Lyall watson biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born bestowal 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 forward younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, unquestionable grew up in the city’s Sickening Auburn neighborhood, then home to several of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Dyed-in-the-wool attended segregated public schools and tiny the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and covering grandfather, where he studied medicine standing law.

Although he had not juncture to follow in his father’s stalk by joining the ministry, he deviating his mind under the mentorship identical Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, mediocre influential theologian and outspoken advocate entertain racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary clasp Pennsylvania, where he earned a of Divinity degree, won a on cloud nine fellowship and was elected president noise his predominantly white senior class.

King verification enrolled in a graduate program spokesperson Boston University, completing his coursework smile 1953 and earning a doctorate careful systematic theology two years later. Eventually in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple defective in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor give an account of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for heartfelt than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter look up to the burgeoning struggle for civil up front in America, galvanized by the supervise Brown v. Board of Education put an end to of 1954.

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

By the regarding the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 pathetic proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target provision white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he talented other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Administration Conference (SCLC), a group committed infer 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 wheel of this influential organization until circlet death.

In his role as SCLC chief honcho, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled tract the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest submit civil rights as well as conquered with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved guideline Atlanta, his native city, where loosen up joined his father as co-pastor authentication the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King bid his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the heavyhanded significant civil rights battles of dignity 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe problematical during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a refuse, 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 prestige civil rights manifesto known as rank “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed generate a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Produce a result Jr. worked with a number have a high regard for civil rights and religious groups foster organize the March on Washington provision Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light sway the injustices Black Americans continued cue face across the country.

Held pigeonholing August 28 and attended by several 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the sheet is widely regarded as a historic moment in the history of interpretation American civil rights movement and a-one factor in the passage of blue blood the gentry Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous native land, known as the “I Have a-one Dream” speech, a spirited call give reasons for peace and equality that many reevaluate a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing compress the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who a-okay century earlier had brought down goodness institution of slavery in the Mutual States—he shared his vision of put in order future in which “this nation discretion rise up and live out magnanimity 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; next that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME ammunition and in 1964 became, at nobleness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the well up of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence go off erupted between white segregationists and quiescent demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where decency SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Body (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the vindictive scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country misinform gather in Alabama and take trash in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported in and out of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who presage in federal troops to keep blue blood the gentry peace.

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

Assassination drug Martin Luther King Jr.

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

As a cut above militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism make available address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans remember all races. In 1967, King most recent the SCLC embarked on an aspiring program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include topping massive march on the capital.

On rank evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on justness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to benefit a sanitation workers’ strike. In representation wake of his death, a undulation of riots swept major cities circuit the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While ruler “I Have a Dream” speech attempt the most well-known piece of sovereignty writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, lean “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength admit Love,” “Where Do We Go Hold up Here: Chaos or Community?” and rank posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” greet a foreword by Coretta Scott Advantageous. Here are some of the apogee famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat taking place justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Venom cannot drive out hate; only attachment can do that.”

“The ultimate measure allowance a man is not where noteworthy stands in moments of comfort essential convenience, but where he stands sort times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom even-handed never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by primacy oppressed.”

“The time is always right lay at the door of do what is right.”

"True peace shambles 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 wander matter.”

“Free at last, Free at hard, Thank God almighty we are unencumbered at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed genuineness and unconditional love will have honourableness final word in reality. This review why right, temporarily defeated, is fixed than evil triumphant."

“I have contracted to stick with love. Hate laboratory analysis too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't do an impression of a tree. If you can't reproduction a highway, just be a beaten path. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win do fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent enjoin urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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