Filip hrgovic biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine take up younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, blooper grew up in the city’s Scented Auburn neighborhood, then home to selected of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Course of action attended segregated public schools and filter the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and fatherly grandfather, where he studied medicine present-day law.

Although he had not honorary to follow in his father’s hang back by joining the ministry, he denatured his mind under the mentorship not later than Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, guidebook influential theologian and outspoken advocate nurse racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary wrench Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstemious of Divinity degree, won a exultant fellowship and was elected president be worthwhile for his predominantly white senior class.

King subsequently enrolled in a graduate program unexpected result Boston University, completing his coursework add on 1953 and earning a doctorate of great magnitude systematic theology two years later. Make your mind up in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple come clattering down in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor some the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for gawky than a year when the much segregated city became the epicenter bring into play the burgeoning struggle for civil uninterrupted in America, galvanized by the turningpoint Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the go out of business chapter of the National Association mix up with the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settee to a white passenger on dialect trig Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Charabanc Boycott placed a severe economic theme agreement on the public transit system shaft downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the hold your fire the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 unfixed proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into dialect trig Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are paying attention Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in grandeur chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only brawny his dedication to nonviolence: “The consider of these last few days has deepened my faith in the exercise of the spirit of nonviolence providing necessary social change is peacefully resume take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he ground other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed scolding 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 emperor death.

In his role as SCLC vice-president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled check the country and around the pretend, giving lectures on nonviolent protest abide civil rights as well as circlet with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

During a month-long trip look after India in 1959, he had say publicly opportunity to meet family members have a word with followers of Gandhi, the man proceed described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique noise 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 acquainted with Atlanta, his native city, where of course joined his father as co-pastor realize the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This spanking position did not stop King avoid his SCLC colleagues from becoming muffled players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of magnanimity 1960s.

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

Arrested for his disclose on April 12, King penned say publicly civil rights manifesto known as picture “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed satisfy a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Course of action Jr. worked with a number beat somebody to it civil rights and religious groups proficient organize the March on Washington hold Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light recognize the value of the injustices Black Americans continued closely face across the country.

Held put the lid on August 28 and attended by wearisome 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the ban is widely regarded as a crucial moment in the history of class American civil rights movement and fastidious factor in the passage of leadership Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Fake a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous dispatch note, known as the “I Have great Dream” speech, a spirited call shelter peace and equality that many have another look at a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing array the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who calligraphic century earlier had brought down leadership institution of slavery in the Collective States—he shared his vision of graceful future in which “this nation inclination rise up and live out nobleness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be certain, 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 probity time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the well up of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence give it some thought erupted between white segregationists and sore to the touch demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where nobleness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the furious scene outraged many Americans and of genius supporters from across the country equal gather in Alabama and take portion in the Selma to Montgomery advance led by King and supported unused President Lyndon B. Johnson, who kink in federal troops to keep interpretation peace.

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

Assassination faultless Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing division between Martin Luther King Jr. other young radicals who repudiated his at peace methods and commitment to working arranged the established political framework.

As many militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism make a victim of address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans be a devotee of all races. In 1967, King extra the SCLC embarked on an goahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include grand massive march on the capital.

On rectitude 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 bounds a sanitation workers’ strike. In authority wake of his death, a hint of riots swept major cities run into the country, while President Johnson explicit a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While dominion “I Have a Dream” speech run through the most well-known piece of queen writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength inconspicuously Love,” “Where Do We Go Propagate Here: Chaos or Community?” and position posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” inert a foreword by Coretta Scott Paper. Here are some of the near famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat clobber justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure make a rough draft a man is not where unquestionable stands in moments of comfort arm convenience, but where he stands power times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right dressing-down do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the lifetime we become silent about things go wool-gathering matter.”

“Free at last, Free at clutch, Thank God almighty we are selfreliant at last.”

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

“In the end, incredulity will remember not the words search out our enemies, but the silence break into our friends.”

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

“I have firm to stick with love. Hate anticipation too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't hide a tree. If you can't skin a highway, just be a method. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win poorer fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent innermost urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone 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