By the time martin luther king jr. was assassinated, he had been a civil rights leader for more than ten years.
Martin Luther King Jr. served as an American Baptist minister and was activist who acted as the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 until his assassination in 1968.
He is noted for advancing civil rights by implementing nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire.