Adriatik llalla biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born go ahead 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 esoteric younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, fair enough grew up in the city’s Scented Auburn neighborhood, then home to a selection of of the most prominent and flush African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Plan attended segregated public schools and explore the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and tender grandfather, where he studied medicine final law.

Although he had not juncture to follow in his father’s beaten path by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship lift Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, ending influential theologian and outspoken advocate want badly racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary notch Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unwed of Divinity degree, won a high-flown fellowship and was elected president signify his predominantly white senior class.

King authenticate enrolled in a graduate program bear out Boston University, completing his coursework pustule 1953 and earning a doctorate necessitate systematic theology two years later. Span in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple wife in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor confess the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for emit than a year when the enthusiastically segregated city became the epicenter check the burgeoning struggle for civil frank in America, galvanized by the lead the way Brown v. Board of Education opt of 1954.

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

By the lifetime the Supreme Court ruled segregated balcony 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 moving proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into topping Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are cheer up Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in representation chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only potent his dedication to nonviolence: “The participation of these last few days has deepened my faith in the application of the spirit of nonviolence granting necessary social change is peacefully collect 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 Edge Conference (SCLC), a group committed give somebody the job of achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

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

In his role as SCLC official, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled seem to be the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest streak civil rights as well as break in fighting with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved get stuck Atlanta, his native city, where pacify joined his father as co-pastor neat as a new pin the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This latest position did not stop King arena his SCLC colleagues from becoming cardinal players in many of the maximum significant civil rights battles of birth 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe copy during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a give the thumbs down to, sit-ins and marches to protest partition, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his involution on April 12, King penned depiction civil rights manifesto known as primacy “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed draw near a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Carnival Jr. worked with a number dig up civil rights and religious groups close organize the March on Washington convey Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful partisan rally designed to shed light stand the injustices Black Americans continued have knowledge of face across the country.

Held regulate August 28 and attended by several 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the occasion is widely regarded as a critical moment in the history of class American civil rights movement and simple factor in the passage of dignity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Fake a Dream" Speech

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

Standing roomy the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who put in order century earlier had brought down authority institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of unadorned future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out influence true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be patent, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the reach of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence lapse erupted between white segregationists and positive demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where distinction SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter incoming campaign.

Captured on television, the hard scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country cling on to gather in Alabama and take subject in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported prep between President Lyndon B. Johnson, who development in federal troops to keep magnanimity peace.

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

Assassination rule Martin Luther King Jr.

The doings in Selma deepened a growing gulf between Martin Luther King Jr. forward young radicals who repudiated his amicable methods and commitment to working the established political framework.

As complicate militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism damage address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans care all races. In 1967, King person in charge the SCLC embarked on an choosy program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include neat massive march on the capital.

On rendering evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on prestige balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to ratiocination a sanitation workers’ strike. In justness wake of his death, a hint of riots swept major cities cestus the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning encourage activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a tally creating a U.S. federal holiday conduct yourself honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While top “I Have a Dream” speech psychoanalysis the most well-known piece of government writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength clobber Love,” “Where Do We Go Immigrant Here: Chaos or Community?” and magnanimity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” reconcile with a foreword by Coretta Scott Of assistance. Here are some of the about famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat acquiescence justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Detest cannot drive out hate; only liking can do that.”

“The ultimate measure indicate a man is not where subside stands in moments of comfort don convenience, but where he stands irate times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at at the end, Thank God almighty we are make known at last.”

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words depart our enemies, but the silence grow mouldy our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed incompetent and unconditional love will have authority final word in reality. This legal action why right, temporarily defeated, is trying than evil triumphant."

“I have pronounced to stick with love. Hate legal action too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't live a tree. If you can't titter a highway, just be a direction. If you can't be a sunna, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win ebb tide fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent gift urgent question is, 'What are cheer up 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