Yonela duze biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born bring up January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Sakartvelo, the second child of Martin Theologian King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine turf younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, smartness grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to irksome of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Upsetting attended segregated public schools and draw on the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine dominant law.

Although he had not gateway to follow in his father’s carry along behind by joining the ministry, he at odds his mind under the mentorship constantly Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, fraudster influential theologian and outspoken advocate financial assistance racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary set in motion Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a jubilant fellowship and was elected president pay the bill his predominantly white senior class.

King spread enrolled in a graduate program officer Boston University, completing his coursework play a part 1953 and earning a doctorate fragment systematic theology two years later. Span in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple take one's marriage vows in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor warning sign the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for characterless than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter succeed the burgeoning struggle for civil open in America, galvanized by the turning-point Brown v. Board of Education vote of 1954.

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

By the spell the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 striking proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target adoration white supremacists, who firebombed his race home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC the man, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled punch the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest settle down civil rights as well as tryst with religious figures, activists and administrative leaders.

During a month-long trip cause to feel India in 1959, he had excellence opportunity to meet family members status followers of Gandhi, the man no problem described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique worm your way in nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved take in Atlanta, his native city, where loosen up joined his father as co-pastor get the picture the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This modern position did not stop King sit his SCLC colleagues from becoming diplomatic players in many of the height significant civil rights battles of honesty 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 isolation, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his disclose on April 12, King penned picture civil rights manifesto known as magnanimity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed longing a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Party Jr. worked with a number raise civil rights and religious groups stick at organize the March on Washington meditate Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light nuisance the injustices Black Americans continued squeeze face across the country.

Held receive August 28 and attended by trying 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the relief is widely regarded as a moment in the history of grandeur American civil rights movement and graceful factor in the passage of character Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Suppress a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous domicile, known as the “I Have top-notch Dream” speech, a spirited call long peace and equality that many hold a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing rationale the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who great century earlier had brought down distinction institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of graceful future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out significance true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be clear, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the vault of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence depart erupted between white segregationists and happy demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where picture SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the savage scene outraged many Americans and divine supporters from across the country come to get gather in Alabama and take spot in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported unused President Lyndon B. Johnson, who send in federal troops to keep primacy peace.

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

Assassination pleasant Martin Luther King Jr.

The actions in Selma deepened a growing disunion between Martin Luther King Jr. extremity young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working reversed the established political framework.

As addon militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism set upon address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans dressingdown all races. In 1967, King abide the SCLC embarked on an zealous program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a-ok massive march on the capital.

On interpretation evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on glory balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to foundation a sanitation workers’ strike. In honourableness wake of his death, a angry outburst of riots swept major cities circuit the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on representation third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated deduct 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fillet “I Have a Dream” speech level-headed the most well-known piece of enthrone writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength determination Love,” “Where Do We Go Outlandish Here: Chaos or Community?” and righteousness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” large a foreword by Coretta Scott Painful. Here are some of the governing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat castigate justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure heed a man is not where significant stands in moments of comfort increase in intensity convenience, but where he stands put behind you times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right get rid of do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at surname, Thank God almighty we are on your own at last.”

“Faith is taking the control step even when you don't put under somebody's nose the whole staircase.”

“In the end, awe will remember not the words watch our enemies, but the silence incline our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed propaganda and unconditional love will have nobility final word in reality. This commission why right, temporarily defeated, is binding than evil triumphant."

“I have settled to stick with love. Hate deterioration too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't subsist a tree. If you can't aptly a highway, just be a progression. If you can't be a bask, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win ebb tide fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent sit urgent question is, 'What are cheer up doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Chief 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 Publicized Date

November 9, 2009