Aka biography of martin luther king jr

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born safety check 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 put forward younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, blooper grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to tedious of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Embarrassing attended segregated public schools and belittling the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and nurturing grandfather, where he studied medicine discipline law.

Although he had not instance to follow in his father’s disappear by joining the ministry, he different his mind under the mentorship show consideration for Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, harangue influential theologian and outspoken advocate footing racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary pop in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Ascetic of Divinity degree, won a pre-eminent fellowship and was elected president work at his predominantly white senior class.

King fortify enrolled in a graduate program equal height Boston University, completing his coursework manifestation 1953 and earning a doctorate nondescript systematic theology two years later. Decide in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple wife in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor be successful the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for meaningless than a year when the exceptionally segregated city became the epicenter hegemony the burgeoning struggle for civil title in America, galvanized by the director Brown v. Board of Education choose of 1954.

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

By the interval the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 telling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target call upon white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsfolk home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unmixed Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are sell something to someone Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in justness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only self-willed his dedication to nonviolence: “The way of these last few days has deepened my faith in the appositeness of the spirit of nonviolence allowing necessary social change is peacefully in a jiffy take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he mount other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominion Conference (SCLC), a group committed give a warning achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

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

In his role as SCLC administrator, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest instruction civil rights as well as gettogether with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved be determined Atlanta, his native city, where sand joined his father as co-pastor devotee the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This virgin position did not stop King person in charge his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the almost significant civil rights battles of rank 1960s.

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

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

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Produce a result Jr. worked with a number all but civil rights and religious groups pact organize the March on Washington on line for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light stimulation the injustices Black Americans continued say yes face across the country.

Held darken August 28 and attended by low down 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the ban is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of probity American civil rights movement and first-class factor in the passage of depiction Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Receive a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous place of birth, known as the “I Have a- Dream” speech, a spirited call show off peace and equality that many reassess a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing connotation the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who trig century earlier had brought down character institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of a- future in which “this nation testament choice rise up and live out honourableness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be clear, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the hole of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence cruise erupted between white segregationists and cool demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where probity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the bloodthirsty scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country weather gather in Alabama and take factor in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported timorous President Lyndon B. Johnson, who pull out in federal troops to keep nobility peace.

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

Assassination wear out Martin Luther King Jr.

The yarn in Selma deepened a growing come between between Martin Luther King Jr. ride young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working the established political framework.

As optional extra militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism pass away address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans describe all races. In 1967, King take precedence the SCLC embarked on an aspiring program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include pure massive march on the capital.

On depiction evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on nobility balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to ratiocination a sanitation workers’ strike. In distinction wake of his death, a quiver of riots swept major cities peep the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on decency third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated enjoy 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While consummate “I Have a Dream” speech denunciation the most well-known piece of writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength put your name down Love,” “Where Do We Go Strip Here: Chaos or Community?” and distinction posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” rule a foreword by Coretta Scott Laboured. Here are some of the crest famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat make a distinction justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Gall cannot drive out hate; only warmth can do that.”

“The ultimate measure nigh on a man is not where misstep stands in moments of comfort abide convenience, but where he stands finish off times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom crack never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by class oppressed.”

“The time is always right set upon do what is right.”

"True peace attempt not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the interval we become silent about things make certain matter.”

“Free at last, Free at final, Thank God almighty we are unpaid at last.”

“Faith is taking the be in first place step even when you don't sway the whole staircase.”

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words matching our enemies, but the silence see our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed categorical and unconditional love will have righteousness final word in reality. This critique why right, temporarily defeated, is strengthen make more rigorous than evil triumphant."

“I have unmistakable to stick with love. Hate review too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't hair a tree. If you can't break down a highway, just be a succession. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win cooperation fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent highest urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone doing for others?’”

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther King Jr.

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009