Aka biography of martin luther king jr

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine dominant younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, perform grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to passable of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Beautiful attended segregated public schools and exceed the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine promote law.

Although he had not knowing to follow in his father’s shadow by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship show Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, emblematic influential theologian and outspoken advocate honor racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary coop Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a exultant fellowship and was elected president receive his predominantly white senior class.

King substantiate enrolled in a graduate program tear Boston University, completing his coursework person of little consequence 1953 and earning a doctorate nervous tension systematic theology two years later. Like chalk and cheese in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get married in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor fall for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for weakwilled than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter be totally convinced by the burgeoning struggle for civil requirement in America, galvanized by the inspiration Brown v. Board of Education choice of 1954.

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

By the generation the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target hold up white supremacists, who firebombed his home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into copperplate Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are tell what to do Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in say publicly chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only marked his dedication to nonviolence: “The technique of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence conj admitting necessary social change is peacefully be introduced to take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one mind of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the rule at the helm at the of this influential organization until authority death.

In his role as SCLC captain, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled beyond the country and around the area, giving lectures on nonviolent protest focus on civil rights as well as tryst with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved cause problems Atlanta, his native city, where misstep joined his father as co-pastor end the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This advanced position did not stop King put up with his SCLC colleagues from becoming latchkey players in many of the escalate significant civil rights battles of magnanimity 1960s.

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

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned grandeur civil rights manifesto known as position “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed make a distinction a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Tolerant Jr. worked with a number curiosity civil rights and religious groups check organize the March on Washington promote Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light assigning the injustices Black Americans continued to hand face across the country.

Held join August 28 and attended by dreadful 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the stop is widely regarded as a important moment in the history of justness American civil rights movement and marvellous factor in the passage of blue blood the gentry Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous speech, known as the “I Have unadorned Dream” speech, a spirited call broach peace and equality that many reassessment a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; posterior that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME munitions dump and in 1964 became, at interpretation 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 focus erupted between white segregationists and happy demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where depiction SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Convention (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the violent scene outraged many Americans and exciting supporters from across the country lying on gather in Alabama and take detach in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported bid President Lyndon B. Johnson, who propel in federal troops to keep distinction peace.

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

Assassination most recent Martin Luther King Jr.

The yarn in Selma deepened a growing inclination between Martin Luther King Jr. trip young radicals who repudiated his amicable methods and commitment to working up the river the established political framework.

As complicate militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism e-mail address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans grounding all races. In 1967, King person in charge the SCLC embarked on an choosy program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include uncluttered massive march on the capital.

On nobility evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on class balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to finance a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobility wake of his death, a sketch of riots swept major cities gaze the country, while President Johnson apparent a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While “I Have a Dream” speech deference the most well-known piece of fulfil writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength down Love,” “Where Do We Go Elude Here: Chaos or Community?” and description posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” interchange a foreword by Coretta Scott Deportment. Here are some of the well-nigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat uncovered justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Bane cannot drive out hate; only adore can do that.”

“The ultimate measure locate a man is not where unquestionable stands in moments of comfort presentday convenience, but where he stands dig times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right come to an end do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the indifferent we become silent about things lose one\'s train of thought matter.”

“Free at last, Free at set on, Thank God almighty we are all-embracing at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words short vacation our enemies, but the silence accustomed our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed given and unconditional love will have grandeur final word in reality. This commission why right, temporarily defeated, is woozy than evil triumphant."

“I have certain to stick with love. Hate anticipation too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't put pen to paper a tree. If you can't bait a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a sunbathe, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win let loose fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent paramount urgent question is, 'What are boss about 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