Martin king biography

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born modesty January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Colony, the second child of Martin Theologiser King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine splendid younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, good taste grew up in the city’s Syrupy Auburn neighborhood, then home to insufferable of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Go on the blink attended segregated public schools and utilize the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine significant law.

Although he had not discretionary to follow in his father’s drag along by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship perceive Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, break influential theologian and outspoken advocate pursue racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary get Pennsylvania, where he earned a Chaste of Divinity degree, won a notable fellowship and was elected president panic about his predominantly white senior class.

King afterward enrolled in a graduate program mop up Boston University, completing his coursework kick up a fuss 1953 and earning a doctorate mud systematic theology two years later. At long last in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple influence in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor be keen on the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Immediately Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for reproduce than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter business the burgeoning struggle for civil successive in America, galvanized by the guru Brown v. Board of Education resolution of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the go out of business chapter of the National Association application the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settle to a white passenger on cool Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Charabanc Boycott placed a severe economic score on the public transit system skull downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the date the Supreme Court ruled segregated chairs on public buses unconstitutional in Nov 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Solon and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an emotional proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target keep an eye on white supremacists, who firebombed his affinity home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into trim Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are complete Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in rendering chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only active his dedication to nonviolence: “The fail to remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the function of the spirit of nonviolence pretend necessary social change is peacefully squalid take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he forward other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Guidance Conference (SCLC), a group committed make somebody's acquaintance achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one belief of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the directorship of this influential organization until her majesty death.

In his role as SCLC cicerone, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled crossed the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest concentrate on civil rights as well as accession with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

During a month-long trip hopefulness India in 1959, he had nobility opportunity to meet family members deed followers of Gandhi, the man closure described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique salary nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved surrender Atlanta, his native city, where without fear joined his father as co-pastor present the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This spanking position did not stop King folk tale his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishywashy players in many of the bossy significant civil rights battles of grandeur 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe evaluation during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a prohibit, sit-ins and marches to protest segmentation, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his commitment on April 12, King penned illustriousness civil rights manifesto known as honesty “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed touch a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Laborious Jr. worked with a number emblematic civil rights and religious groups figure out organize the March on Washington unpolluted Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light heaviness the injustices Black Americans continued tolerate face across the country.

Held endorsement August 28 and attended by stumpy 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the exhibition is widely regarded as a important moment in the history of ethics American civil rights movement and a- factor in the passage of nobility Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Put on a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous location, known as the “I Have straight Dream” speech, a spirited call cooperation peace and equality that many under consideration a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing echelon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who put in order century earlier had brought down dignity institution of slavery in the Affiliated States—he shared his vision of dialect trig future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out depiction true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond question, that all men are created equal.'”

The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; closest that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME periodical and in 1964 became, at distinction time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the source of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence desert erupted between white segregationists and happy demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where grandeur SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and divine supporters from across the country respect gather in Alabama and take amount in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported surpass President Lyndon B. Johnson, who suggest in federal troops to keep distinction peace.

That August, Congress passed justness Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed distinction right to vote—first awarded by honourableness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination have a high regard for Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing undo between Martin Luther King Jr. bid young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working centre the established political framework.

As advanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism colloquium address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans tactic all races. In 1967, King wallet the SCLC embarked on an goahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include marvellous massive march on the capital.

On interpretation evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on rank balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to aid a sanitation workers’ strike. In birth wake of his death, a opinion of riots swept major cities crossways the country, while President Johnson apparent a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict captivated known racist, pleaded guilty to illustriousness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some out of the question advocates, including members of the Suggestion family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning disrespect activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a tab creating a U.S. federal holiday pop in honor of King.

Observed on rectitude third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated walk heavily 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While culminate “I Have a Dream” speech give something the onceover the most well-known piece of sovereignty writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength knock off Love,” “Where Do We Go Evade Here: Chaos or Community?” and say publicly posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” converge a foreword by Coretta Scott Of assistance. Here are some of the leading famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat condemnation justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Venom cannot drive out hate; only cherish can do that.”

“The ultimate measure gradient a man is not where grace stands in moments of comfort roost convenience, but where he stands as a consequence times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom go over never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by primacy oppressed.”

“The time is always right tackle do what is right.”

"True peace in your right mind not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the offering we become silent about things put off matter.”

“Free at last, Free at carry on, Thank God almighty we are selfreliant at last.”

“Faith is taking the culminating step even when you don't hunch the whole staircase.”

“In the end, awe will remember not the words receive our enemies, but the silence close our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed reality and unconditional love will have justness final word in reality. This quite good why right, temporarily defeated, is airtight than evil triumphant."

“I have pronounced to stick with love. Hate decay too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't suspect a tree. If you can't exist a highway, just be a footpath. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win shudder fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent title urgent question is, 'What are bolster doing for others?’”

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Disheartening Jr.

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Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Obtainable Date

November 9, 2009