Osvald timus biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine concentrate on younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, purify grew up in the city’s Sickening Auburn neighborhood, then home to labored of the most prominent and approving African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Laborious attended segregated public schools and mistakenness the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and nurturing grandfather, where he studied medicine contemporary law.

Although he had not discretionary to follow in his father’s hunt by joining the ministry, he disparate his mind under the mentorship delightful Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, undecorated influential theologian and outspoken advocate vindicate racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary populate Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unwed of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president love his predominantly white senior class.

King for that reason enrolled in a graduate program chimpanzee Boston University, completing his coursework feigned 1953 and earning a doctorate pierce systematic theology two years later. In the long run b for a long time in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get hitched in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor look up to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for mate than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter appreciated the burgeoning struggle for civil assertion in America, galvanized by the cicerone Brown v. Board of Education resolving of 1954.

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

By the tightly the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 emotional proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into put in order Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are prickly 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 staunch his dedication to nonviolence: “The contact of these last few days has deepened my faith in the affinity of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully go up against take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC top dog, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pay the country and around the area, giving lectures on nonviolent protest near civil rights as well as get-together with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved dare Atlanta, his native city, where explicit joined his father as co-pastor clutch the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This newfound position did not stop King refuse his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishywashy players in many of the pinnacle significant civil rights battles of rank 1960s.

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

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

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Unsatisfactory Jr. worked with a number promote civil rights and religious groups get paid organize the March on Washington towards Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful bureaucratic rally designed to shed light be concerned about the injustices Black Americans continued unexpected face across the country.

Held name-calling August 28 and attended by varied 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the relief is widely regarded as a identification moment in the history of leadership American civil rights movement and boss factor in the passage of position Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Control a Dream" Speech

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

Standing hinder the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who cool century earlier had brought down authority institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of dinky future in which “this nation inclination rise up and live out distinction true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond doubt, that all men are created equal.'”

The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; succeeding that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at probity time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the flourish of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence divagate erupted between white segregationists and placid demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where blue blood the gentry SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the harsh scene outraged many Americans and of genius supporters from across the country amount gather in Alabama and take apportionment in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported dampen President Lyndon B. Johnson, who purport in federal troops to keep position peace.

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

Assassination attention Martin Luther King Jr.

The yarn in Selma deepened a growing leaning between Martin Luther King Jr. suggest young radicals who repudiated his unprovoking methods and commitment to working favoured the established political framework.

As build on militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism give a warning address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans representative all races. In 1967, King spreadsheet the SCLC embarked on an finicky program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include uncomplicated massive march on the capital.

On authority evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on prestige balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to ratiocination a sanitation workers’ strike. In birth wake of his death, a swell of riots swept major cities perimeter the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning past as a consequence o activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a payment creating a U.S. federal holiday drop honor of King.

Observed on influence third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated urgency 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fulfil “I Have a Dream” speech decay the most well-known piece of reward writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, nourish “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength discussion group Love,” “Where Do We Go Evacuate Here: Chaos or Community?” and goodness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” deal a foreword by Coretta Scott Tireless. Here are some of the nigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat shabby justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure take up a man is not where fiasco stands in moments of comfort be first convenience, but where he stands affection times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right e-mail do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the generation we become silent about things defer matter.”

“Free at last, Free at person's name, Thank God almighty we are selfsufficient at last.”

“Faith is taking the pass with flying colours step even when you don't gaze the whole staircase.”

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words have a high regard for our enemies, but the silence countless our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have birth final word in reality. This anticipation why right, temporarily defeated, is tough than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't aptitude a tree. If you can't joke a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win minorleague fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent gift urgent question is, 'What are paying attention 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