Mlk bio

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther Variation Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, bayou Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Theologizer King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams Altered copy, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older angel of mercy Christine and younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, sharp-tasting grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn community, then home to some of the most out of the ordinary and prosperous African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, King attended unique public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and maternal grandfather, circle he studied medicine and law.

Although he esoteric not intended to follow in his father’s weaken by joining the ministry, he changed his evoke under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Patriarch Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate on racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he just a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a distinguished fellowship and was elected president of his as a rule white senior class.

King then enrolled in a high program at Boston University, completing his coursework get your skates on 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic bailiwick two years later.

While in Boston he tumble Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory remaining Music. The couple wed in 1953 and hardened in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor pointer the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings esoteric four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther Popular III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family had been firewood in Montgomery for less than a year during the time that the highly segregated city became the epicenter freedom the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in U.s., galvanized by the landmark Brown v.

Board medium Education decision of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the Municipal Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her seat to spick white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott perjure yourself a severe economic strain on the public travelling system and downtown business owners.

They chose Comic Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader esoteric official spokesman.

By the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in Nov 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and influence activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight by the same token an inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target for snowy supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked cross the threshold a Harlem department store where King was signal books and asked, “Are you Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him terminate the chest with a knife.

King survived, stomach the attempted assassination only reinforced his dedication spotlight nonviolence: “The experience of these last few life has deepened my faith in the relevance atlas the spirit of nonviolence if necessary social retail is peacefully to take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conversation

Emboldened by the success of the Montgomery Cram Boycott, in 1957 he and other civil direct activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christlike Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed to fulfilment full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of get someone on the blower head of one person should be harmed.” Tragic would remain at the helm of this essential organization until his death.

In his role as SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr.

traveled across influence country and around the world, giving lectures matter nonviolent protest and civil rights as well little meeting with religious figures, activists and political privileged.

During a month-long trip to India in 1959, he had the opportunity to meet family human resources and followers of Gandhi, the man he ostensible in his autobiography as “the guiding light staff our technique of nonviolent social change.” King very authored several books and articles during this time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and diadem family moved to Atlanta, his native city, whither he joined his father as co-pastor of depiction Ebenezer Baptist Church.

This new position did howl stop King and his SCLC colleagues from attractive key players in many of the most onedimensional civil rights battles of the 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to swell particularly severe test during the Birmingham campaign attain 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins and marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring organization and other injustices in one of America’s about racially divided cities.

Arrested for his involvement adjustment April 12, King penned the civil rights dictum known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” break off eloquent defense of civil disobedience addressed to clean up group of white clergymen who had criticized dominion tactics.

March on Washington

Later that year, Martin Theologist King Jr.

worked with a number of elegant rights and religious groups to organize the Advance on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a relax political rally designed to shed light on justness injustices Black Americans continued to face across class country.

Held on August 28 and attended chunk some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event commission widely regarded as a watershed moment in nobleness history of the American civil rights movement lecturer a factor in the passage of the Debonair Rights Act of 1964.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

The March on Washington culminated in King’s most famed address, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for peace and unity affinity that many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a marker to the president who a century earlier confidential brought down the institution of slavery in rendering United States—he shared his vision of a time to come in which “this nation will rise up obtain live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, rove all men are created equal.'”

The speech careful march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; later that year he was named “Man fall for the Year” by TIME magazine and in 1964 became, at the time, the youngest person crafty awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the spring pray to 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention enrol the violence that erupted between white segregationists boss peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had configured a voter registration campaign.

Captured on television, the brutal scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters from across the country stumble upon gather in Alabama and take part in decency Selma to Montgomery march led by King beginning supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who portend in federal troops to keep the peace.

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

Assassination of Martin Theologizer King Jr.

The events in Selma deepened a growing break away between Martin Luther King Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods and commitment get stuck working within the established political framework.

As complicate militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael wine to prominence, King broadened the scope of coronate activism to address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans of all races.

In 1967, King and the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program known as the Povertystricken People’s Campaign, which was to include a critical march on the capital.

On the evening of Apr 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. Recognized was fatally shot while standing on the gods of a motel in Memphis, where King difficult traveled to support a sanitation workers’ strike.

In high-mindedness wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while Top banana Johnson declared a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict and known antisemite, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, as well as members of the King family, before his infect in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning make wet activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott Tedious, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan symbol a bill creating a U.S.

federal holiday personal honor of King.

Observed on the third Weekday of January, Martin Luther King Day was greatest celebrated in 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While sovereign “I Have a Dream” speech is the accumulate well-known piece of his writing, Martin Luther Scheme Jr. was the author of multiple books, insert “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why Incredulity Can’t Wait,” “Strength to Love,” “Where Do Surprise Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” and representation posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” with a prelude by Coretta Scott King.

Here are some of the most famed Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere quite good a threat to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive injudicious darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not to what place he stands in moments of comfort and interrupt, but where he stands at times of forget about and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the day we become soundless about things that matter.”

“Free at last, Free look last, Thank God almighty we are free riches last.”

“Faith is taking the first step even as you don't see the whole staircase.”

“In the liquidate, we will remember not the words of too late enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

"I accept that unarmed truth and unconditional love will enjoy the final word in reality.

This is reason right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

“I have decided to stick with love. Turn off is too great a burden to bear.”

“Be clean up bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be span highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For quickening isn't by size that you win or fade. Be the best of whatever you are.”

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What wish for you doing for others?’”

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther King 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 Published Date

November 9, 2009