The film covers the public life and contribution to the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King, Jr., beginning with King's successful bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955-56. He is shown with the freedom riders in the early 1960's; delivering the famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., in 1963; and as a protagonist during the brutal confrontations in Birmingham, Alabama, and in St. Augustine, Florida. Other aspects of King's involvement included organizing the housing protests in Chicago and bringing national attention to the racial injustice in Selma, Alabama, during the voter registration marches. The highest point of acclaim for his work was in 1964 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his courage and nonviolent principles in the fight for racial equality. In April of 1968, King's career was ended in Memphis, Tennessee, by an assassin's bullet.