Using photographs, paintings, prints and assorted memorabilia, the exhibit charts King's rise from his early triumphs in co-ordinating the bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama to his emergence at the head of the national civil rights movement.
The exhibition also devotes sections to his famous "I have a dream" speech as well as the August 28, 1963 "March on Washington", when an estimated 250,000 descended on the US capital.
Curator Ann Shumard said she hoped the exhibition, which runs until June 1, 2014, would demonstrate that King retained a hard practical side behind his soaring oratory.
"Yes he had vision, but he had a practical plan of what he would ... trying, to make that reality," Shumard said.
"I hope that the image of this exhibition conveys...of his very dynamic life. He was not merely a dreamer but a doer."
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