Martin Luther King, Jr. Is Famous for Many Things. Name One: Civics Question 113

Name one: King fought for civil rights and worked for equality for all Americans.

Question 113 asks you to name one thing Martin Luther King, Jr. is famous for. Accepted answers are that he fought for civil rights, that he worked for equality for all Americans, and his words that people should “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” This is a starred question.

Who He Was

King was a Baptist minister who became the best known leader of the civil rights movement. He argued for nonviolent protest against segregation and led marches, boycotts, and campaigns across the South.

At the March on Washington in 1963 he spoke to a crowd of hundreds of thousands and said he dreamed his children would one day live in a nation where they would “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” He was killed in 1968.

A federal holiday in January honors him each year.

Why the Officer Asks This

This is a starred question, so it also appears on the shorter list of twenty questions used for applicants who are 65 or older and have been permanent residents for twenty years.

It pairs with question 112, which asks what the civil rights movement did. King is the person, and the movement is the work.

How to Remember It

Both questions run on the same two words: civil rights. Question 112 asks what the movement did, and question 113 asks what he did. Answer both with civil rights and you are covered.

The quotation is accepted, and it is also the longest answer on the list for this question. The short answer runs four words: he fought for civil rights.

Common Ways People Get This Wrong

Some applicants try to recite the quotation from memory and stall in the middle of it. Nothing in the question requires the words, and a stalled sentence is harder to score than a short one.

Others answer that he was president. He never held office. He was a minister and a leader of the movement.

What to Say on Test Day

Say “he fought for civil rights.” Then stop.

You do not need the march, the holiday, or the quotation. One thing he is famous for is the whole answer.