Here’s a list of Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Knoxville [Video]

For nearly 13 years, he led the American Civil Rights Movement and pushed for racial equality through nonviolent demonstrations and activism. The King Center said he led the movement from December 1955 through April 1968, during which time he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech and penned his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

The letter is effectively a document detailing his philosophy and tactics. The March on Washington also helped spur federal lawmakers to pass the Civil Rights Act, which effectively eliminated legalized segregation. 

He was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis. A federal committee later determined that his assassin was motivated by “deepseated hatred” and reflected “a desire to participate in an important crime,” and “his predominant motive lay in an expectation of monetary gain.”

In the years after his death, Martin Luther King Jr. became an icon of …