- What would you do if the law treated you unfairly?

If you couldn't sit where you wanted, go to your neighborhood school, or even vote?

For millions of Black Americans, that wasn't a question.

It was reality.

In the fight for racial equality, many people in Georgia stepped forward.

Leaders like John Lewis, Hosea Williams, Ralph Abernathy, and Andrew Young risked everything to demand justice.

But one leader in particular would help transform this movement into a message heard around the world.

Not through violence or hate, but through the power of words, faith, and peaceful resistance.

His name was Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

He was a pastor from Atlanta who believed that ordinary people standing together could change history.

(gentle bright music) Martin Luther King Jr.

was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929, but his name wasn't always Martin Luther.

At birth, he was named Michael.

His father, a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, changed both of their names after a Protestant leader named Martin Luther.

The church and its teachings would shape more than Martin Luther King Jr.

's name.

It would influence nearly every aspect of his life.

Growing up, King lived on Auburn Avenue just steps away from his father's church.

He, along with other Black students in Atlanta, attended segregated schools.

Martin Luther King Jr.

loved learning.

By age 15, he had graduated high school and enrolled at Morehouse College where he started thinking deeply about justice and how to fight unfair laws.

One idea stood out, civil disobedience.

That means peacefully refusing to follow laws that are unjust.

After graduating from Morehouse College in 1948, King continued his studies at Crozer Theological Seminary.

There, he learned about nonviolent resistance from the example of Mahatma Gandhi.

He led peaceful protests to challenge unfair laws in India.

Gandhi showed that injustice could be confronted without violence and instead calm, deliberate and purposeful action could bring about change.

King recognized this as a powerful way to challenge inequalities and made it the foundation of his own approach.

He later earned a doctorate in systematic theology at Boston University, the study of religious systems, including those in the Bible.

This degree is why we call him Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

today.

While in Boston, he met Coretta Scott, who would become his wife and partner in the fight for civil rights.

In 1954, at just 25 years old, King moved to Montgomery, Alabama to serve as a pastor.

There, he quickly gained a reputation as a powerful and charismatic speaker.

And just one year later, he would be asked to lead a protest that would ignite the modern civil rights movement.

This would change his life and the nation.

It was called the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

A boycott is a form of nonviolent protests where people stop using or paying for a service.

In this case, Black citizens refused to ride the segregated city buses in Montgomery.

The boycott began in December 1955 when Rosa Parks, a Black woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus.

In response, Black citizens in Montgomery came together to take action.

They protested the city's unfair segregation laws by refusing to ride city buses.

Led in part by Martin Luther King Jr., the protest was only meant to last one day.

Instead, it lasted over a year.

People walked, carpooled and supported each other to keep the boycott going.

But leading the protest put Dr.

King in great danger.

He was arrested multiple times.

His home was bombed and he received constant threats.

Still, Dr.

King pushed the movement forward.

Then in 1956, the US Supreme Court ruled that laws allowing segregated public buses were unconstitutional.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott ended in victory and Martin Luther King Jr.

emerged as a national figure.

Following this success, Dr.

King helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC in 1957.

The SCLC was a group that brought together churches and community organizations to coordinate peaceful civil rights protests across the south.

It promoted nonviolent resistance and used prayer, hymns, marches and voter drives to challenge segregation and racial discrimination.

The SCLC also supported sit-ins, which is a peaceful protest where people remain in a place they are told to leave.

Sit-ins often happened at segregated lunch counters forcing businesses to confront discrimination directly.

These protests quickly spread among college activists and gained widespread attention.

Many of these students belonged to another civil rights organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC.

By 1960, the momentum of these student-led sit-ins was growing.

That year, Dr.

King returned to Atlanta from Alabama to become an assistant pastor to his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Soon after, he joined a local sit-in, an action that brought national attention to Atlanta's civil rights struggle.

Together, the SCLC and SNCC coordinated demonstrations that spread throughout the south to advance the civil rights movement, but not every effort was met with immediate success.

In Albany, Georgia, activists launched a campaign called the Albany Movement in 1961.

The significance of the Albany Movement was that rather than tackle one thing like segregated lunch counters or public transportation, it aimed to desegregate an entire community at once.

But even with the support of Martin Luther King Jr., the SCLC and SNCC, the movement faced major challenges.

Over a thousand protestors were jailed, including King himself and local leaders resisted integration.

The Albany Movement became one of King's most well-known setbacks.

Still, he pushed the civil rights movement forward.

In response to his efforts, Martin Luther King Jr.

was jailed nearly 30 times and it was in jail where he wrote his powerful 1963 letter from Birmingham jail.

The letter challenged Americans to confront injustice, explain why direct action was necessary and became one of the most influential writings of the civil rights movement, inspiring activists nationwide.

These words didn't just stay on the page.

Later that year, he helped lead the march on Washington where hundreds of thousands gathered in Washington, DC.

Civil rights groups rallied together, activists chanted and sang, and Dr.

King delivered his most famous speech.

- I have a dream that one day- - Yeah.

- This nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed.

We hold these tools to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream (activists cheering) 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 the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

(activists cheering) - As his I have a dream speech reached people nationwide, it helped turn the march into a moment that made history.

- I would simply like to say that I think this has been one of the great days of America and I think this march will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest demonstrations for freedom and human dignity ever held in the United States.

- The growing movement helped build public support and pressured lawmakers leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This federal law made segregation in public places illegal and banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

- [Reporter] Now in this summer of 1964, the Civil Rights Bill is the law of the land.

In the words of the president, it restricts no one's freedom so long as he respects the rights of others.

- A few months later, King became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to nonviolence.

With these successes, Dr.

King and other activists turned their focus to voting rights.

Many Black citizens across the south still faced barriers such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation that prevented them from voting.

In 1965, civil rights activist John Lewis organized a march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery to protest these voting restrictions.

But the marchers didn't make it far.

They were violently attacked by white police officers in Selma, a scene that was broadcast live on TVs across the nation.

It became known as Bloody Sunday.

While King was not present that day, he later led a large group of marchers to complete the journey from Selma to Montgomery.

The courage of these protestors combined with the shocking images of the violence helped push the federal government to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Finally, federal law protected the civil and voting rights of Black Americans, rights that had long been denied.

But Martin Luther King Jr.

's work wasn't over.

He continued to speak out against other injustices like poverty and America's involvement in the Vietnam War.

His views were not always popular, but he continued to stand for what he believed was right.

Then in 1968, while he was in Memphis, Tennessee to support striking workers, Dr.

King was assassinated.

His death stunned the nation.

Riots broke out in cities around the country in response.

In Atlanta, however, the focus remained largely on mourning as the city prepared for Dr.

King's funeral.

Thousands of mourners flooded the streets of Georgia's capital to honor the man who shaped the civil rights movement.

Inside Ebenezer Baptist Church, a memorial service was held as a nation mourned his loss.

And yet, even in death, Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

's legacy continues to shape the world.

In 1986, a national holiday was established in his honor.

And today, his name appears on streets, schools, and landmarks across the country, reminding us of the progress he helped create.

But his impact goes far beyond these tributes.

His message of courage, equality and nonviolent protests help redefine freedom, not just in the United States, but around the world.

It reminds us that standing together against injustice, no matter how difficult, can create lasting change.

(gentle light music) (light ethereal music)