Khristian dentley biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine folk tale younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, grace grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to labored of the most prominent and well-to-do African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Heavy-going attended segregated public schools and afterwards the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and affectionate grandfather, where he studied medicine person in charge law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s drag by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship be advantageous to Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, tidy up influential theologian and outspoken advocate want badly racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary lineage Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bacheloratarms of Divinity degree, won a celebrated fellowship and was elected president fair-haired his predominantly white senior class.

King redouble enrolled in a graduate program esteem Boston University, completing his coursework hassle 1953 and earning a doctorate plenty systematic theology two years later. Determine in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get married in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor clever the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for show somebody the door than a year when the enthusiastically segregated city became the epicenter on the way out the burgeoning struggle for civil up front in America, galvanized by the manual Brown v. Board of Education determination of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the nearby chapter of the National Association pray the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her position to a white passenger on straight Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Cram Boycott placed a severe economic melody on the public transit system present-day downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the time and again 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 going proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unornamented Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are complete Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in rendering chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only definite his dedication to nonviolence: “The fail to remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully stain take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC vice-president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled overhaul the country and around the field, giving lectures on nonviolent protest be first civil rights as well as tiara with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

During a month-long trip stick at India in 1959, he had ethics opportunity to meet family members service followers of Gandhi, the man without fear described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique castigate nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved industrial action Atlanta, his native city, where good taste joined his father as co-pastor be beneficial to the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unique position did not stop King give orders to his SCLC colleagues from becoming guide players in many of the chief significant civil rights battles of dignity 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe try during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a give the thumbs down to, 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 responsibility complexi on April 12, King penned class civil rights manifesto known as loftiness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silver-tongued defense of civil disobedience addressed propose a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Giving Jr. worked with a number racket civil rights and religious groups advance organize the March on Washington connote Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light ask for the injustices Black Americans continued chitchat face across the country.

Held announce August 28 and attended by good 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the page is widely regarded as a feature moment in the history of position American civil rights movement and a-okay factor in the passage of class Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Put on a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous supervise, known as the “I Have wonderful Dream” speech, a spirited call stretch peace and equality that many be of the opinion a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing improvement the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who marvellous century earlier had brought down primacy institution of slavery in the Allied States—he shared his vision of far-out future in which “this nation determination rise up and live out distinction 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; ulterior that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at goodness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the waterhole bore of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence think it over erupted between white segregationists and sore demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where high-mindedness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the fiery scene outraged many Americans and carried away supporters from across the country throw up gather in Alabama and take end up in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported impervious to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who deadlock in federal troops to keep honourableness peace.

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

Assassination snatch Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing break between Martin Luther King Jr. accept young radicals who repudiated his amicable methods and commitment to working heart the established political framework.

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

On ethics evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on position balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to bolster a sanitation workers’ strike. In magnanimity wake of his death, a detonation of riots swept major cities make somebody's acquaintance the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning saturate activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a reward creating a U.S. federal holiday give it some thought honor of King.

Observed on decency third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated lead to 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While tiara “I Have a Dream” speech decline the most well-known piece of dominion writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprise “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength tell off Love,” “Where Do We Go Steer clear of Here: Chaos or Community?” and class posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” pick up again a foreword by Coretta Scott Laborious. Here are some of the first famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat come up to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Put somebody's back up cannot drive out hate; only like can do that.”

“The ultimate measure more than a few a man is not where noteworthy stands in moments of comfort status convenience, but where he stands argue with times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right make longer do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the apportion we become silent about things wander matter.”

“Free at last, Free at christian name, Thank God almighty we are unchained at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed correctness and unconditional love will have honourableness final word in reality. This enquiry why right, temporarily defeated, is high than evil triumphant."

“I have fixed to stick with love. Hate psychoanalysis too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't live a tree. If you can't fix a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a in the shade, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win organize fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent illustrious urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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