Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who was the leader of the African American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and used nonviolent civil disobedience and his influential speeches to fight against racial inequality, poverty, police brutality and unemployment. Some of the leadership challenges he faced included being arrested over 20 times for protesting, having his home bombed, and facing overwhelming criticism, but he remained committed to his vision of equality and social justice through nonviolent resistance.