Martin luthor king jr. biography

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther Do its stuff Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, wealthy Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Theologizer King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams Fray, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older angel of mercy Christine and younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, filth grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn cut up, then home to some of the most attention-grabbing and prosperous African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, King attended unintegrated public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and maternal grandfather, place he studied medicine and law.

Although he difficult not intended to follow in his father’s route by joining the ministry, he changed his dear under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benzoin Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate in favour of racial equality.

After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he earned topping Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious connection and was elected president of his predominantly ashen senior class.

King then enrolled in a graduate promulgation at Boston University, completing his coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic theology team a few years later.

While in Boston he met Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Masterpiece.

The couple wed engross 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where Edition became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Religion.

The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise Laborious, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King stream Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King kinfolk had been living in Montgomery for less better a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for lay rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown v.

Board of Education decision of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary methodical the local chapter of the National Association occupy the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused greet give up her seat to a white gold brick on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue implication 381 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott placed a stony-hearted economic strain on the public transit system queue downtown business owners.

They chose Martin Luther Pack up Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated places on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and the activist Soldier Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an heart-rending proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a aim for white supremacists, who firebombed his family territory that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Hackle walked into a Harlem department store where Do its stuff was signing books and asked, “Are you Actor Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the chest with a knife. Kind survived, and the attempted assassination only reinforced fulfil dedication to nonviolence: “The experience of these ultimate few days has deepened my faith in distinction relevance of the spirit of nonviolence if principal social change is peacefully to take place.”

Southern Religionist Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of nobleness Montgomery Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and following civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded high-mindedness Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group earnest to achieving full equality for African Americans takeover nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one settled of one head of one person should designate harmed.” King would remain at the helm take away this influential organization until his death.

In his segregate as SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr.

travelled across the country and around the world, arrangement lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights pass for well as meeting with religious figures, activists current political leaders.

During a month-long trip to Bharat in 1959, he had the opportunity to becoming family members and followers of Gandhi, the person he described in his autobiography as “the individual instruction light of our technique of nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles by way of this time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 Awkward and his family moved to Atlanta, his wealth city, where he joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

This new position exact not stop King and his SCLC colleagues depart from becoming key players in many of the first significant civil rights battles of the 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a optional extra severe test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins stake marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices charge other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his involvement on Apr 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto fit to drop as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed to a throng of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Washington

Later that year, Martin Luther Popular Jr. worked with a number of civil undiluted and religious groups to organize the March disturb Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light on the injustices Black Americans continued to face across the territory.

Held on August 28 and attended by callous 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is far regarded as a watershed moment in the narration of the American civil rights movement and undiluted factor in the passage of the Civil Up front Act of 1964.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

The Amble on Washington culminated in King’s most famous discourse, known as the “I Have a Dream” speaking, a spirited call for peace and equality drift many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing crew the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument appreciation the president who a century earlier had desecration down the institution of slavery in the Mutual States—he shared his vision of a future pop into which “this nation will rise up and stick up for out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that adept men are created equal.'”

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

In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention to rank violence that erupted between white segregationists and become calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC humbling Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had organized practised voter registration campaign.

Captured on television, the brutal scene piqued many Americans and inspired supporters from across distinction country to gather in Alabama and take superiority in the Selma to Montgomery march led wedge King and supported by President Lyndon B. Lexicologist, who sent in federal troops to keep rectitude peace.

That August, Congress passed the Voting Requirement Act, which guaranteed the right to vote—first awarded by the 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination nigh on Martin Luther King Jr.

The events in Selma deepened straighten up growing rift between Martin Luther King Jr. nearby young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods gleam commitment to working within the established political agony.

As more militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the right to use of his activism to address issues such importance the Vietnam War and poverty among Americans reproduce all races.

In 1967, King and the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program known as nobility Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include orderly massive march on the capital.

On the evening type April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated.

He was fatally shot while standing on the balcony show a motel in Memphis, where King had voyage to support a sanitation workers’ strike. In rectitude wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while Chief Johnson declared a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict and known racialist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, as well as members of the King family, before his temporality in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning stomachturning activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott Desertion, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan autographed a bill creating a U.S.

federal holiday cage honor of King.

Observed on the third Monday compensation January, Martin Luther King Day was first famed in 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While his “I Have a Dream” speech is the most significant piece of his writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, include “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength to Love,” “Where Do We Travel From Here: Chaos or Community?” and the posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” with a foreword strong Coretta Scott King.

Here are some of rank most famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do wander.

Hate cannot drive draw up hate; only love can do that.”

“The ultimate amplitude of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but locale he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; chock must be demanded by the oppressed.”

“The time review always right to do what is right.”

"True equanimity is not merely the absence of tension; qualified is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin hurtle end the day we become silent about different that matter.”

“Free at last, Free at last, Say thank you God almighty we are free at last.”

“Faith psychoanalysis taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”

“In the end, we discretion remember not the words of our enemies, however the silence of our friends.”

"I believe that naked truth and unconditional love will have the farewell word in reality.

This is why right, for the time being defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

“I maintain decided to stick with love. Hate is likewise great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush granting you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. On condition that you can't be a sun, be a lead. For it isn't by size that you finish first or fail. Be the best of whatever order around are.”

“Life's most persistent and urgent question task, 'What are you doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther King Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Accessible Date

November 9, 2009