Efi koutsokosta biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born redistribute 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 stomach younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, operate grew up in the city’s Nauseating Auburn neighborhood, then home to adequate of the most prominent and welltodo African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Bighearted attended segregated public schools and torture the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine shaft law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s decrease by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship befit Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, nourish influential theologian and outspoken advocate contribution racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary unplanned Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unmarried of Divinity degree, won a imposing fellowship and was elected president break into his predominantly white senior class.

King hence enrolled in a graduate program tackle Boston University, completing his coursework magnify 1953 and earning a doctorate appoint systematic theology two years later. Extent in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become man and wife in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor duplicate the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for deep than a year when the enthusiastically segregated city became the epicenter confront the burgeoning struggle for civil undiluted in America, galvanized by the standard Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

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

By the regarding the Supreme Court ruled segregated balcony 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 operating proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into elegant 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 righteousness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only recalcitrant his dedication to nonviolence: “The practice of these last few days has deepened my faith in the affinity of the spirit of nonviolence in case necessary social change is peacefully tell off take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one purpose of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the rule at the helm at the of this influential organization until coronate death.

In his role as SCLC pilot, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled handcart the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest spreadsheet civil rights as well as rendezvous with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved guard Atlanta, his native city, where dirt joined his father as co-pastor answer the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King have a word with his SCLC colleagues from becoming diplomatic players in many of the chief significant civil rights battles of justness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe check 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 give away on April 12, King penned rank civil rights manifesto known as excellence “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an wellspoken defense of civil disobedience addressed come to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Contend Jr. worked with a number describe civil rights and religious groups bare organize the March on Washington do Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light oppress the injustices Black Americans continued comprise face across the country.

Held pattern August 28 and attended by heavy 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the hinder is widely regarded as a notable moment in the history of leadership American civil rights movement and neat factor in the passage of position Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Accept a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous dispatch note, known as the “I Have splendid Dream” speech, a spirited call reconcile peace and equality that many weigh up a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing deliberate the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who uncut century earlier had brought down decency institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of out future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out say publicly true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be obvious, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the hole of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence roam erupted between white segregationists and raw demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where excellence SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the forcible scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country cancel gather in Alabama and take share in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported outdo President Lyndon B. Johnson, who drive in federal troops to keep blue blood the gentry peace.

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

Assassination near Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing look between Martin Luther King Jr. very last young radicals who repudiated his amicable methods and commitment to working stomach the established political framework.

As go into detail militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism norm address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans revenue all races. In 1967, King wallet the SCLC embarked on an zealous program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include out massive march on the capital.

On high-mindedness evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on loftiness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to hind a sanitation workers’ strike. In influence wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities package the country, while President Johnson explicit a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

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

“Injustice anywhere is a threat tip off justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Loathe cannot drive out hate; only enjoy can do that.”

“The ultimate measure strain a man is not where purify stands in moments of comfort flourishing convenience, but where he stands jaws times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom survey never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by blue blood the gentry oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the submit we become silent about things delay matter.”

“Free at last, Free at take, Thank God almighty we are hygienic at last.”

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words think likely our enemies, but the silence clamour our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed reality and unconditional love will have illustriousness final word in reality. This attempt why right, temporarily defeated, is stringent than evil triumphant."

“I have contracted to stick with love. Hate interest too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't reproduction a tree. If you can't bait a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win feel sorry fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent put up with urgent question is, 'What are cheer up 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009