MLK referenced the Declaration of independence often, he considered it a promissory note, and felt that America had defaulted on it and was hoping for us as a nation to fall back and be true to the ideals of the founding fathers.
The declaration was the driving force behind Johnson's Civil Rights Act, because he felt that to little had been done to enforce the new legislation after the Civil War had ended. He fought to end the Jim Crow laws and literacy tests and ensure all men and women regardless of race were equal.
