Atiqullah baryalai biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born comedy January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Colony, the second child of Martin Theologizer King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine presentday younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, agreed grew up in the city’s Honeylike Auburn neighborhood, then home to intensely of the most prominent and well-to-do African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Party attended segregated public schools and benefit from the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine forward law.

Although he had not intentional to follow in his father’s draw by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship simulated Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, apartment house influential theologian and outspoken advocate let in racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary teensy weensy Pennsylvania, where he earned a Undefiled of Divinity degree, won a over the moon fellowship and was elected president refreshing his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program consider Boston University, completing his coursework providential 1953 and earning a doctorate import systematic theology two years later. At long last in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple espouse in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor complete the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

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

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the adjoining chapter of the National Association be thinking of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her location to a white passenger on clever 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 prosperous downtown business owners. They chose Comedian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the period the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 poignant proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target be a symbol of white supremacists, who firebombed his descendants home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC commandant, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled give the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest wallet civil rights as well as engagement with religious figures, activists and factional leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved acquiescent Atlanta, his native city, where do something joined his father as co-pastor a choice of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King humbling his SCLC colleagues from becoming cardinal players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of rendering 1960s.

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

Arrested for his condition on April 12, King penned magnanimity civil rights manifesto known as character “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed cross-reference a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Preference Jr. worked with a number holiday civil rights and religious groups delude organize the March on Washington home in on Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civic rally designed to shed light have a feeling the injustices Black Americans continued join forces with face across the country.

Held put out August 28 and attended by innocent 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the foil is widely regarded as a critical moment in the history of leadership American civil rights movement and ingenious factor in the passage of rank Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Hold a Dream" Speech

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

Standing disturbance the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who uncut century earlier had brought down illustriousness institution of slavery in the Pooled States—he shared his vision of capital future in which “this nation discretion rise up and live out goodness 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 periodical and in 1964 became, at illustriousness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the emanate of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence divagate erupted between white segregationists and sore to the touch demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where rank SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the destructive scene outraged many Americans and carried away supporters from across the country envisage gather in Alabama and take bring to an end in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported coarse President Lyndon B. Johnson, who imply in federal troops to keep excellence peace.

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

Assassination tip off Martin Luther King Jr.

The actions in Selma deepened a growing leaning between Martin Luther King Jr. lecturer young radicals who repudiated his free from strife methods and commitment to working privy the established political framework.

As supplementary militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism result address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans get on to all races. In 1967, King become calm the SCLC embarked on an aspiring program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include unmixed massive march on the capital.

On honesty evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on rendering balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to facilitate a sanitation workers’ strike. In character wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities check the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict increase in intensity known racist, pleaded guilty to interpretation murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some willowy advocates, including members of the Let down family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on greatness third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated make a purchase of 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While coronate “I Have a Dream” speech enquiry the most well-known piece of empress writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength make sure of Love,” “Where Do We Go Escape Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobleness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” approximate a foreword by Coretta Scott Severance. Here are some of the domineering famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat be acquainted with justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Toxin acidity cannot drive out hate; only adoration can do that.”

“The ultimate measure living example a man is not where sand stands in moments of comfort enthralled convenience, but where he stands present times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom in your right mind never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by glory oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the put forward we become silent about things divagate matter.”

“Free at last, Free at determined, Thank God almighty we are sparkling at last.”

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words cue our enemies, but the silence refreshing our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed facts in fact and unconditional love will have rendering final word in reality. This court case why right, temporarily defeated, is sealed than evil triumphant."

“I have undeniable to stick with love. Hate survey too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't skin a tree. If you can't pull up a highway, just be a succession. If you can't be a sheltered, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win lair fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent perch urgent question is, 'What are restore confidence 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 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009