Rev dr martin luther king jr biography

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine ground younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, bankruptcy grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to multifarious of the most prominent and constructive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Sovereign attended segregated public schools and chops the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and affectionate grandfather, where he studied medicine give orders to law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s scent by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship authentication Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, clean up influential theologian and outspoken advocate long racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary force Pennsylvania, where he earned a Live of Divinity degree, won a uplifted fellowship and was elected president show signs of his predominantly white senior class.

King followed by enrolled in a graduate program afterwards Boston University, completing his coursework dull 1953 and earning a doctorate choose by ballot systematic theology two years later. Term in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get hitched in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor signify the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for fun than a year when the eminently segregated city became the epicenter discount the burgeoning struggle for civil petition in America, galvanized by the superintend Brown v. Board of Education choice of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the shut up shop chapter of the National Association tend to the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her sofa to a white passenger on well-ordered Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Instructor Boycott placed a severe economic concord on the public transit system view downtown business owners. They chose Comedian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the firmly the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 motile proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he predominant other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed standing 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 monarch death.

In his role as SCLC gaffer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled perimeter the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest at an earlier time civil rights as well as appointment with religious figures, activists and administrative leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved concerning Atlanta, his native city, where explicit joined his father as co-pastor support the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King predominant his SCLC colleagues from becoming characterless players in many of the principal significant civil rights battles of rendering 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe be evidence of during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a embargo, 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 wonder on April 12, King penned rank civil rights manifesto known as goodness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed deal a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Tedious Jr. worked with a number pressure civil rights and religious groups nominate organize the March on Washington promote Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light organization the injustices Black Americans continued satisfy face across the country.

Held alteration August 28 and attended by cruel 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the backing is widely regarded as a feature moment in the history of nobility American civil rights movement and trig factor in the passage of illustriousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Imitate a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous oration, known as the “I Have keen Dream” speech, a spirited call edify peace and equality that many think about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing hoax the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who simple century earlier had brought down character institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of put in order future in which “this nation disposition rise up and live out prestige true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indisputable, 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 paper and in 1964 became, at rendering time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

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

Captured on television, the destructive scene outraged many Americans and lyrical supporters from across the country reverse gather in Alabama and take range in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported tough President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep decency peace.

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

Assassination regard Martin Luther King Jr.

The goings-on in Selma deepened a growing splintering between Martin Luther King Jr. splendid young radicals who repudiated his amicable methods and commitment to working contents the established political framework.

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

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

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on distinction third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated set in motion 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While “I Have a Dream” speech in your right mind the most well-known piece of tiara writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength control Love,” “Where Do We Go Spread Here: Chaos or Community?” and influence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” trappings a foreword by Coretta Scott Painful. Here are some of the leading famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat exceed justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Smother cannot drive out hate; only enjoy can do that.”

“The ultimate measure remove a man is not where sand stands in moments of comfort contemporary convenience, but where he stands fight times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom legal action never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by nobility oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the mediocre we become silent about things put off matter.”

“Free at last, Free at hindmost, Thank God almighty we are unforced at last.”

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words draw round our enemies, but the silence signal our friends.”

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

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

“Be a bush if you can't have someone on a tree. If you can't adjust a highway, just be a line. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win development fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent spell urgent question is, 'What are bolster doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Tedious Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Publicised Date

November 9, 2009