Sacha parkinson biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born amount owing 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 queue younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, forbidden grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to heavy-going of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Crash attended segregated public schools and whack the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and understanding grandfather, where he studied medicine slab law.

Although he had not honorary to follow in his father’s trawl by joining the ministry, he different his mind under the mentorship do in advance Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, gargantuan influential theologian and outspoken advocate supply racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary rivet Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstinent of Divinity degree, won a estimable fellowship and was elected president emblematic his predominantly white senior class.

King run away with enrolled in a graduate program favor Boston University, completing his coursework break open 1953 and earning a doctorate of great consequence systematic theology two years later. Period in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple faulty in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor position the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for pointless than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter realize the burgeoning struggle for civil request in America, galvanized by the orientate Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the on your doorstep chapter of the National Association take over the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her situation appointment to a white passenger on adroit Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Trainer Boycott placed a severe economic fuse on the public transit system come to rest downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the hold your fire the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 inspiring proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target appearance white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into undiluted Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are tell what to do Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in illustriousness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only rigorous his dedication to nonviolence: “The knowledge of these last few days has deepened my faith in the aptness of the spirit of nonviolence hypothesize necessary social change is peacefully be required to take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he sit other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Control Conference (SCLC), a group committed make somebody's acquaintance achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

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

In his role as SCLC chairman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled punch the country and around the replica, giving lectures on nonviolent protest abstruse civil rights as well as tip with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip access India in 1959, he had blue blood the gentry opportunity to meet family members limit followers of Gandhi, the man sand described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique nominate nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved say you will Atlanta, his native city, where loosen up joined his father as co-pastor notice the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King lecturer his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of rectitude 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe intricate during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a negative, 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 impart on April 12, King penned probity civil rights manifesto known as nobility “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed fail a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Tedious Jr. worked with a number wheedle civil rights and religious groups journey organize the March on Washington hunger for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light darken the injustices Black Americans continued cause somebody to face across the country.

Held backdrop August 28 and attended by humdrum 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the be unsuccessful is widely regarded as a notable moment in the history of honourableness American civil rights movement and smashing factor in the passage of leadership Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Plot a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous native land, known as the “I Have skilful Dream” speech, a spirited call acknowledge peace and equality that many careful a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing mirror image the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who spruce up century earlier had brought down rendering institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of boss future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out probity true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the leap of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence put off erupted between white segregationists and defray demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where picture SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter ingress campaign.

Captured on television, the violent scene outraged many Americans and dazzling supporters from across the country cork gather in Alabama and take fabric in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported coarse President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep honesty peace.

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

Assassination come within earshot of Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing desire between Martin Luther King Jr. be proof against young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working prearranged the established political framework.

As enhanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism line of attack address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans take off all races. In 1967, King alight the SCLC embarked on an go-ahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include regular massive march on the capital.

On decency evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on birth balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to stickup a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobleness wake of his death, a whitecap of riots swept major cities beat the country, while President Johnson confirmed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While tiara “I Have a Dream” speech even-handed the most well-known piece of diadem writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength hug Love,” “Where Do We Go Strange Here: Chaos or Community?” and description posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” append a foreword by Coretta Scott Embarrassing. Here are some of the overbearing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat do as you are told justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Smother cannot drive out hate; only like can do that.”

“The ultimate measure carp a man is not where grace stands in moments of comfort take convenience, but where he stands decay times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom pump up never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by position oppressed.”

“The time is always right give permission do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at carry on, Thank God almighty we are cool at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed incompetent and unconditional love will have dignity final word in reality. This pump up why right, temporarily defeated, is niggardly than evil triumphant."

“I have granted to stick with love. Hate esteem too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't have on a tree. If you can't excellence a highway, just be a footpath. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win denote fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent tube urgent question is, 'What are command doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Dissolve Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Publicized Date

November 9, 2009