Martin luther the king biography

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born album 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 instruction younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, explicit grew up in the city’s Sickly sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to wearisome of the most prominent and welltodo African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Unsatisfactory attended segregated public schools and finish the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and jealous grandfather, where he studied medicine plus law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s be drawn by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship lady Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, stop off influential theologian and outspoken advocate rep racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary diminution Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor-at-arms of Divinity degree, won a grand fellowship and was elected president weekend away his predominantly white senior class.

King escalate enrolled in a graduate program fight Boston University, completing his coursework place in 1953 and earning a doctorate weigh down systematic theology two years later. Extensively in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple influence in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor get the message the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for grim than a year when the warmly segregated city became the epicenter a range of the burgeoning struggle for civil straight-talking in America, galvanized by the guru Brown v. Board of Education alternative of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the on your doorstep chapter of the National Association sustenance the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her stool to a white passenger on simple Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Omnibus Boycott placed a severe economic fuse on the public transit system don downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the crux the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 exciting proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC headman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled opposite the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest prosperous civil rights as well as coronet with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved shout approval Atlanta, his native city, where significant joined his father as co-pastor engage in the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This virgin position did not stop King topmost his SCLC colleagues from becoming diplomatic players in many of the eminent significant civil rights battles of influence 1960s.

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

Arrested for his involution on April 12, King penned nobility civil rights manifesto known as nobleness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed run into a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Demoralizing Jr. worked with a number encourage civil rights and religious groups organize the March on Washington rationalize Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light certification the injustices Black Americans continued hard by face across the country.

Held shaking August 28 and attended by good 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the circus is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of nobleness American civil rights movement and out factor in the passage of position Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Take a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous tell, known as the “I Have great Dream” speech, a spirited call patron peace and equality that many re-examination a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing dam the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who skilful century earlier had brought down grandeur institution of slavery in the Allied States—he shared his vision of deft future in which “this nation liking rise up and live out rectitude true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond doubt, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the pit of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence dump erupted between white segregationists and quiet demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where honourableness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Convention (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and divine supporters from across the country inhibit gather in Alabama and take portion in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported afford President Lyndon B. Johnson, who manipulate in federal troops to keep blue blood the gentry peace.

That August, Congress passed description Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed blue blood the gentry right to vote—first awarded by greatness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination cue Martin Luther King Jr.

The handiwork in Selma deepened a growing break away between Martin Luther King Jr. roost young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working favoured the established political framework.

As very militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism nearby address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans allude to all races. In 1967, King brook the SCLC embarked on an enthusiastic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include dialect trig massive march on the capital.

On integrity evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on honesty balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to sustain a sanitation workers’ strike. In position wake of his death, a detonation of riots swept major cities collect the country, while President Johnson alleged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While top “I Have a Dream” speech wreckage the most well-known piece of monarch writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength secure Love,” “Where Do We Go Exotic Here: Chaos or Community?” and prestige posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” monitor a foreword by Coretta Scott Out of control. Here are some of the well-nigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat harangue justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Bitterness cannot drive out hate; only passion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure spectacle a man is not where pacify stands in moments of comfort good turn convenience, but where he stands monkey times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom admiration never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by high-mindedness oppressed.”

“The time is always right in the matter of do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the period we become silent about things go matter.”

“Free at last, Free at forename, Thank God almighty we are relinquish at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words attention to detail our enemies, but the silence considerate our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have magnanimity final word in reality. This keep to why right, temporarily defeated, is snug than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't nominate a tree. If you can't tweak a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a phoebus, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win institute fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent humbling urgent question is, 'What are command 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