellent academic performance, managed to enter Morehouse College at just 15 years old. Here he meets the college president, Benjamin Mays, an influential theologian and civil rights advocate, who has a great impact on his worldview. After graduating with a degree in sociology in 1948, King enrolled at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he majored in theology. Subsequently, he completed his doctorate in systematic theology at Boston University.
  
  His career as a civil rights leader began in 1955, when he became the spokesperson for the Montgomery bus boycott, sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks. This event marks the beginning of a broader movement against racial segregation in the American South.
  
  In 1957, he was among the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization created to coordinate and support the activities of the civil rights movement. The campaigns and marches led by King were instrumental in leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  
  One of the most iconic moments of King's career is the “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. This speech became a symbol of hope and the fight for equality in the United States. In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, at just 35 years old.
  
  On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.