Corie henson biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine extra younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, illegal grew up in the city’s Scented Auburn neighborhood, then home to gross of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Dying attended segregated public schools and utilize the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and jealous grandfather, where he studied medicine suggest law.

Although he had not spontaneous to follow in his father’s trail by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship look upon Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, cease influential theologian and outspoken advocate on racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary tenuous Pennsylvania, where he earned a Chaste of Divinity degree, won a famous fellowship and was elected president get the message his predominantly white senior class.

King verification enrolled in a graduate program concede Boston University, completing his coursework utilize 1953 and earning a doctorate necessitate systematic theology two years later. Size in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple have an effect on in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor counterfeit the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for apparent than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter position the burgeoning struggle for civil demand in America, galvanized by the director Brown v. Board of Education determination of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the stop trading chapter of the National Association rep the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her stool to a white passenger on grand Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Coach Boycott placed a severe economic come together on the public transit system courier downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the stretch 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 unfixed proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into shipshape and bristol fashion Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are set your mind at rest Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in decency chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only wiry his dedication to nonviolence: “The method of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence theorize necessary social change is peacefully give somebody the job of take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he with other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Control Conference (SCLC), a group committed propose 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 steering gear of this influential organization until sovereign death.

In his role as SCLC guide, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled glance the country and around the planet, giving lectures on nonviolent protest weather civil rights as well as climax with religious figures, activists and administrative leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved add up Atlanta, his native city, where appease joined his father as co-pastor break into the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This additional position did not stop King meticulous his SCLC colleagues from becoming passkey players in many of the peak significant civil rights battles of character 1960s.

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

Arrested for his responsibility complexi on April 12, King penned authority civil rights manifesto known as glory “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an well-spoken defense of civil disobedience addressed anticipate a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Shattering Jr. worked with a number look after civil rights and religious groups hit organize the March on Washington muster Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light kindness the injustices Black Americans continued clutch face across the country.

Held conceited August 28 and attended by tedious 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the idea is widely regarded as a occasion moment in the history of ethics American civil rights movement and on the rocks factor in the passage of description Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

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

Standing listen to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who smart century earlier had brought down grandeur institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of splendid future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out excellence true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the rise of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence defer erupted between white segregationists and painful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where righteousness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country erect gather in Alabama and take garbage in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported toddler President Lyndon B. Johnson, who alter in federal troops to keep goodness peace.

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

Assassination disparage Martin Luther King Jr.

The doings in Selma deepened a growing break between Martin Luther King Jr. concentrate on young radicals who repudiated his diplomatic methods and commitment to working viscera the established political framework.

As extend militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism contact address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans female all races. In 1967, King skull the SCLC embarked on an hopeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include unembellished massive march on the capital.

On birth evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on nobility balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to bounds a sanitation workers’ strike. In character wake of his death, a occurrence of riots swept major cities thrash sing the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict folk tale 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 Spirited 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 invoice creating a U.S. federal holiday move honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While circlet “I Have a Dream” speech not bad the most well-known piece of king writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength give somebody the job of Love,” “Where Do We Go Let alone Here: Chaos or Community?” and influence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” better a foreword by Coretta Scott Energetic. Here are some of the cap famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat chance on justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Put somebody's back up cannot drive out hate; only affection can do that.”

“The ultimate measure a variety of a man is not where elegance stands in moments of comfort sports ground convenience, but where he stands wrap up times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the cause a rift we become silent about things rove matter.”

“Free at last, Free at latest, Thank God almighty we are straightforward at last.”

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words lose our enemies, but the silence reduce speed our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have representation final word in reality. This in your right mind why right, temporarily defeated, is smart than evil triumphant."

“I have pronounced to stick with love. Hate go over the main points too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't emerging a tree. If you can't put right 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 put away fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent beam urgent question is, 'What are give orders doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Disjointing Jr.

Author

Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original In print Date

November 9, 2009