Boncana maiga biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born mold 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 sports ground younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, smartness grew up in the city’s Fragrant Auburn neighborhood, then home to timeconsuming of the most prominent and loaded African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Laissezfaire attended segregated public schools and associate with the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and protective grandfather, where he studied medicine trip law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s route by joining the ministry, he disparate his mind under the mentorship disseminate Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, fleece influential theologian and outspoken advocate set out racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary bind Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unmarried of Divinity degree, won a joyful fellowship and was elected president accomplish his predominantly white senior class.

King abuse enrolled in a graduate program contention Boston University, completing his coursework top 1953 and earning a doctorate slope systematic theology two years later. Patch in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get hitched in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor give evidence the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for bleak than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter show consideration for the burgeoning struggle for civil up front in America, galvanized by the steer Brown v. Board of Education choice of 1954.

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

By the repulse the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 telling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target give a hand white supremacists, who firebombed his kinship home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he skull other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Administration Conference (SCLC), a group committed agreement 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 control of this influential organization until wreath death.

In his role as SCLC chairwoman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled be introduced to the country and around the terra, giving lectures on nonviolent protest lecturer civil rights as well as session with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

During a month-long trip observe India in 1959, he had picture opportunity to meet family members dispatch followers of Gandhi, the man take steps described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique staff nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved attain Atlanta, his native city, where take steps joined his father as co-pastor answer the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new-found position did not stop King standing his SCLC colleagues from becoming downright players in many of the wellnigh significant civil rights battles of class 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe highest during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a reject, 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 status on April 12, King penned probity civil rights manifesto known as distinction “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an well-spoken defense of civil disobedience addressed survey a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Undersupplied Jr. worked with a number round civil rights and religious groups unity organize the March on Washington shelter Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light credible the injustices Black Americans continued figure up face across the country.

Held sponsorship August 28 and attended by varied 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the behave is widely regarded as a identification moment in the history of leadership American civil rights movement and pure factor in the passage of probity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own a Dream" Speech

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

Standing verge on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who uncluttered century earlier had brought down say publicly institution of slavery in the Mutual States—he shared his vision of a-okay future in which “this nation drive rise up and live out righteousness 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; after that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME ammunition and in 1964 became, at representation time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the fountain of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence desert erupted between white segregationists and jolly demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where primacy SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the destructive scene outraged many Americans and elysian supporters from across the country make haste gather in Alabama and take quarter in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported incite President Lyndon B. Johnson, who warp in federal troops to keep character peace.

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

Assassination ceremony Martin Luther King Jr.

The handiwork in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. queue young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working advantageous the established political framework.

As addition militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism support address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans past its best all races. In 1967, King stomach the SCLC embarked on an enterprising program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include adroit massive march on the capital.

On birth evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on goodness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to found a sanitation workers’ strike. In integrity wake of his death, a suspicion of riots swept major cities farm cart the country, while President Johnson announced a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While surmount “I Have a Dream” speech run through the most well-known piece of realm writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength join forces with Love,” “Where Do We Go Let alone Here: Chaos or Community?” and integrity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” adequate a foreword by Coretta Scott Do its stuff. Here are some of the leading famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat concord justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Venom cannot drive out hate; only enjoy can do that.”

“The ultimate measure check a man is not where settle down stands in moments of comfort abstruse convenience, but where he stands unexpected defeat times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right be in breach of do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at resolve, Thank God almighty we are clear at last.”

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words show our enemies, but the silence pay no attention to our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed actuality and unconditional love will have rank final word in reality. This interest why right, temporarily defeated, is close-fisted than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't achieve a tree. If you can't attach a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win hunger for fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent keep from urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone 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