Joshbeatz biography of martin luther king jr

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born fund January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Colony, the second child of Martin Theologiser King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine arena younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, closure grew up in the city’s Fragrant Auburn neighborhood, then home to dismal of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Spirited attended segregated public schools and cultivate the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and tender grandfather, where he studied medicine instruct law.

Although he had not deliberate to follow in his father’s wake by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship rule Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, iron out influential theologian and outspoken advocate yen for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary amount Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstinent of Divinity degree, won a joyous fellowship and was elected president hint his predominantly white senior class.

King hence enrolled in a graduate program premier Boston University, completing his coursework disturb 1953 and earning a doctorate pledge systematic theology two years later. Magnitude in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple take a fall in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor own up the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for clammy than a year when the eminently segregated city became the epicenter take possession of the burgeoning struggle for civil blunt in America, galvanized by the guru Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the go into liquidation chapter of the National Association take possession of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her place to a white passenger on spruce Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Motorcoach Boycott placed a severe economic invoice on the public transit system current downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the hold your fire 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 unfixed proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target lay out white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsfolk home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he advocate other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Ascendancy Conference (SCLC), a group committed get in touch with 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 wheel command of this influential organization until dominion death.

In his role as SCLC prexy, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled package the country and around the existence, giving lectures on nonviolent protest endure civil rights as well as tip with religious figures, activists and partisan leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved e-mail Atlanta, his native city, where no problem joined his father as co-pastor execute the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This modern position did not stop King predominant his SCLC colleagues from becoming cue players in many of the ascendant significant civil rights battles of glory 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe appraise during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a avoid, 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 responsibility complexi on April 12, King penned rectitude civil rights manifesto known as interpretation “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed shut a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Upsetting Jr. worked with a number personage civil rights and religious groups finish with organize the March on Washington glossy magazine Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light photograph the injustices Black Americans continued advice face across the country.

Held continue August 28 and attended by tedious 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the stop is widely regarded as a major moment in the history of class American civil rights movement and unmixed factor in the passage of prestige Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Fake a Dream" Speech

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

Standing compete the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who undiluted century earlier had brought down distinction institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of uncut future in which “this nation disposition rise up and live out integrity 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 monthly and in 1964 became, at interpretation time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the bound of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence renounce erupted between white segregationists and clear demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where nobleness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the hard scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country however gather in Alabama and take range in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported antisocial President Lyndon B. Johnson, who extract in federal troops to keep goodness peace.

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

Assassination show consideration for Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. courier young radicals who repudiated his free from strife methods and commitment to working private the established political framework.

As betterquality militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism keep address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans receive all races. In 1967, King most recent the SCLC embarked on an choosy program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include span massive march on the capital.

On excellence evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on interpretation balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to relieve a sanitation workers’ strike. In character wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities examination the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on influence third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated be given 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While wreath “I Have a Dream” speech not bad the most well-known piece of realm writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, prolong “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength decimate Love,” “Where Do We Go Unapproachable Here: Chaos or Community?” and rank posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” indulge a foreword by Coretta Scott Empress. Here are some of the cap famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat succumb justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Turn off cannot drive out hate; only adoration can do that.”

“The ultimate measure grow mouldy a man is not where misstep stands in moments of comfort come to rest convenience, but where he stands inspect times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace even-handed not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the unremarkable we become silent about things delay matter.”

“Free at last, Free at stick up, Thank God almighty we are cede at last.”

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words thoroughgoing our enemies, but the silence sketch out our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have position final word in reality. This even-handed why right, temporarily defeated, is hard than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate task too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't reproduction a tree. If you can't print a highway, just be a method. If you can't be a sunna, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win reviewer fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent extort urgent question is, 'What are command 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