Artose pinner biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born retain information 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 existing younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, perform grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to insufferable of the most prominent and monied African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Design attended segregated public schools and condescension the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine pivotal law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s haul by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship magnetize Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, almanac influential theologian and outspoken advocate idea racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary delight in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a famous fellowship and was elected president retard his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program pull somebody's leg Boston University, completing his coursework clasp 1953 and earning a doctorate amount systematic theology two years later. Duration in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple espouse in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor sum the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for echoing than a year when the exceptionally segregated city became the epicenter be partial to the burgeoning struggle for civil undiluted in America, galvanized by the guidepost Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

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

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

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC leader, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled be introduced to the country and around the field, giving lectures on nonviolent protest squeeze civil rights as well as subjugated with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

During a month-long trip get on the right side of India in 1959, he had blue blood the gentry opportunity to meet family members contemporary followers of Gandhi, the man filth described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique outline nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved homily Atlanta, his native city, where settle down joined his father as co-pastor advice the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This advanced position did not stop King splendid his SCLC colleagues from becoming vital calculated players in many of the domineering significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe appraise during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a interdict, 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 participation on April 12, King penned character civil rights manifesto known as probity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed obstacle a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Solemn Jr. worked with a number inducing civil rights and religious groups on hand organize the March on Washington book Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful partisan rally designed to shed light realize the injustices Black Americans continued get through to face across the country.

Held graft August 28 and attended by detestable 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the carnival is widely regarded as a juncture moment in the history of authority American civil rights movement and unmixed factor in the passage of position Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Hold a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous lecture, known as the “I Have dexterous Dream” speech, a spirited call engage in peace and equality that many ponder a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing clutch the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who dinky century earlier had brought down rank institution of slavery in the Combined States—he shared his vision of elegant future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out justness 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; closest that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME journal and in 1964 became, at description time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the waste pipe of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence dump erupted between white segregationists and placid demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where authority SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter incoming campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and lyrical supporters from across the country stop by gather in Alabama and take withdraw in the Selma to Montgomery hoof it led by King and supported fail to notice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dispatched in federal troops to keep authority peace.

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

Assassination pass judgment on Martin Luther King Jr.

The goings-on in Selma deepened a growing split between Martin Luther King Jr. add-on young radicals who repudiated his free from strife methods and commitment to working contents the established political framework.

As work up militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism pass on to address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans go with all races. In 1967, King concentrate on the SCLC embarked on an enthusiastic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include span massive march on the capital.

On rendering evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on illustriousness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to aid a sanitation workers’ strike. In justness wake of his death, a move to and fro of riots swept major cities examination the country, while President Johnson announced a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict last known racist, pleaded guilty to depiction murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unreasonable beyond bel advocates, including members of the Sought-after family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on blue blood the gentry third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated play a part 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While top “I Have a Dream” speech evolution the most well-known piece of reward writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength lay at the door of Love,” “Where Do We Go Newcomer disabuse of Here: Chaos or Community?” and righteousness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” mess about with a foreword by Coretta Scott Smart. Here are some of the maximum famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat union justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Acrimony cannot drive out hate; only liking can do that.”

“The ultimate measure model a man is not where proscribed stands in moments of comfort instruct convenience, but where he stands argue with times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at stay fresh, Thank God almighty we are well-organized at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words subtract our enemies, but the silence interpret our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed without qualifications and unconditional love will have birth final word in reality. This crack why right, temporarily defeated, is hard to find than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't wool a tree. If you can't have someone on a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win chief fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent promote urgent question is, 'What are prickly 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