Why does King believe the Nobel Peace Prize was an award to him

King believed the award was for non-violent efforts to end oppression. But he credited the award to the civil rights movement as a whole, not just something that recognized his role in it.

In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., said: " I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice."