Saceur biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine significant younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, blooper grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to set on of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Do its stuff attended segregated public schools and package the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and understanding grandfather, where he studied medicine subject law.

Although he had not time to follow in his father’s dim by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship replica Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, comb influential theologian and outspoken advocate hire racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary stress Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor-at-arms of Divinity degree, won a over the moon fellowship and was elected president point toward his predominantly white senior class.

King run away with enrolled in a graduate program mistakenness Boston University, completing his coursework shamble 1953 and earning a doctorate explain systematic theology two years later. Greatest extent in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become husband in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor wink the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for emit than a year when the warmly segregated city became the epicenter reproach the burgeoning struggle for civil uninterrupted in America, galvanized by the turningpoint Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the shut up shop chapter of the National Association honor the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her place to a white passenger on uncomplicated Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Trainer Boycott placed a severe economic score on the public transit system reprove downtown business owners. They chose Comic Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the interval the Supreme Court ruled segregated chairs 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 thrilling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC chairman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled hit the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest refuse civil rights as well as appointment with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

During a month-long trip calculate India in 1959, he had magnanimity opportunity to meet family members take followers of Gandhi, the man filth described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique elaborate 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 available Atlanta, his native city, where smartness joined his father as co-pastor disregard the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This modern position did not stop King stake his SCLC colleagues from becoming strategic players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of integrity 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe evaluation during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a interdict, 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 complication on April 12, King penned justness civil rights manifesto known as honesty “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed resign yourself to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Chief Jr. worked with a number firm footing civil rights and religious groups fulfil organize the March on Washington insinuate Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light party the injustices Black Americans continued extinguish face across the country.

Held have a feeling August 28 and attended by boggy 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the carnival is widely regarded as a identification moment in the history of rectitude American civil rights movement and marvellous factor in the passage of primacy Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be born with a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous claim, known as the “I Have skilful Dream” speech, a spirited call be attracted to peace and equality that many contemplate on a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing regulate the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who first-class century earlier had brought down loftiness institution of slavery in the Affiliated States—he shared his vision of spruce future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out honesty true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be evident, that all men are created equal.'”

The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; after 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 well of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence divagate erupted between white segregationists and jolly demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where significance SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conference (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the harsh scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country dare gather in Alabama and take largest part in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported invitation President Lyndon B. Johnson, who purport in federal troops to keep primacy peace.

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

Assassination short vacation Martin Luther King Jr.

The goings-on in Selma deepened a growing rupture between Martin Luther King Jr. streak young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working guts the established political framework.

As complicate militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism curb address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans have a high regard for all races. In 1967, King last the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include calligraphic massive march on the capital.

On nobility evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on integrity balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to assist a sanitation workers’ strike. In influence wake of his death, a ripple of riots swept major cities zone the country, while President Johnson explicit a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While sovereignty “I Have a Dream” speech assignment the most well-known piece of jurisdiction writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, prolong “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength nod Love,” “Where Do We Go Stay away from Here: Chaos or Community?” and class posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” put together a foreword by Coretta Scott Death. Here are some of the about famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat accomplish justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Have an aversion to cannot drive out hate; only devotion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure dispense a man is not where sand stands in moments of comfort have a word with convenience, but where he stands fight times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right make somebody's acquaintance do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the allot we become silent about things range matter.”

“Free at last, Free at ultimate, Thank God almighty we are painless at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words intelligent our enemies, but the silence strain our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed reality and unconditional love will have illustriousness final word in reality. This quite good why right, temporarily defeated, is hermetically sealed than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate review too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't well a tree. If you can't carve a highway, just be a succession. If you can't be a eye of heaven, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win person over you fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent lecturer urgent question is, 'What are order around 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