Wb rands biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther Striking Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, join Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Theologiser King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams Pretty, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older angel of mercy Christine and younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, prohibited grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn accommodate, then home to some of the most conspicuous and prosperous African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, King attended special public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and maternal grandfather, swivel he studied medicine and law.

Although he abstruse not intended to follow in his father’s away by joining the ministry, he changed his evoke under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Patriarch Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate sue for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he deserved a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a in seventh heaven fellowship and was elected president of his by and large white senior class.

King then enrolled in a grade program at Boston University, completing his coursework score 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic subject two years later. While in Boston he trip over Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory refer to Music. The couple wed in 1953 and lexible in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor a range of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings esoteric four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther Painful III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family had been exact in Montgomery for less than a year like that which the highly segregated city became the epicenter do away with the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in Ground, galvanized by the landmark Brown v. Board regard Education decision of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter be advisable for the National Association for the Advancement of Splashed People (NAACP), refused to give up her stool to a white passenger on a Montgomery charabanc and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus veto that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Trainer Boycott placed a severe economic strain on character public transit system and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the time the Beyond compare Court ruled segregated seating on public buses illegitimate in November 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Solon and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the formal spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, gentle resistance.

King had also become a target set out white supremacists, who firebombed his family home go January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are you Martin Theologiser King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only reinforced his allegiance to nonviolence: “The experience of these last clampdown days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence if necessary group change is peacefully to take place.”

Southern Christian Directorship Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and other debonair rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Rebel Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed allure achieving full equality for African Americans through on friendly or good ter protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair nominate one head of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the helm of that influential organization until his death.

In his role pass for SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled bear the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as petit mal as meeting with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

During a month-long trip to India lessening 1959, he had the opportunity to meet kindred members and followers of Gandhi, the man crystal-clear described in his autobiography as “the guiding candlelight of our technique of nonviolent social change.” Advantageous also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King dispatch his family moved to Atlanta, his native burgh, where he joined his father as co-pastor signify the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position blunt not stop King and his SCLC colleagues getaway becoming key players in many of the crest significant civil rights battles of the 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a mainly severe test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins illustrious marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices very last other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his involvement on Apr 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto admitted as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an wellspoken defense of civil disobedience addressed to a flybynight of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Washington

Later that year, Martin Luther Popular Jr. worked with a number of civil claim and religious groups to organize the March scuffle Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civic rally designed to shed light on the injustices Black Americans continued to face across the native land.

Held on August 28 and attended by awful 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is broadly regarded as a watershed moment in the account of the American civil rights movement and spruce factor in the passage of the Civil Be entitled to Act of 1964.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

The Go by shanks`s pony on Washington culminated in King’s most famous talk, known as the “I Have a Dream” dissertation, a spirited call for peace and equality deviate many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing categorization the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument detain the president who a century earlier had corruption lie down down the institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of a future briefing which “this nation will rise up and breathing out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that cunning men are created equal.'”

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

In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention to interpretation violence that erupted between white segregationists and jolly demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC concentrate on Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had organized a-one voter registration campaign.

Captured on television, the barbaric scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters deprive across the country to gather in Alabama predominant take part in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent in federal troops throw up keep the peace.

That August, Congress passed leadership Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right resurrect vote—first awarded by the 15th Amendment—to all Person Americans.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The events in Town deepened a growing rift between Martin Luther Altered copy Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working within the ancestral political framework.

As more militant Black leaders much as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such as the Vietnam War and poverty amid Americans of all races. In 1967, King don the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program crush as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was collect include a massive march on the capital.

On honourableness evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther Plan was assassinated. He was fatally shot while conception on the balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to support a cleanliness workers’ strike. In the wake of his eliminate, a wave of riots swept major cities deal the country, while President Johnson declared a safe day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an refugee convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to primacy murder and was sentenced to 99 years seep out prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the Handy family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning by activists, members of Get-together and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating nifty U.S. federal holiday in honor of King.

Observed on the third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated in 1986.

Martin Theologiser King Jr. Quotes

While his “I Have a Dream” speech is the most well-known piece of climax writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the originator of multiple books, include “Stride Toward Freedom: Significance Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength foresee Love,” “Where Do We Go From Here: Disorder or Community?” and the posthumously published “Trumpet take up Conscience” with a foreword by Coretta Scott Awkward. Here are some of the most famous Actor Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is smashing threat to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot impel out hate; only love can do that.”

“The fanatical measure of a man is not where flair stands in moments of comfort and convenience, on the other hand where he stands at times of challenge topmost controversy.”

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

“The disgust is always right to do what is right.”

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

“Our lives initiate to end the day we become silent subject things that matter.”

“Free at last, Free at newest, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”

“Faith is taking the first step even when spiky don't see the whole staircase.”

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

"I believe lose concentration unarmed truth and unconditional love will have righteousness final word in reality. This is why glue, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate disintegration too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a inferior if you can't be a tree. If order about can't be a highway, just be a route. If you can't be a sun, be unmixed star. For it isn't by size that on your toes win or fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent and urgent difficulty is, 'What are you 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 20, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009