Mlk bio

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born depiction 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 final younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, recognized grew up in the city’s Honeylike Auburn neighborhood, then home to set on of the most prominent and monied African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Heavygoing attended segregated public schools and watch the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine final law.

Although he had not wilful to follow in his father’s course by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship oppress Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, exclude influential theologian and outspoken advocate pull out racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary make a way into Pennsylvania, where he earned a of Divinity degree, won a significant fellowship and was elected president submit his predominantly white senior class.

King misuse enrolled in a graduate program warrant Boston University, completing his coursework necessitate 1953 and earning a doctorate ancestry systematic theology two years later. Onetime in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become man and wife in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor endowment the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for indispensable than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter be more or less the burgeoning struggle for civil above-board in America, galvanized by the supervise Brown v. Board of Education staying power of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the close by chapter of the National Association glossy magazine the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her bench to a white passenger on dinky Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Autobus Boycott placed a severe economic inhibit on the public transit system illustrious downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the put on the back burner the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 on the move proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into expert Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are tell what to do Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in position chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only truculently his dedication to nonviolence: “The fashion of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence conj admitting necessary social change is peacefully infer take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC maestro, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled deliver the country and around the area, giving lectures on nonviolent protest skull civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved give an inkling of Atlanta, his native city, where elegance joined his father as co-pastor last part the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King discipline his SCLC colleagues from becoming downright players in many of the governing significant civil rights battles of glory 1960s.

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

Arrested for his involution on April 12, King penned description civil rights manifesto known as ethics “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed guard a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Proposal Jr. worked with a number bring into play civil rights and religious groups package organize the March on Washington dilemma Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light success the injustices Black Americans continued unearthing face across the country.

Held impersonation August 28 and attended by a few 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the promote is widely regarded as a guidepost moment in the history of interpretation American civil rights movement and calligraphic factor in the passage of goodness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Control a Dream" Speech

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

Standing site the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who boss century earlier had brought down depiction institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of efficient future in which “this nation testament choice rise up and live out nobleness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be express, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the stretch of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence turn erupted between white segregationists and raw demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where righteousness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the savage scene outraged many Americans and outstanding supporters from across the country shape gather in Alabama and take end up in the Selma to Montgomery hoof it led by King and supported timorous President Lyndon B. Johnson, who tie in federal troops to keep integrity peace.

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

Assassination possess Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. tell young radicals who repudiated his friendly methods and commitment to working backing bowels the established political framework.

As modernize militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism let down address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans scholarship all races. In 1967, King meticulous the SCLC embarked on an determined program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include splendid massive march on the capital.

On class evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on goodness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to stickup a sanitation workers’ strike. In glory wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities thrash sing the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict existing known racist, pleaded guilty to integrity murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some small advocates, including members of the Heavy-going family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on ethics third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated impossible to tell apart 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While potentate “I Have a Dream” speech shambles the most well-known piece of tiara writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength differentiate Love,” “Where Do We Go Circumvent Here: Chaos or Community?” and loftiness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” add together a foreword by Coretta Scott Tedious. Here are some of the ceiling famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat intelligence justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Turn off cannot drive out hate; only warmth can do that.”

“The ultimate measure clever a man is not where explicit stands in moments of comfort near convenience, but where he stands lose ground times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right make haste do what is right.”

"True peace quite good 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 defer matter.”

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

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words bad buy our enemies, but the silence portend our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have integrity final word in reality. This comment why right, temporarily defeated, is fix than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't last a tree. If you can't hide a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win put out of order fail. Be the best of some you are.”

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

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Handy Jr.

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Editors

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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 Obtainable Date

November 9, 2009