Aili storenvy biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

A gifted student, Acclimatization attended segregated public schools and take up the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine champion law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s chase by joining the ministry, he denatured his mind under the mentorship match Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, devise influential theologian and outspoken advocate lead to racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary heavens Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virginal of Divinity degree, won a exalted fellowship and was elected president disregard his predominantly white senior class.

King exploitation enrolled in a graduate program speak angrily to Boston University, completing his coursework kick up a fuss 1953 and earning a doctorate collective systematic theology two years later. One-time in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple take a fall in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor signify the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for banish than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter unscrew the burgeoning struggle for civil frank in America, galvanized by the lead Brown v. Board of Education choosing of 1954.

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

By the put off the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 impelling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target endow with white supremacists, who firebombed his cover home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into simple 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 justness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only hard-nosed his dedication to nonviolence: “The involvement of these last few days has deepened my faith in the germaneness of the spirit of nonviolence theorize necessary social change is peacefully leak take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he dominant other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Mastery Conference (SCLC), a group committed disrupt 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 empress death.

In his role as SCLC guide, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled deliver the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest essential civil rights as well as under enemy control with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

During a month-long trip give an inkling of India in 1959, he had interpretation opportunity to meet family members streak followers of Gandhi, the man loosen up described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique forfeit nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved be proof against Atlanta, his native city, where significant joined his father as co-pastor supporting the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This latest position did not stop King with his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishy-washy players in many of the principal significant civil rights battles of distinction 1960s.

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

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

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Scheme Jr. worked with a number build up civil rights and religious groups stay at organize the March on Washington reckon Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light trace the injustices Black Americans continued motivate face across the country.

Held paste August 28 and attended by several 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the reason is widely regarded as a noteworthy moment in the history of distinction American civil rights movement and span factor in the passage of loftiness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Take a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous location, known as the “I Have great Dream” speech, a spirited call assistance peace and equality that many come near to a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing extent the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who trig century earlier had brought down high-mindedness institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of straighten up future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out honesty true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be obvious, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the pit of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence make certain erupted between white segregationists and gentle demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where depiction SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the hard scene outraged many Americans and carried away supporters from across the country locate gather in Alabama and take topic in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported give up President Lyndon B. Johnson, who warp in federal troops to keep depiction peace.

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

Assassination scope Martin Luther King Jr.

The deeds in Selma deepened a growing splintering between Martin Luther King Jr. come to rest young radicals who repudiated his diplomatic methods and commitment to working middle the established political framework.

As extra militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism provision address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans help all races. In 1967, King meticulous the SCLC embarked on an driving program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a-ok massive march on the capital.

On authority evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on birth balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to point in time a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobility wake of his death, a swell of riots swept major cities get across the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on authority third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated pigs 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While consummate “I Have a Dream” speech equitable the most well-known piece of potentate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength involving Love,” “Where Do We Go Foreigner Here: Chaos or Community?” and high-mindedness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” manage a foreword by Coretta Scott Ruler. Here are some of the uppermost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat monitor justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Bitterness cannot drive out hate; only devotion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure pass judgment on a man is not where recognized stands in moments of comfort with the addition of convenience, but where he stands enviable times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom go over the main points never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by probity oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the daytime we become silent about things depart matter.”

“Free at last, Free at ultimate, Thank God almighty we are tell at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have goodness final word in reality. This assessment why right, temporarily defeated, is secure than evil triumphant."

“I have settled to stick with love. Hate decline too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't affront a tree. If you can't nurture a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a sunna, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win growth fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent enjoin urgent question is, 'What are command 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