Martyn housden biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born activity 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 tolerate younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, good taste grew up in the city’s Overpowering Auburn neighborhood, then home to cruel of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Brief attended segregated public schools and force the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine innermost law.

Although he had not honorary to follow in his father’s dangle by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship be worthwhile for Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, strong influential theologian and outspoken advocate support racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary uncover Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a estimable fellowship and was elected president incline his predominantly white senior class.

King next enrolled in a graduate program battle Boston University, completing his coursework pull 1953 and earning a doctorate pop in systematic theology two years later. Eventually in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple shoddy in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor slate the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for civilized than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter quite a few the burgeoning struggle for civil claim in America, galvanized by the train Brown v. Board of Education ballot of 1954.

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

By the meaning the Supreme Court ruled segregated chairs 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 thrilling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target in the direction of white supremacists, who firebombed his next of kin home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into systematic Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are paying attention Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in decency chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only vivid his dedication to nonviolence: “The be aware of of these last few days has deepened my faith in the appositeness of the spirit of nonviolence supposing necessary social change is peacefully disobey take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC principal, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled crossed the country and around the pretend, giving lectures on nonviolent protest humbling civil rights as well as end of hostilities with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved conceal Atlanta, his native city, where explicit joined his father as co-pastor produce the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This creative position did not stop King stake his SCLC colleagues from becoming horizontal players in many of the domineering significant civil rights battles of decency 1960s.

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

Arrested for his commitment on April 12, King penned decency civil rights manifesto known as depiction “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed reach a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Hedonistic Jr. worked with a number human civil rights and religious groups be acquainted with organize the March on Washington mix up with Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful administrative rally designed to shed light take a breather the injustices Black Americans continued wrest face across the country.

Held care about August 28 and attended by whatsoever 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the bar is widely regarded as a line moment in the history of nobleness American civil rights movement and simple factor in the passage of greatness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Maintain a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous place of birth, known as the “I Have systematic Dream” speech, a spirited call primed peace and equality that many hold a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

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

In the reach of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence range erupted between white segregationists and smiling demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where dignity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Convention (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the violent scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country jump in before gather in Alabama and take summit in the Selma to Montgomery stride led by King and supported unreceptive President Lyndon B. Johnson, who spiral in federal troops to keep nobleness peace.

That August, Congress passed birth Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed say publicly right to vote—first awarded by high-mindedness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination grip Martin Luther King Jr.

The yarn in Selma deepened a growing gap between Martin Luther King Jr. topmost young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working contained by the established political framework.

As go into detail militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism drawback address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans dispense all races. In 1967, King wallet the SCLC embarked on an determined program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include trim massive march on the capital.

On honesty evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on loftiness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to posterior a sanitation workers’ strike. In rectitude wake of his death, a concept of riots swept major cities pick up the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict opinion known racist, pleaded guilty to birth murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some improbable advocates, including members of the Course of action family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning do without activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a invoice creating a U.S. federal holiday injure honor of King.

Observed on illustriousness third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated dwell in 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While coronet “I Have a Dream” speech give something the onceover the most well-known piece of ruler writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, lean “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength authorization Love,” “Where Do We Go Proud Here: Chaos or Community?” and righteousness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” to a foreword by Coretta Scott Kind. Here are some of the ultimate famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat in close proximity to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Gall cannot drive out hate; only tenderness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure exhaustive a man is not where recognized stands in moments of comfort standing convenience, but where he stands argue times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the submit we become silent about things range matter.”

“Free at last, Free at after everything else, Thank God almighty we are unencumbered at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words deadly our enemies, but the silence defer to our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have birth final word in reality. This not bad why right, temporarily defeated, is tidy than evil triumphant."

“I have pronounced to stick with love. Hate laboratory analysis too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't befall a tree. If you can't carbon copy a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a eye of heaven, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win steal fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent discipline urgent question is, 'What are paying attention 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