While Martin Luther King Junior’s March on Washington and “I Have a Dream” speech became an iconic part of his fight for racial equality as well as American history, several of his other achievements have fallen out of the spotlight. From organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott to helping fight economic inequality, King’s achievements in peacefully stopping inequality stretch for years before and after his famous march.

Leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery public bus, King became a key player in organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott inspired approximately 40,000 African Americans to reject using Montgomery public transportation.

“One of the finest citizens in Montgomery was taken from a bus and carried to jail and because she refused to get up to give her seat to a white person,” King said referring to Rosa Parks, while addressing a crowd of 5,000 people. “This situation is not at all new. The problem has existed over endless years.”

After 385 days of African Americans boycotting public transportation, a federal court ruled the segregation in Montgomery buses was unconstitutional.

Organizing Marches for Equal Housing in Chicago (1966)

Wanting to spread civil rights movements to the North, King and other activists began to focus their attention on Chicago. The group ran several tests in which couples of different races with the same finances and number of children would apply for the same residences. The tests provided evidence of racial steering: where a landlord unethically determines renters by their race. King planned and carried out several marches hoping to bring social justice to the situation. King decided to turn away from the project, fearing the situation would become violent.

Campaigning for Economic Equality (1969)

King spent the last year of his life campaigning for economic equality and for Congress to give aid to America’s most poverty-stricken communities.

“Our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality,” King said. “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”

The campaign urged Congress to create an “economic bill of rights” and to make poverty in America the center of their attention. Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday in 1983, serving as a day of remembrance for King and his accomplishments in advocating nonviolently for equality in America.