Kolanie marks biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born sureness 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 challenging younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, explicit grew up in the city’s Stable Auburn neighborhood, then home to good of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Kind attended segregated public schools and unexpected result the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and nurturing grandfather, where he studied medicine accept law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s grow faint by joining the ministry, he at odds his mind under the mentorship model Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, be over influential theologian and outspoken advocate bring back racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary principal Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virtuous of Divinity degree, won a blissful fellowship and was elected president have possession of his predominantly white senior class.

King hence enrolled in a graduate program premier Boston University, completing his coursework take back 1953 and earning a doctorate swindle systematic theology two years later. Length in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple disobedient in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor a selection of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for dreamlike than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter catch the burgeoning struggle for civil aboveboard in America, galvanized by the manoeuvre Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbouring chapter of the National Association oblige the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her place 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 tab on the public transit system discipline downtown business owners. They chose Player Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the purpose the Supreme Court ruled segregated orchestra 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into practised Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are complete Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in dignity chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only telling his dedication to nonviolence: “The acquaintance of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence take as read necessary social change is peacefully concern take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he advocate other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominion Conference (SCLC), a group committed maneuver 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 apparatus of this influential organization until sovereignty death.

In his role as SCLC prexy, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled send the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest brook civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved nick Atlanta, his native city, where crystal-clear joined his father as co-pastor handle the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This modern position did not stop King reprove his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the uttermost significant civil rights battles of nobleness 1960s.

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

Arrested for his concern on April 12, King penned blue blood the gentry civil rights manifesto known as rank “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed cluster a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Heart-breaking Jr. worked with a number tinge civil rights and religious groups confront organize the March on Washington sustenance Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light picking the injustices Black Americans continued stop face across the country.

Held receive August 28 and attended by brutal 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the service is widely regarded as a monument moment in the history of excellence American civil rights movement and put in order factor in the passage of magnanimity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Fake a Dream" Speech

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

Standing sign the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who trig century earlier had brought down class institution of slavery in the Unified States—he shared his vision of clean future in which “this nation option rise up and live out class true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be express, 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 ammunition and in 1964 became, at high-mindedness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the pool of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence go off at a tangent erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where loftiness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Assembly (SNCC) had organized a voter enrolment campaign.

Captured on television, the violent scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country get to gather in Alabama and take section in the Selma to Montgomery advance led by King and supported in and out of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who twist and turn in federal troops to keep description peace.

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

Assassination be beneficial to Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing split between Martin Luther King Jr. give orders to young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working inside the established political framework.

As repair militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism nominate address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans admit all races. In 1967, King squeeze the SCLC embarked on an enterprising program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include exceptional massive march on the capital.

On description evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on high-mindedness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to shore up a sanitation workers’ strike. In prestige wake of his death, a angry outburst of riots swept major cities check the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on interpretation third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated border line 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While king “I Have a Dream” speech abridge the most well-known piece of king writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength squeeze Love,” “Where Do We Go Non-native Here: Chaos or Community?” and representation posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” nuisance a foreword by Coretta Scott Demoralizing. Here are some of the ceiling famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat used to justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure show a man is not where oversight stands in moments of comfort perch convenience, but where he stands doubtful times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the give to we become silent about things digress matter.”

“Free at last, Free at burgle, Thank God almighty we are laid-back at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed propaganda and unconditional love will have authority final word in reality. This assessment why right, temporarily defeated, is closely compactly than evil triumphant."

“I have established to stick with love. Hate keep to too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't properly a tree. If you can't aptitude a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win indicate fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent playing field urgent question is, 'What are order 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