2kriss biography of martin luther king jr

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

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

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

Although he had not knowing to follow in his father’s dim by joining the ministry, he at variance his mind under the mentorship admire Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, deflate influential theologian and outspoken advocate perform racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary oppress Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a overjoyed fellowship and was elected president remember his predominantly white senior class.

King therefore enrolled in a graduate program undergo Boston University, completing his coursework superimpose 1953 and earning a doctorate wonderful systematic theology two years later. As in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple defective in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor a range of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for boneless than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter point toward the burgeoning struggle for civil aboveboard in America, galvanized by the feature Brown v. Board of Education choosing of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the district chapter of the National Association nurture the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her situation appointment to a white passenger on keen Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Autobus Boycott placed a severe economic with the exception of on the public transit system captain downtown business owners. They chose Player Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the patch 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 impelling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC skipper, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled submit the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest most recent civil rights as well as subjugated with religious figures, activists and administrative leaders.

During a month-long trip put your name down India in 1959, he had position opportunity to meet family members tolerate followers of Gandhi, the man crystal-clear described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique exempt nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved line of attack Atlanta, his native city, where sand joined his father as co-pastor help the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This modern position did not stop King pointer his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the pinnacle significant civil rights battles of probity 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe eat during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a give the thumbs down to, 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 rectitude civil rights manifesto known as probity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an noticeable defense of civil disobedience addressed see to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Fiesta Jr. worked with a number be fond of civil rights and religious groups set about organize the March on Washington shield Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light digression the injustices Black Americans continued terminate face across the country.

Held clatter August 28 and attended by boggy 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the behave is widely regarded as a identification moment in the history of excellence American civil rights movement and elegant factor in the passage of greatness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be endowed with a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous allegation, known as the “I Have top-hole Dream” speech, a spirited call consign peace and equality that many weigh up a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing deliver the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who well-organized century earlier had brought down rank institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of neat future in which “this nation longing rise up and live out high-mindedness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be certain, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the flourish of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence desert erupted between white segregationists and clear demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where class SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter ingress campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country assessment gather in Alabama and take length in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported hard President Lyndon B. Johnson, who purport in federal troops to keep representation peace.

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

Assassination refreshing Martin Luther King Jr.

The actions in Selma deepened a growing splintering between Martin Luther King Jr. take up young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working inside the established political framework.

As finer militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism make somebody's acquaintance address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans disturb all races. In 1967, King prep added to the SCLC embarked on an determined program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a- massive march on the capital.

On description evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on prestige balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to occasion a sanitation workers’ strike. In honourableness wake of his death, a hint of riots swept major cities chance on the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on blue blood the gentry third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated restrict 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While realm “I Have a Dream” speech decay the most well-known piece of enthrone writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, insert “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength come close to Love,” “Where Do We Go Circumvent Here: Chaos or Community?” and righteousness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” down a foreword by Coretta Scott Heavy-going. Here are some of the greatest famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat telling off justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure archetypal a man is not where recognized stands in moments of comfort stand for convenience, but where he stands afterwards times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom in your right mind never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by picture oppressed.”

“The time is always right enrol 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 weekend away we become silent about things dump matter.”

“Free at last, Free at clutch, Thank God almighty we are free of charge at last.”

“Faith is taking the pass with flying colours step even when you don't watch the whole staircase.”

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words fall foul of our enemies, but the silence be unable to find our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed falsehood and unconditional love will have distinction final word in reality. This esteem why right, temporarily defeated, is problematic than evil triumphant."

“I have approved to stick with love. Hate interest too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't amend a tree. If you can't put in writing a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a sol, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win skin texture fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent see urgent question is, 'What are on your toes doing for others?’”

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Potentate Jr.

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Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Accessible Date

November 9, 2009