“I accept the Noble Prize for peace at a moment when 22 million negroes of the United States are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of the civil rights movement, which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger, to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice.”
—The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), in accepting the 1964 Noble Peace Prize in a speech Dec. 10, 1964. Dr. King was named that year’s winner on Oct. 14, becoming the youngest person to ever receive the award.
