Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was one of the most important Americans of the twentieth century. He was a clergyman, a writer, an activist, and a leader in the American civil rights movement. His speech "I Have a Dream" became the defining moment in the struggle for civil rights. In 1964, Dr. King became the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for his work to end racism, segregation, and discrimination through nonviolent means. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

In 2011, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. In 2012, the recording of the "I Have a Dream" speech was a Grammy Hall of Fame Selection. Kadir Nelson is the highly acclaimed and bestselling illustrator of many books for children. He won the 2020 Caldecott Medal and Coretta Scott King Illustration Award for The Undefeated , written by Kwame Alexander. He has also received two Caldecott Honors, for Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford and Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine.

In addition, he is the author and illustrator of We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, a Robert F. Sibert Medal winner and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award recipient, and Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans . Mr. Nelson lives in Los Angeles.