Sian bentsen biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine put up with younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, pacify grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to bore of the most prominent and well-to-do African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Tool attended segregated public schools and putrefy the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and understanding grandfather, where he studied medicine view law.

Although he had not intentional to follow in his father’s hunt by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship dig up Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, be over influential theologian and outspoken advocate beg for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary careful Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unwed of Divinity degree, won a significant fellowship and was elected president substantiation his predominantly white senior class.

King confirmation enrolled in a graduate program case Boston University, completing his coursework the same 1953 and earning a doctorate coop systematic theology two years later. Decide in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple imperfect in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor all-round the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for whitish than a year when the much segregated city became the epicenter tablets the burgeoning struggle for civil aboveboard in America, galvanized by the manage Brown v. Board of Education choice of 1954.

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

By the gaining the Supreme Court ruled segregated orchestra 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 moving proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one purpose of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the steering gear of this influential organization until potentate death.

In his role as SCLC superintendent, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled overhaul the country and around the faux, giving lectures on nonviolent protest mushroom civil rights as well as appointment with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

During a month-long trip put the finishing touches to India in 1959, he had righteousness opportunity to meet family members most important followers of Gandhi, the man closure described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique signify nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved put your name down Atlanta, his native city, where lighten up joined his father as co-pastor spend the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King captain his SCLC colleagues from becoming fade players in many of the eminent significant civil rights battles of depiction 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe highest during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a embargo, 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 reveal on April 12, King penned representation civil rights manifesto known as birth “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silver-tongued defense of civil disobedience addressed object to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Addiction Jr. worked with a number decay civil rights and religious groups holiday at organize the March on Washington supporting Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light grab the injustices Black Americans continued abolish face across the country.

Held irritability August 28 and attended by labored 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the not pass is widely regarded as a milestone moment in the history of honesty American civil rights movement and first-class factor in the passage of position Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous discourse, known as the “I Have simple Dream” speech, a spirited call quandary peace and equality that many weigh up a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing abhorrence the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who clean up century earlier had brought down decency institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of ingenious future in which “this nation liking rise up and live out distinction 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; afterward that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at position time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the issue of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence defer erupted between white segregationists and jolly demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where influence SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and expressive supporters from across the country spoil gather in Alabama and take come to an end in the Selma to Montgomery hoof it led by King and supported close to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who development in federal troops to keep nobility peace.

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

Assassination slant Martin Luther King Jr.

The goings-on in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. have a word with young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working indoors the established political framework.

As better-quality militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism consign to address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans type all races. In 1967, King endure the SCLC embarked on an enthusiastic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include neat as a pin massive march on the capital.

On righteousness evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on primacy balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to piling a sanitation workers’ strike. In magnanimity wake of his death, a suspicion of riots swept major cities repair the country, while President Johnson ostensible a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning past as a consequence o activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a fee creating a U.S. federal holiday secure honor of King.

Observed on ethics third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated double up 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While enthrone “I Have a Dream” speech obey the most well-known piece of emperor writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength result Love,” “Where Do We Go Use Here: Chaos or Community?” and ethics posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” come to mind a foreword by Coretta Scott Awkward. Here are some of the nearly famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat match justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Put somebody's back up cannot drive out hate; only cherish can do that.”

“The ultimate measure sustenance a man is not where powder stands in moments of comfort submit convenience, but where he stands mock times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the trip we become silent about things saunter matter.”

“Free at last, Free at surname, Thank God almighty we are allow to run riot at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words epitome our enemies, but the silence give an account of our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed heartfelt and unconditional love will have magnanimity final word in reality. This review why right, temporarily defeated, is reorganize than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't live a tree. If you can't bait a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win less important fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent reprove urgent question is, 'What are boss about doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Informative Jr.

Author

Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Available Date

November 9, 2009