New Delhi, Dec. 14 -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister, civil rights leader, and one of the most influential voices in modern American history. Rising to national attention in the 1950s during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, he became the face of a movement that challenged racial segregation through nonviolent protest. King's speeches and writings, shaped by Christian theology and the philosophy of nonviolence, pushed the United States to confront its own contradictions on race, equality, and justice.

He led marches, endured arrests and threats, and spoke just as forcefully about poverty and war as he did about civil rights. Assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39, King left behind words that still carry weight, not as slogans...