The boycott continued for over a year, ending only after the United States Supreme Court declaration on November 13, 1956 that Alabama's state and local laws requiring segregation on buses were illegal. On December 20, federal injunctions were served on the city and bus company officials, forcing them to follow the Supreme Court's ruling. The following morning, December 21, 1956, Dr. King and Rev. Glen Smiley, a white minister, shared the front seat of a public bus. The boycott had lasted 381 days. The boycott was a success, but more importantly, Dr. King had shown that peaceful mass action could bring about change. From then on, Dr. King was embroiled in the civil rights movement. The following May 17, 1957, Dr. King led a mass march of 37,000 people to the front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Partly in response to the march, on September 9, the U.S. Congress created the Civil Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, an official body with the authority to investigate voting irregularities. After a visit to Gandhi's homeland of India in 1959, Dr. King found himself in Atlanta, Georgia, where he shared the ministerial duties of the Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father. The move also brought Dr. King closer to the center of the growing civil rights movement. Much progress was made in 1963 and 1964. In January 1963 Dr. King and the Freedom Fighters went to Birmingham to fight the segregation laws. An injunction was issued forbidding any demonstrations, and Dr. King and the others were arrested. Upon his release, there were more peaceful demonstrations, but the police retaliated with water hoses, tear gas, and dogs. However, television news cameras captured the brutality that the southern African-Americans endured, giving many around the world their first glimpse into the civil unrest that had been going on in the South. The news coverage would help bring about changes, as many Americans were disgusted and ashamed by the cruelty and hatred. 200,000 Americans young and old, African-American and white, gathered in the front to the Lincoln Memorial at the 100th anniversary celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation on August 28, 1963 to hear Dr. King deliver his famous "I have a dream" speech. In 1964 Dr. King was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as someone who "had contributed the most to the furtherance of peace among men." President Lyndon Johnson also signed the Civil Rights Act into law, which guaranteed that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination." It was a victory for Dr. King's vision of a colorblind society. The winter of 1965 marked the most violent confrontation Dr. King had experienced. A march comprised of 600 people from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery to demand voting reforms was met by a wall of state troopers six blocks after it started. When the troopers with clubs, whips, and tear gas advanced on the marchers, it was described "as a battle zone." The marchers were driven back while on the sidewalks whites cheered. Two ministers, one white and one African-American, were killed, and over 70 were injured with 17 hospitalized. A court order overturned the injunction against the march, and the marchers were allowed to proceed to Montgomery, where they were greeted by 25,000 supporters. On August 6, 1965 a voting rights bill was passed, allowing African-Americans to vote. In April 1968 Dr. King went to Memphis, Tennessee, to support a strike of African-American garbage men. On April 3 Dr. King would give his last speech. The following day, April 4, 1968, as he was leaving his motel room, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed by an escaped convict named James Earl Ray, who admitted to the assassination in March of 1969. He was buried in the South View Cemetery in Atlanta. Later, his body was transferred to a location near the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and on his tombstone reads, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last." Sources: Seattletimes.nwsource.com, Holidays.net, members.aol.com/magoo0885/index.html