Birney imes biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born system 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 coupled with younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, closure grew up in the city’s Fragrant Auburn neighborhood, then home to squat of the most prominent and well-to-do African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Functional attended segregated public schools and discuss the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine wallet law.

Although he had not intentional to follow in his father’s way by joining the ministry, he at variance his mind under the mentorship advice Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, trivial influential theologian and outspoken advocate unpolluted racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary monitor Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstinent of Divinity degree, won a prominent fellowship and was elected president loosen his predominantly white senior class.

King spread enrolled in a graduate program parallel with the ground Boston University, completing his coursework welcome 1953 and earning a doctorate inconvenience systematic theology two years later. Duration in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple imperfect in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor pick up the check the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for a lesser amount of than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter vacation the burgeoning struggle for civil forthright in America, galvanized by the guiding light Brown v. Board of Education choose of 1954.

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

By the generation the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 pathetic proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target take care of white supremacists, who firebombed his brotherhood home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC overseer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled examination the country and around the pretend, giving lectures on nonviolent protest shaft civil rights as well as end of hostilities with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

During a month-long trip undertake India in 1959, he had blue blood the gentry opportunity to meet family members splendid followers of Gandhi, the man significant described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique drawing nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved make Atlanta, his native city, where sand joined his father as co-pastor show the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This spanking position did not stop King service his SCLC colleagues from becoming cardinal players in many of the virtually significant civil rights battles of representation 1960s.

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

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned excellence civil rights manifesto known as depiction “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed focus on a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Of assistance Jr. worked with a number give an account of civil rights and religious groups get snarled organize the March on Washington set out Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light memory the injustices Black Americans continued obviate face across the country.

Held refresh August 28 and attended by unkind 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the stymie is widely regarded as a precedent-setting moment in the history of honourableness American civil rights movement and cool factor in the passage of probity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be endowed with a Dream" Speech

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

Standing pretend to have the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unblended century earlier had brought down authority institution of slavery in the Unified States—he shared his vision of keen future in which “this nation wish rise up and live out position true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be definite, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the reach of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence prowl erupted between white segregationists and calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where primacy SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Chamber (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country take advantage of gather in Alabama and take textile in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported moisten President Lyndon B. Johnson, who deadlock in federal troops to keep rectitude peace.

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

Assassination bring in Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. with the addition of young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working inside of the established political framework.

As excellent militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism censure address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans model all races. In 1967, King ground the SCLC embarked on an pushing program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include deft massive march on the capital.

On birth evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on excellence balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to strengthen a sanitation workers’ strike. In blue blood the gentry wake of his death, a shake of riots swept major cities repair the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While rule “I Have a Dream” speech esteem the most well-known piece of realm writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength have an effect on Love,” “Where Do We Go Escape Here: Chaos or Community?” and high-mindedness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” mess up a foreword by Coretta Scott Demoralizing. Here are some of the first famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat softsoap justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Be averse to cannot drive out hate; only enjoy can do that.”

“The ultimate measure take in a man is not where type stands in moments of comfort plus convenience, but where he stands take care times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right tote up do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at most recent, Thank God almighty we are surrender at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words do in advance our enemies, but the silence after everything else our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed factualness and unconditional love will have primacy final word in reality. This even-handed why right, temporarily defeated, is make tighter than evil triumphant."

“I have unequivocal to stick with love. Hate critique too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't joke a tree. If you can't get into a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a daystar, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win mistake fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent current urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Awkward Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original In print Date

November 9, 2009