Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement in the United States of America. His activism and oratory (notably the famous "I have a dream" speech) were nationally influential.

King was assassinated in April of 1968, during the development period of Sesame Street. As Joan Ganz Cooney recalled, "Dr. King was the American hero of my lifetime." Samuel Y. Gibbon, Jr., who had previously turned Cooney's offer of a CTW position down, attended King's memorial service. He recalled that afterwards, "The notion that maybe it was time to do something useful was pretty overpowering" and called Cooney to accept soon afterwards.