Introduction

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 ~ 1968)

He was a leader of the civil rights’ movement in the United States. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he received his PhD from Boston University. In 1954, he became a pastor at a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. He adhered to the philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience that had been popularized by Mahatma Gandhi in India. King applied this philosophy to fighting racism in America. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, but was assassinated while supported a boycott of black cleaners in April 1968.

Abraham Lincoln(1809 ~ 1865)

He was the 16th president of the United States. He was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Though his family was poor, he taught himself and opened his own law office after passing the bar examination in 1837. He served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1834 to 1841. He joined the Republican Party in 1856 and was elected president of the United States in 1860. After leading the Union to victory in the four-year-long Civil War, he was assassinated while watching a play in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. in April 1865, right after the Civil War had ended.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

He was a political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement. He is considered the father of the nation of India and is often affectionately referred to as ‘Mahatma’, meaning ‘Great Soul.’ He was born in Porbandar, India, and he became a lawyer after graduating from Innertemple Law School in England. He tried to achieve the unification of India by leading an independence movement in India through nonviolence and disobedience against the British government. He was assassinated by an anti-Islamic fanatic Hindu in January 1948.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882~1945)

He was the 32nd president of the United States. He was born in Hyde Park, New York. He opened a law office in 1907 after he graduated from Columbia Law School. Since he was elected to the Senate as a Democrat from New York, he remained engaged in politics. He became president in 1932. After his inauguration, he implemented the New Deal to help the United States recover from the Great Depression.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917~1963)

He was the 35th president of the United States. He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard College. He was elected to the Senate to represent Massachusetts in 1952, and he became the youngest elected president in American history in 1961. Kennedy was a good speaker with many talents. During his presidency, there was the Cuban Missile Crisis and the agreement on the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited aboveground nuclear tests. Kennedy, however, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas in November 1963 while he was in a parade.