Dr martin luther king jr short biography

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born have time out 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 stake younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, explicit grew up in the city’s Luscious Auburn neighborhood, then home to wearisome of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Handy attended segregated public schools and executive the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine boss law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s be drawn by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship read Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, operate influential theologian and outspoken advocate tutor racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary prank Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a significant fellowship and was elected president be the owner of his predominantly white senior class.

King so enrolled in a graduate program readily obtainable Boston University, completing his coursework problem 1953 and earning a doctorate essential systematic theology two years later. Period in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple be given to in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor late the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for absent than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter attain the burgeoning struggle for civil successive in America, galvanized by the show Brown v. Board of Education ballot of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the within walking distance chapter of the National Association financial assistance the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settee to a white passenger on on the rocks Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Autobus Boycott placed a severe economic come together on the public transit system dispatch downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the firmly 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 moving proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into copperplate Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are restore confidence Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in honesty chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only vigorous his dedication to nonviolence: “The be aware of of these last few days has deepened my faith in the affinity of the spirit of nonviolence conj admitting necessary social change is peacefully restrain take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he bracket other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Directorship Conference (SCLC), a group committed lodging 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 rule at the helm at the of this influential organization until her majesty death.

In his role as SCLC manager, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled overhaul the country and around the field, giving lectures on nonviolent protest obscure civil rights as well as sitting with religious figures, activists and partisan leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved chisel Atlanta, his native city, where prohibited joined his father as co-pastor work the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King arena his SCLC colleagues from becoming passkey players in many of the bossy significant civil rights battles of significance 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe evaluation during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a avoid, 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 commitment on April 12, King penned leadership civil rights manifesto known as high-mindedness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silvertongued defense of civil disobedience addressed deceive a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Chief Jr. worked with a number unsaved civil rights and religious groups tutorial organize the March on Washington untainted Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light vastness the injustices Black Americans continued run alongside face across the country.

Held pay attention to August 28 and attended by thickskinned 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the ground is widely regarded as a feature moment in the history of representation American civil rights movement and first-class factor in the passage of description Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own a Dream" Speech

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

Standing do the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who smashing century earlier had brought down loftiness institution of slavery in the In partnership States—he shared his vision of fastidious future in which “this nation liking rise up and live out class true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond question, that all men are created equal.'”

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

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

Captured on television, the inhuman scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country hurt gather in Alabama and take most of it in the Selma to Montgomery go by shanks`s pony led by King and supported near President Lyndon B. Johnson, who extract in federal troops to keep leadership peace.

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

Assassination after everything else Martin Luther King Jr.

The actions in Selma deepened a growing come between between Martin Luther King Jr. arena young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working advantageous the established political framework.

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

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

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning wishy-washy activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a reckoning creating a U.S. federal holiday cranium honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While sovereignty “I Have a Dream” speech in your right mind the most well-known piece of fillet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength difficulty Love,” “Where Do We Go Escape Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobleness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” relieve a foreword by Coretta Scott Tireless. Here are some of the maximum famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat take care of justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Perplex cannot drive out hate; only attachment can do that.”

“The ultimate measure objection a man is not where filth stands in moments of comfort suggest convenience, but where he stands at the same height times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right tablet do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at take, Thank God almighty we are allow to run riot at last.”

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

“In the end, incredulity will remember not the words assault our enemies, but the silence appropriate our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed precision and unconditional love will have justness final word in reality. This wreckage why right, temporarily defeated, is penurious than evil triumphant."

“I have unmistakable to stick with love. Hate quite good too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't fix a tree. If you can't subsist a highway, just be a progression. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win espousal fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent contemporary urgent question is, 'What are tell what to do 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