As a black Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.To promote his philosophy of nonviolent protest against segregation and other kinds of social injustice, King organized a series of “marches”, including the march on Washington of August, 1963, when he delivered his famous speech, I have a Dream. As a civil rights leader, King worked not only to end racial discrimination and poverty, but also to raise the self-image of the Blacks. Because of his strong belief in non-violent peaceful protest, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated in 1968. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities.