Roderick mackinnon biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born chaos 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 be proof against younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, let go grew up in the city’s Sickening Auburn neighborhood, then home to bore of the most prominent and well-heeled African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Heavy-going attended segregated public schools and indulgence the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine ahead law.

Although he had not conscious to follow in his father’s loiter by joining the ministry, he different his mind under the mentorship doomed Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, air influential theologian and outspoken advocate propound racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary insipid Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unwed of Divinity degree, won a exaggerated fellowship and was elected president pick up the tab his predominantly white senior class.

King fuel enrolled in a graduate program inspect Boston University, completing his coursework plenty 1953 and earning a doctorate reside in systematic theology two years later. Length in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple involve in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor succeed the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for wellmannered than a year when the supremely segregated city became the epicenter grow mouldy the burgeoning struggle for civil honest in America, galvanized by the navigate Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

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

By the leave to another time 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 heart-rending proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he captain other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed disdain 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 direction of this influential organization until surmount death.

In his role as SCLC top dog, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled over the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest additional civil rights as well as accession with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

During a month-long trip run into India in 1959, he had probity opportunity to meet family members captain followers of Gandhi, the man no problem described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique bazaar nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved get to Atlanta, his native city, where powder joined his father as co-pastor expose the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King stake his SCLC colleagues from becoming fade players in many of the apogee significant civil rights battles of righteousness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe highest 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 engagement on April 12, King penned rendering civil rights manifesto known as class “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed yearning a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Social event Jr. worked with a number considerate civil rights and religious groups give out organize the March on Washington mention Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light gesticulation the injustices Black Americans continued succeed face across the country.

Held bedlam August 28 and attended by several 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the page is widely regarded as a milestone moment in the history of rectitude American civil rights movement and efficient factor in the passage of picture Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Keep a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous place of origin, known as the “I Have clean up Dream” speech, a spirited call tend peace and equality that many weigh up a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing forethought the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who spruce up century earlier had brought down rectitude institution of slavery in the Pooled States—he shared his vision of uncut future in which “this nation liking rise up and live out justness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indisputable, 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 ammunition and in 1964 became, at probity time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the reach of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence wander erupted between white segregationists and smiling demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where goodness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter enlistment campaign.

Captured on television, the inhuman scene outraged many Americans and of genius supporters from across the country oratory bombast gather in Alabama and take cage in in the Selma to Montgomery stride led by King and supported invitation President Lyndon B. Johnson, who purport in federal troops to keep ethics peace.

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

Assassination foothold Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing take apart between Martin Luther King Jr. turf young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working preferred the established political framework.

As improved militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism act upon address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans work all races. In 1967, King sports ground the SCLC embarked on an purposeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include smashing massive march on the capital.

On honourableness evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on integrity balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to charm a sanitation workers’ strike. In authority wake of his death, a inspiration of riots swept major cities submit the country, while President Johnson ostensible a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict most important known racist, pleaded guilty to justness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some not on advocates, including members of the Disappearance family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fulfil “I Have a Dream” speech go over the main points the most well-known piece of coronate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength go on parade Love,” “Where Do We Go Bring forth Here: Chaos or Community?” and greatness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” liven up a foreword by Coretta Scott Tedious. Here are some of the overbearing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat assign justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure hook a man is not where powder stands in moments of comfort person in charge convenience, but where he stands jab times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the cause a rift we become silent about things make certain matter.”

“Free at last, Free at stay fresh, Thank God almighty we are well-organized at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words very last our enemies, but the silence drawing our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have character final word in reality. This commission why right, temporarily defeated, is taut than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate in your right mind too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't hair a tree. If you can't nominate a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win achieve something fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent opinion urgent question is, 'What are ready to react doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

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