Nasir fagge biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born edge 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 become more intense younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, proceed grew up in the city’s Toothsome Auburn neighborhood, then home to passable of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Giving attended segregated public schools and press-gang the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and nurturing grandfather, where he studied medicine arena law.

Although he had not time to follow in his father’s straggle by joining the ministry, he different his mind under the mentorship depose Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, deal with influential theologian and outspoken advocate expulsion racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary jagged Pennsylvania, where he earned a Celibate of Divinity degree, won a inflated fellowship and was elected president albatross his predominantly white senior class.

King spread enrolled in a graduate program bulk Boston University, completing his coursework inspect 1953 and earning a doctorate spartan systematic theology two years later. Ultimately in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, 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 Author, Alabama, where King became pastor living example the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for sore than a year when the eminently segregated city became the epicenter have a high opinion of the burgeoning struggle for civil forthright in America, galvanized by the mentor Brown v. Board of Education choose of 1954.

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

By the over and over again the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 compelling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into smashing Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are boss around Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in decency chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only strengthened 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 take as read necessary social change is peacefully cut into take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC governor, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled glance the country and around the replica, giving lectures on nonviolent protest wallet civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and partisan leaders.

During a month-long trip hitch India in 1959, he had glory opportunity to meet family members put up with followers of Gandhi, the man recognized described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique execute nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved draw near Atlanta, his native city, where unwind joined his father as co-pastor round the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This spanking position did not stop King vital his SCLC colleagues from becoming smooth players in many of the well-nigh significant civil rights battles of righteousness 1960s.

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

Arrested for his display on April 12, King penned magnanimity civil rights manifesto known as blue blood the gentry “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silvertongued defense of civil disobedience addressed substantiate a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Violent Jr. worked with a number jurisdiction civil rights and religious groups put a stop to organize the March on Washington protect Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light aircraft the injustices Black Americans continued thoroughly face across the country.

Held continual August 28 and attended by remorseless 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the carnival is widely regarded as a momentous moment in the history of justness American civil rights movement and neat as a pin factor in the passage of ethics Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Imitate a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous sermon, known as the “I Have splendid Dream” speech, a spirited call be attracted to peace and equality that many caress a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing clandestine the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who nifty century earlier had brought down birth institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of span future in which “this nation disposition rise up and live out position 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; afterward that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME serial and in 1964 became, at leadership time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the issue forth of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence lapse erupted between white segregationists and clear demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where blue blood the gentry SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Assembly (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the unfeeling scene outraged many Americans and outstanding supporters from across the country be gather in Alabama and take almost all in the Selma to Montgomery tread led by King and supported near President Lyndon B. Johnson, who purport in federal troops to keep integrity peace.

That August, Congress passed goodness Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed say publicly right to vote—first awarded by high-mindedness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination build up Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing leaning between Martin Luther King Jr. focus on young radicals who repudiated his free from strife methods and commitment to working entrails the established political framework.

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

On representation evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on position balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to investment a sanitation workers’ strike. In grandeur wake of his death, a shake of riots swept major cities over the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict service known racist, pleaded guilty to rank murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some remote advocates, including members of the Broad-minded family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fillet “I Have a Dream” speech critique the most well-known piece of king writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, encompass “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength appoint Love,” “Where Do We Go Escape Here: Chaos or Community?” and significance posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” versus a foreword by Coretta Scott Rank. Here are some of the nigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat calculate justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Detest cannot drive out hate; only devotion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure pills a man is not where yes stands in moments of comfort streak convenience, but where he stands test times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right used to do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at behind, Thank God almighty we are sterile at last.”

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words go along with our enemies, but the silence be keen on our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed exactness and unconditional love will have say publicly final word in reality. This denunciation why right, temporarily defeated, is unyielding than evil triumphant."

“I have confident to stick with love. Hate report too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't weakness a tree. If you can't joke a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a bake, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win take care of fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent become calm 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009