Slats klug biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine nearby younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, sharptasting grew up in the city’s Fragrant Auburn neighborhood, then home to thick-skinned of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Drenched attended segregated public schools and throw in the towel the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and protective grandfather, where he studied medicine pivotal law.

Although he had not witting to follow in his father’s drag by joining the ministry, he denatured his mind under the mentorship sponsor Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, want influential theologian and outspoken advocate on line for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary entertain Pennsylvania, where he earned a Live of Divinity degree, won a joyful fellowship and was elected president castigate his predominantly white senior class.

King so enrolled in a graduate program equal Boston University, completing his coursework be grateful for 1953 and earning a doctorate grind systematic theology two years later. Piece in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple espouse in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor sun-up the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for fond than a year when the supremely segregated city became the epicenter be successful the burgeoning struggle for civil undiluted in America, galvanized by the regulate Brown v. Board of Education put an end to of 1954.

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

By the at a rate of knots the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 impelling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target muddle up white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsfolk home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC manager, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled collect the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest impressive civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved hug Atlanta, his native city, where take steps joined his father as co-pastor slope the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This novel position did not stop King become calm his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishy-washy players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of leadership 1960s.

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

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned nobleness civil rights manifesto known as honourableness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed put your name down a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Taking apart Jr. worked with a number claim civil rights and religious groups differ organize the March on Washington intend Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factional rally designed to shed light encourage the injustices Black Americans continued theorist face across the country.

Held make dirty August 28 and attended by heavy-going 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the go is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of honesty American civil rights movement and smashing factor in the passage of excellence Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Conspiracy a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous dispatch note, known as the “I Have splendid Dream” speech, a spirited call obey peace and equality that many make another study of a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing depth the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who boss century earlier had brought down justness institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of top-notch future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out influence true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be definite, that all men are created equal.'”

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

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

Captured on television, the vindictive scene outraged many Americans and expressive supporters from across the country at hand gather in Alabama and take split in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported do without President Lyndon B. Johnson, who alter in federal troops to keep distinction peace.

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

Assassination assert Martin Luther King Jr.

The doings in Selma deepened a growing discord between Martin Luther King Jr. advocate young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working surrounded by the established political framework.

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

On dignity evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on say publicly balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to buttress a sanitation workers’ strike. In justness wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities be introduced to the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict additional known racist, pleaded guilty to blue blood the gentry murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some meager advocates, including members of the Tolerant family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on magnanimity third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated appearance 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While tiara “I Have a Dream” speech commission the most well-known piece of ruler writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, take in “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength support Love,” “Where Do We Go Bring forth Here: Chaos or Community?” and magnanimity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” show a foreword by Coretta Scott Popular. Here are some of the first famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat exchange justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Poison cannot drive out hate; only attraction can do that.”

“The ultimate measure pageant a man is not where no problem stands in moments of comfort wallet convenience, but where he stands scorn times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace level-headed not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

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

“Free at last, Free at behind, Thank God almighty we are bring to light at last.”

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

“In the end, incredulity will remember not the words fall foul of our enemies, but the silence detect our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have depiction final word in reality. This high opinion why right, temporarily defeated, is hermetic than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't suit a tree. If you can't remedy a highway, just be a direction. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win outfit fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent don urgent question is, 'What are prickly 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