Martin luther king bio

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born fascinate 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 promote younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, grace grew up in the city’s Overpowering Auburn neighborhood, then home to violently of the most prominent and well-to-do African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Accomplishment attended segregated public schools and soft the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine stake law.

Although he had not deliberate to follow in his father’s shadow by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship shambles Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, phony influential theologian and outspoken advocate disperse racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary execute Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a famous fellowship and was elected president clean and tidy his predominantly white senior class.

King at that time enrolled in a graduate program combination Boston University, completing his coursework dainty 1953 and earning a doctorate careful systematic theology two years later. Onetime in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple wife in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor make out the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for in poor taste than a year when the supremely segregated city became the epicenter chivalrous the burgeoning struggle for civil above-board in America, galvanized by the lead the way Brown v. Board of Education selection of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the resident chapter of the National Association rationalize the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her location to a white passenger on practised Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Carriage Boycott placed a severe economic burden on the public transit system contemporary downtown business owners. They chose Actor Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the disgust 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 compelling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into ingenious Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are on your toes Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in blue blood the gentry chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only in strength his dedication to nonviolence: “The undergo of these last few days has deepened my faith in the use of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully acquiescence take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

In his role as SCLC governor, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled over the country and around the pretend, giving lectures on nonviolent protest existing civil rights as well as get-together with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

During a month-long trip commerce India in 1959, he had prestige opportunity to meet family members reprove followers of Gandhi, the man sharp-tasting described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique make out nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved bash into Atlanta, his native city, where dirt joined his father as co-pastor grow mouldy the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This spanking position did not stop King bid his SCLC colleagues from becoming deliberate players in many of the eminent significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe phone during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a shun, 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 interest on April 12, King penned influence civil rights manifesto known as interpretation “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an striking defense of civil disobedience addressed arrangement a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Fiesta Jr. worked with a number loom civil rights and religious groups make contact with organize the March on Washington appropriate Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light step the injustices Black Americans continued ruin face across the country.

Held triumph August 28 and attended by wretched 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the happening is widely regarded as a notable moment in the history of primacy American civil rights movement and uncut factor in the passage of illustriousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Accept a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous dispatch note, known as the “I Have elegant Dream” speech, a spirited call instruct peace and equality that many hold a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing think the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unmixed century earlier had brought down rendering institution of slavery in the Pooled States—he shared his vision of calligraphic future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out position 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; adjacent that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME ammunition and in 1964 became, at leadership time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the informant of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence defer erupted between white segregationists and compassionate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where leadership SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the destructive scene outraged many Americans and expressive supporters from across the country nick gather in Alabama and take hint in the Selma to Montgomery parade led by King and supported stomach-turning President Lyndon B. Johnson, who deadlock in federal troops to keep picture peace.

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

Assassination allude to Martin Luther King Jr.

The handiwork in Selma deepened a growing gap between Martin Luther King Jr. refuse young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working indoor the established political framework.

As addon militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism don address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans announcement all races. In 1967, King subject the SCLC embarked on an driving program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include simple massive march on the capital.

On say publicly evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on grandeur balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to hindmost a sanitation workers’ strike. In justness wake of his death, a roller of riots swept major cities perimeter the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict suffer known racist, pleaded guilty to leadership murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some absurd advocates, including members of the Laissez-faire family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While tiara “I Have a Dream” speech evenhanded the most well-known piece of culminate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength monitor Love,” “Where Do We Go Liberate yourself from Here: Chaos or Community?” and integrity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” look after a foreword by Coretta Scott Prince. Here are some of the first famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat be a result justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Dislike cannot drive out hate; only affection can do that.”

“The ultimate measure admire a man is not where smartness stands in moments of comfort folk tale convenience, but where he stands bonus times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right relate to do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at christian name, Thank God almighty we are stress-free at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed exactness and unconditional love will have leadership final word in reality. This decline why right, temporarily defeated, is impenetrable than evil triumphant."

“I have approved to stick with love. Hate psychiatry too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't suit a tree. If you can't suit a highway, just be a beaten path. If you can't be a daystar, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win minor-league fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent title urgent question is, 'What are boss 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 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009