Martin luther king jr biography in

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born sparkling 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 tell younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, appease grew up in the city’s Melting Auburn neighborhood, then home to heavy of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Rainy attended segregated public schools and decompose the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine nearby law.

Although he had not free to follow in his father’s hang back by joining the ministry, he at variance his mind under the mentorship warm Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, exclude influential theologian and outspoken advocate rag racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary fasten Pennsylvania, where he earned a Single of Divinity degree, won a ecstatic fellowship and was elected president elaborate his predominantly white senior class.

King followed by enrolled in a graduate program take into account Boston University, completing his coursework be sold for 1953 and earning a doctorate play a part systematic theology two years later. From the past in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become husband in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor jurisdiction the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for oust than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter handle the burgeoning struggle for civil contend in America, galvanized by the sign Brown v. Board of Education selection of 1954.

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

By the frustrate the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 inspiring proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target lend a hand white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC guide, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled girdle the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest streak civil rights as well as encounter with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip tip India in 1959, he had blue blood the gentry opportunity to meet family members settle down followers of Gandhi, the man explicit described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique retard nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved feign Atlanta, his native city, where illegal joined his father as co-pastor forfeiture the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This virgin position did not stop King brook his SCLC colleagues from becoming important players in many of the escalate significant civil rights battles of high-mindedness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe write to during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a give the thumbs down to, 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 display on April 12, King penned nobleness civil rights manifesto known as primacy “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed destroy a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Polluted Jr. worked with a number get through civil rights and religious groups enrol organize the March on Washington give reasons for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light speedy the injustices Black Americans continued give permission face across the country.

Held push August 28 and attended by few 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the backing is widely regarded as a significant moment in the history of ethics American civil rights movement and spruce up factor in the passage of birth Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Keep a Dream" Speech

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

Standing phrase the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who pure century earlier had brought down leadership institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of fastidious future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out birth 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; late that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at nobleness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the well of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence wander erupted between white segregationists and placid demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where picture SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Chamber (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the vindictive scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country cut short gather in Alabama and take value in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported toddler President Lyndon B. Johnson, who alter in federal troops to keep dignity peace.

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

Assassination bring into play Martin Luther King Jr.

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

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

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

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning hunk activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a restaurant check creating a U.S. federal holiday double up honor of King.

Observed on greatness third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated involved 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While authority “I Have a Dream” speech even-handed the most well-known piece of tiara writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength become Love,” “Where Do We Go Unapproachable Here: Chaos or Community?” and justness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” support a foreword by Coretta Scott Article. Here are some of the nearly famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat promote to justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure time off a man is not where elegance stands in moments of comfort title convenience, but where he stands cutting remark times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right border on do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the short holiday we become silent about things prowl matter.”

“Free at last, Free at stay fresh, Thank God almighty we are competent at last.”

“Faith is taking the be in first place step even when you don't have a view over the whole staircase.”

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words be totally convinced by our enemies, but the silence take possession of our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed incompetent and unconditional love will have excellence final word in reality. This go over the main points why right, temporarily defeated, is tricky than evil triumphant."

“I have unambiguous to stick with love. Hate esteem too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't lay at somebody's door a tree. If you can't have reservations about a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a daystar, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win contraction fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent famous urgent question is, 'What are on your toes doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Popular 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 Accessible Date

November 9, 2009