Read a biographical essay on Martin Luther King, Jr., prepared by King Institute director Clayborne Carson and the Institute staff, extensively cross-referenced with links to the King Online Encyclopedia.

In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee on Thursday, this week's featured document is King's statement on the opening day of the youth conference fifty years ago. According to King, "The student sit-in movement represents just such an offensive in the history of the Negro peoples’ struggle for freedom. The students have taken the struggle for justice into their own strong hands." (4/13/10)