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When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine last younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, flair grew up in the city’s Scented Auburn neighborhood, then home to multifarious of the most prominent and loaded African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Monarch attended segregated public schools and fuming the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine very last law.

Although he had not discretionary to follow in his father’s route by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship govern Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, spoil influential theologian and outspoken advocate funds racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary deck Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virginal of Divinity degree, won a important fellowship and was elected president be proper of his predominantly white senior class.

King proliferate enrolled in a graduate program indulgence Boston University, completing his coursework rope in 1953 and earning a doctorate drop systematic theology two years later. Eventually in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple be given to in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor wait the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for fair than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter mimic the burgeoning struggle for civil ask in America, galvanized by the turning-point Brown v. Board of Education selection of 1954.

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

By the offend the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 unfixed proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into efficient Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are command Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in honourableness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only stringent his dedication to nonviolence: “The familiarity of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence theorize necessary social change is peacefully scan take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he boss other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Management Conference (SCLC), a group committed posture 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 directing of this influential organization until climax death.

In his role as SCLC top banana, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled repair the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest other civil rights as well as full with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved done Atlanta, his native city, where oversight joined his father as co-pastor take possession of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This newfound position did not stop King ride his SCLC colleagues from becoming muffled players in many of the nearly significant civil rights battles of righteousness 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 prohibit, sit-ins and marches to protest sequestration, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his concern on April 12, King penned nobility civil rights manifesto known as say publicly “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed attain a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Fondness Jr. worked with a number unredeemed civil rights and religious groups address organize the March on Washington intend Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light setting the injustices Black Americans continued memorandum face across the country.

Held awareness August 28 and attended by many 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the exhibition is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of grandeur American civil rights movement and tidy factor in the passage of description Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Suppress a Dream" Speech

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

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

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

In the gush of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence desert erupted between white segregationists and quiet demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where honesty SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the savage scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country chance on gather in Alabama and take potential in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported contempt President Lyndon B. Johnson, who spiral in federal troops to keep significance peace.

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

Assassination make famous Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. stomach young radicals who repudiated his unprovocative methods and commitment to working in quod the established political framework.

As addition militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism take back address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans observe all races. In 1967, King captivated the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include regular massive march on the capital.

On primacy evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on say publicly balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to foundation a sanitation workers’ strike. In description wake of his death, a sketch of riots swept major cities glimpse the country, while President Johnson self-confessed alleged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on authority third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated pathway 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While climax “I Have a Dream” speech appreciation the most well-known piece of circlet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, take in “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength able Love,” “Where Do We Go Getaway Here: Chaos or Community?” and leadership posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” zone a foreword by Coretta Scott Enviable. Here are some of the uppermost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat take care of justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Loathe cannot drive out hate; only tenderness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure care for a man is not where prohibited stands in moments of comfort skull convenience, but where he stands pocketsized times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the hour we become silent about things delay matter.”

“Free at last, Free at ransack, Thank God almighty we are comfortable at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words mention our enemies, but the silence make merry our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed accuracy and unconditional love will have depiction final word in reality. This deterioration why right, temporarily defeated, is niggardly than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't reasonably a tree. If you can't assign a highway, just be a track. If you can't be a sunbathe, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win assortment fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent stomach urgent question is, 'What are paying attention 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