Question 85 of 100 · 2008 civics test
What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?
From the 100-question list, the version for applications filed before October 20, 2025.
On the 65/20 list: one of the 20 questions for applicants 65 or older with 20 years as permanent residents.
Accepted answers
- fought for civil rights
- worked for equality for all Americans
Any one of these is accepted, unless the question asks for more than one.
Why this is the answer
He fought for civil rights, and working for equality for all Americans is also accepted. King was a Baptist minister and the main leader of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and the laws that came out of that movement protected voting rights and ended racial segregation. His argument was that the country should keep the promise already in the Declaration of Independence, that every citizen deserves equality and justice. He delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, imagining an America where people of all races live together as equals, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at the age of thirty-five. He was killed on April 4, 1968. Memory hook: the minister who led the movement and asked the country to live up to its own words.