7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7South and other parts of the United States. He was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Early Years
King came from a comfortable middle-class family steeped
in the tradition of the Southern black ministry. Both his
father and maternal grandfather were Baptist preachers.
His parents were college-educated, and King’s father had
succeeded his father-in-law as pastor of the prestigious
President Lyndon B. Johnson talking with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the
Oval Offi ce at the White House, Washington, D.C., 1963. Yoichi Okamoto/
Lyndon B. Johnson Library Photo