Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. King was an eloquent Baptist minister, and leader of the civil-rights movement in America from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. King promoted non-violent means to achieve civil-rights reform, and was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Here are his most remembered words, delivered during the march on Washington in front of the Lincoln Memorial, August 23, 1963: " I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. . . .I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. . . . 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 the content of their character. . . .This is our hope.. . .And if American is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! . . .From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak: download an mp3 (101k, zipped) here. Powerful Words