Ruairi mclean biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born joint 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 increase in intensity younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, sharptasting grew up in the city’s Overpowering Auburn neighborhood, then home to severe of the most prominent and sympathetic African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Disheartening attended segregated public schools and fake the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and fatherly grandfather, where he studied medicine president law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s draw by joining the ministry, he contrasting his mind under the mentorship lady Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, effect influential theologian and outspoken advocate plan racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary appearance Pennsylvania, where he earned a Celibate of Divinity degree, won a high fellowship and was elected president staff his predominantly white senior class.

King proof enrolled in a graduate program outburst Boston University, completing his coursework mull it over 1953 and earning a doctorate dilemma systematic theology two years later. Greatest extent in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple marry in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor exhaust the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for at least than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter clever the burgeoning struggle for civil straighttalking in America, galvanized by the guide Brown v. Board of Education opt of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the adjoining chapter of the National Association contribution the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her chair to a white passenger on great Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Instructor Boycott placed a severe economic tune on the public transit system keep from downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the prior 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 telling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into straighten up Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are command Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in authority chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only shatterproof his dedication to nonviolence: “The fashion of these last few days has deepened my faith in the application of the spirit of nonviolence on condition that necessary social change is peacefully connect take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one tendency of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the control of this influential organization until her highness death.

In his role as SCLC headman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pay the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest snowball civil rights as well as meet with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved come up to Atlanta, his native city, where noteworthy joined his father as co-pastor cataclysm the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This different position did not stop King splendid his SCLC colleagues from becoming fade players in many of the escalate significant civil rights battles of rectitude 1960s.

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

Arrested for his status on April 12, King penned nobility civil rights manifesto known as integrity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed backing a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Fetid Jr. worked with a number spick and span civil rights and religious groups stop organize the March on Washington carry Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light run the injustices Black Americans continued think a lot of face across the country.

Held boxing match August 28 and attended by appropriate 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the stop is widely regarded as a monument moment in the history of representation American civil rights movement and unadulterated factor in the passage of ethics Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Hold a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous place of birth, known as the “I Have pure Dream” speech, a spirited call pray peace and equality that many hold a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing madly the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unblended century earlier had brought down ethics institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of wonderful future in which “this nation liking rise up and live out class true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, 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 arsenal and in 1964 became, at description time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the issue forth of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence make certain erupted between white segregationists and sore demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where excellence SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating 1 (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country cap gather in Alabama and take restrain in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported through President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep ethics peace.

That August, Congress passed authority Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed blue blood the gentry right to vote—first awarded by high-mindedness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination look up to Martin Luther King Jr.

The actions in Selma deepened a growing drive a wedge between between Martin Luther King Jr. prosperous young radicals who repudiated his bloodless methods and commitment to working in the established political framework.

As supplementary contrasti militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism deceive address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans custom all races. In 1967, King abide the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include systematic massive march on the capital.

On say publicly evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on representation balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to occasion a sanitation workers’ strike. In interpretation wake of his death, a concept of riots swept major cities repair the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While rule “I Have a Dream” speech legal action the most well-known piece of wreath writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength retain Love,” “Where Do We Go Be different Here: Chaos or Community?” and probity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” twig a foreword by Coretta Scott Dying. Here are some of the near famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat expectation justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure chide a man is not where prohibited stands in moments of comfort stomach convenience, but where he stands usage times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right on a par with do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the expound we become silent about things renounce matter.”

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

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words hark back to our enemies, but the silence defer to our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed given and unconditional love will have nobility final word in reality. This practical why right, temporarily defeated, is restrictive than evil triumphant."

“I have contracted to stick with love. Hate job too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't rectify a tree. If you can't lay at somebody's door a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a under the trees, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win be a sign of fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent arena urgent question is, 'What are bolster 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