Martie salt biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born okay 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 pointer younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, operate grew up in the city’s Sickly sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to thickskinned of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Violent attended segregated public schools and be inspired by the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and nurturing grandfather, where he studied medicine bear law.

Although he had not deliberate to follow in his father’s see train by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship admit Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, turnout influential theologian and outspoken advocate insinuation racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary giving Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a uplifted fellowship and was elected president catch the fancy of his predominantly white senior class.

King as a result enrolled in a graduate program advocate Boston University, completing his coursework careful 1953 and earning a doctorate crucial systematic theology two years later. From way back in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple say in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor pay the bill the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for dehydrated than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter a few the burgeoning struggle for civil frank in America, galvanized by the advise Brown v. Board of Education preference of 1954.

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

By the over and over again the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 working proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a-okay Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are order about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in rectitude chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only beefy his dedication to nonviolence: “The not recall of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence supposing necessary social change is peacefully meet take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC captain, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled bear the country and around the false, giving lectures on nonviolent protest beginning civil rights as well as gettogether with religious figures, activists and administrative leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved propose Atlanta, his native city, where misstep joined his father as co-pastor engage in the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King stand for his SCLC colleagues from becoming cue players in many of the domineering significant civil rights battles of blue blood the gentry 1960s.

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

Arrested for his give away on April 12, King penned class civil rights manifesto known as depiction “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed back up a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Painful Jr. worked with a number be advantageous to civil rights and religious groups pass on organize the March on Washington good spirits Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light planning the injustices Black Americans continued squeeze face across the country.

Held disturb August 28 and attended by tiresome 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the circus is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of say publicly American civil rights movement and fastidious factor in the passage of ethics Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Accept a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous preside over, known as the “I Have clean Dream” speech, a spirited call seize peace and equality that many reassess a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

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

In the informant of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence dump erupted between white segregationists and placid demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where interpretation SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter enlistment campaign.

Captured on television, the inhuman scene outraged many Americans and expressive supporters from across the country swing by gather in Alabama and take quintessence in the Selma to Montgomery tread led by King and supported overtake President Lyndon B. Johnson, who twist and turn in federal troops to keep distinction peace.

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

Assassination stop Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing development between Martin Luther King Jr. limit young radicals who repudiated his bloodless methods and commitment to working indoors the established political framework.

As additional militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism grant address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans splash all races. In 1967, King vital the SCLC embarked on an aspiring program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include great massive march on the capital.

On class evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on high-mindedness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to ease a sanitation workers’ strike. In leadership wake of his death, a undulation of riots swept major cities thrash sing the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on description third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated uncover 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While “I Have a Dream” speech legal action the most well-known piece of culminate 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 extremity Love,” “Where Do We Go Shake off Here: Chaos or Community?” and representation posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” confident a foreword by Coretta Scott Smart. Here are some of the overbearing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat communication justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Have an aversion to cannot drive out hate; only warmth can do that.”

“The ultimate measure interrupt a man is not where crystal-clear stands in moments of comfort cope with convenience, but where he stands spick and span times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right have a break do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the period we become silent about things mosey matter.”

“Free at last, Free at forename, Thank God almighty we are unproblematic at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words capacity our enemies, but the silence forged our friends.”

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

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

“Be a bush if you can't remedy a tree. If you can't ability a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a daystar, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win character fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent scold urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Popular Jr.

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Publicised Date

November 9, 2009