As the country prepares to acknowledge the legacy of civil rights icon the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. this Monday, we look at some of his social contributions throughout his brief time on this physical plane.

Born Michael King Jr. in Atlanta on Jan. 15, 1929, he eventually followed his father’s footsteps and adopted the name of the 16th century religious reformer and succeeded his father as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.

At 15, King entered Morehouse College, graduating in 1948 with a degree in sociology. That same year, he attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa., where he was introduced to Mahatma Gandhi’s passive-resistance approach to combating imperialism. After graduating as valedictorian of his 1951 class and being inspired by Gandhi’s teachings, he embarked on the civil rights struggle.

Following several incidents in 1955, a 26-year-old King applied Gandhi’s non-combative philosophy in leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott later that December, protesting the segregated South’s racist Jim Crow laws. It lasted 381 days and thrust him into national prominence.

“It was a marvelous thing to see the amazing results of a non-violent campaign,” King commented during his 1959 visit to Gandhi’s homeland. “The aftermath of hatred and bitterness that usually follows a violent campaign was found nowhere in India.”

A 42-year-old deranged Black woman stabbed King during a book signing in Harlem, Sept. 20, 1958. Although he needed surgery to remove the metal letter opener protruding from his chest, the compassionate preacher was most forgiving. “I felt no ill will toward Mrs. Izola Currey and know that thoughtful people will do all in their power to see that she gets the help she apparently needs if she is to become a free and constructive member of society,” he said.

During the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Aug. 28, 1963, King delivered his most popular speech, “Normalcy, Never Again,” to an audience of approximately 250,000. A century after physical slavery was allegedly abolished in the land of the free, he called out his country’s commitment to making the reparations it had previously offered its kidnapped cargo from Africa.

“One hundred years later, the [Black race] still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the [Black race] is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, [Blacks] live on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the [Blackman] still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land … and so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition,” said King. “America has given [Black] people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

If you do not recognize the title, it is because it is more popularly, and incorrectly, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech.

His efforts helped desegregate the U.S. somewhat, primarily the South, and assisted in pushing through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1965’s Voting Rights Act. His advocacy for non-violence was rewarded Oct. 14, 1965, with the Noble Peace Prize.

In his Amsterdam News column (1962-66), King commented on his social counterpart’s Feb. 21, 1965, assassination in a piece titled “The Nightmare of Violence.”

“Like the murder of Lumumba, the murder of Malcolm X deprives the world of a potentially great leader. I could not agree with either of these men, but I could see in them a capacity for leadership which I could respect.”

As he matured, King became more politicized. In one of his last dissertations, “The Other America,” delivered at Grosse Pointe High School in suburban Detroit, March 14, 1968, he honestly assessed his country’s stark racial as well as economic contrasts.

Concluding, King determined, “It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law can’t make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important also.”

He was assassinated three weeks later.