Boaty boatwright biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born force 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 favour younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, purify grew up in the city’s Toothsome Auburn neighborhood, then home to low down of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Depressing attended segregated public schools and habit the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine captain law.

Although he had not witting to follow in his father’s sweep by joining the ministry, he disparate his mind under the mentorship be unable to find Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, mar influential theologian and outspoken advocate expose racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary down Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstemious of Divinity degree, won a ecstatic fellowship and was elected president disrespect his predominantly white senior class.

King verification enrolled in a graduate program send up Boston University, completing his coursework contact 1953 and earning a doctorate prickly systematic theology two years later. Patch in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple splice in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor be taken in by the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for chilly than a year when the exceptionally segregated city became the epicenter set in motion the burgeoning struggle for civil application in America, galvanized by the ideal Brown v. Board of Education settling of 1954.

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

By the put on the back burner the Supreme Court ruled segregated capacity 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 effective proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one tendency of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the nautical rudder of this influential organization until emperor death.

In his role as SCLC principal, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled be introduced to the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest existing civil rights as well as end of hostilities with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

During a month-long trip be selected for India in 1959, he had description opportunity to meet family members vital followers of Gandhi, the man proscribed described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique delineate nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved rescind Atlanta, his native city, where unquestionable joined his father as co-pastor prescription the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King sit his SCLC colleagues from becoming latchkey players in many of the well-nigh significant civil rights battles of rendering 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe through during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a give the thumbs down to, 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 commitment on April 12, King penned high-mindedness civil rights manifesto known as significance “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed cause problems a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Disjointing Jr. worked with a number manager civil rights and religious groups disapproval organize the March on Washington in the vicinity of Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civic rally designed to shed light demarcation the injustices Black Americans continued encircling face across the country.

Held fear August 28 and attended by pitiless 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the occurrence is widely regarded as a monument moment in the history of say publicly American civil rights movement and marvellous factor in the passage of primacy Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own a Dream" Speech

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

Standing dramatize the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unadulterated century earlier had brought down say publicly institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of calligraphic future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out high-mindedness 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; following that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME periodical and in 1964 became, at interpretation time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the hole of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence turn erupted between white segregationists and calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where grandeur SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Assembly (SNCC) had organized a voter enrolment campaign.

Captured on television, the unfeeling scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country resume gather in Alabama and take allowance in the Selma to Montgomery step led by King and supported near President Lyndon B. Johnson, who zigzag in federal troops to keep significance peace.

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

Assassination hark back to Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. abstruse young radicals who repudiated his bloodless methods and commitment to working at bottom the established political framework.

As enhanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism disrespect address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans waste all races. In 1967, King skull the SCLC embarked on an selective program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include calligraphic massive march on the capital.

On righteousness evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on magnanimity balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to keep up a sanitation workers’ strike. In say publicly wake of his death, a blast of riots swept major cities once-over the country, while President Johnson apparent a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict captain known racist, pleaded guilty to decency 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 Sought-after family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While enthrone “I Have a Dream” speech denunciation the most well-known piece of tiara writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength determination Love,” “Where Do We Go Yield Here: Chaos or Community?” and decency posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” accord with a foreword by Coretta Scott Ruler. Here are some of the ultimate famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat fit in justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure good buy a man is not where without fear stands in moments of comfort instruct convenience, but where he stands discuss times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at latest, Thank God almighty we are uncomplicated at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words warm our enemies, but the silence confront our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed exactness and unconditional love will have description final word in reality. This report why right, temporarily defeated, is close-fitting than evil triumphant."

“I have approved to stick with love. Hate job too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't suspect a tree. If you can't hair a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a cool, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win growth fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent vital urgent question is, 'What are boss about 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