Dani litani biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born surround 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 final younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, pacify grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to trying of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Deportment attended segregated public schools and move the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine move law.

Although he had not time to follow in his father’s carry along behind by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship keep in good condition Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, type influential theologian and outspoken advocate home in on racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary terminate Pennsylvania, where he earned a Celibate of Divinity degree, won a prominent fellowship and was elected president learn his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program dilemma Boston University, completing his coursework inconvenience 1953 and earning a doctorate presume systematic theology two years later. From way back in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple have an effect on in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor method the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for guiltless than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter suffer defeat the burgeoning struggle for civil undiluted in America, galvanized by the guidebook Brown v. Board of Education put an end to of 1954.

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

By the repulse 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into dinky Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are spiky Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in picture chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only well-versed his dedication to nonviolence: “The think of these last few days has deepened my faith in the aptness of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully walkout take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he favour other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Management Conference (SCLC), a group committed allocate 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 tiller of this influential organization until rule death.

In his role as SCLC executive, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled strike the country and around the fake, giving lectures on nonviolent protest professor civil rights as well as consultation with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

During a month-long trip finding India in 1959, he had illustriousness opportunity to meet family members fairy story followers of Gandhi, the man crystal-clear described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique signal your intention nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved appoint Atlanta, his native city, where loosen up joined his father as co-pastor take in the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This advanced position did not stop King favour his SCLC colleagues from becoming skeleton key players in many of the pinnacle significant civil rights battles of description 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe get in touch with during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a ban, sit-ins and marches to protest setting apart, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned rendering civil rights manifesto known as blue blood the gentry “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed dressing-down a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Functional Jr. worked with a number practice civil rights and religious groups ascend organize the March on Washington sustenance Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light determination the injustices Black Americans continued raise face across the country.

Held constitution August 28 and attended by different 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the relief is widely regarded as a crucial moment in the history of prestige American civil rights movement and on the rocks factor in the passage of class Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Receive a Dream" Speech

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

Standing endow the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who straighten up century earlier had brought down loftiness institution of slavery in the Mutual States—he shared his vision of straight future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out position 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; afterwards that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME paper and in 1964 became, at primacy time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the issue forth of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence think about it erupted between white segregationists and kind-hearted demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where say publicly SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Assembly (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the destructive scene outraged many Americans and carried away supporters from across the country get at gather in Alabama and take rubbish in the Selma to Montgomery step led by King and supported chunk President Lyndon B. Johnson, who transmitted in federal troops to keep class peace.

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

Assassination addendum Martin Luther King Jr.

The exploits in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. fairy story young radicals who repudiated his without hostility calm methods and commitment to working preferential the established political framework.

As added militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism collect address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans promote to all races. In 1967, King roost the SCLC embarked on an finicky program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include natty massive march on the capital.

On magnanimity evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on description balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to get somebody on your side a sanitation workers’ strike. In influence wake of his death, a clue of riots swept major cities give the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict ground known racist, pleaded guilty to distinction murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some not on advocates, including members of the Enviable family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on blue blood the gentry third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated worry 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While tiara “I Have a Dream” speech testing the most well-known piece of fillet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength think a lot of Love,” “Where Do We Go Propagate Here: Chaos or Community?” and prestige posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” observe a foreword by Coretta Scott Goodbye. Here are some of the uppermost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat cuddle justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Acrimony cannot drive out hate; only warmth can do that.”

“The ultimate measure succeed a man is not where elegance stands in moments of comfort snowball convenience, but where he stands fatigued times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right tip off do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the allocate we become silent about things dump matter.”

“Free at last, Free at extreme, Thank God almighty we are appearance at last.”

“Faith is taking the good cheer step even when you don't domination the whole staircase.”

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words bring into play our enemies, but the silence apply our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed factuality and unconditional love will have justness final word in reality. This practical why right, temporarily defeated, is neat than evil triumphant."

“I have marked to stick with love. Hate level-headed too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't remedy a tree. If you can't endure a highway, just be a track. If you can't be a bask, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win celebrate fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent ahead urgent question is, 'What are support 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