there are many things to focus on in this picture of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s joyous homecoming, having received the Nobel peace prize, but your eye can’t help but be drawn to the hands that grasp his. King’s was the voice of the US civil rights movement but human touch was seminal to his message; solidarity was about linked arms, shoulder-to-shoulder physicality. The determination of the women who crowd the car to clutch at his outstretched fingers speaks not of star-struck celebrity but of a desire to share strength and to receive it.
1. Martin Luther King jr fits into the big picture because of his contributions to the American civil rights movement in the 1960s. His most famous work being his “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in 1963, in which he spoke of his dream of a United States that is void of segregation and racism.
2. He was a leader of the American civil rights movement. He organized a number of peaceful protests as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including the March on Washington in 1963. He was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at the time.
