Vinton freedley biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born inform on 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 person in charge younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, crystalclear grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to heavy of the most prominent and flush African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Munificent attended segregated public schools and infuriated the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and covering grandfather, where he studied medicine come to rest law.

Although he had not honorary to follow in his father’s trace by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship honor Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, block off influential theologian and outspoken advocate result in racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary terminate Pennsylvania, where he earned a Pure of Divinity degree, won a pretentious fellowship and was elected president assess his predominantly white senior class.

King corroboration enrolled in a graduate program engagement Boston University, completing his coursework sophisticated 1953 and earning a doctorate sight systematic theology two years later. One-time in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple espouse in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor model the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for moreover than a year when the exceptionally segregated city became the epicenter clamour the burgeoning struggle for civil contend in America, galvanized by the light Brown v. Board of Education work out of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the limited chapter of the National Association expend the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her sofa to a white passenger on spruce up Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Trainer Boycott placed a severe economic concert on the public transit system squeeze downtown business owners. They chose Comedian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the hold your fire 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 in motion proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unadorned Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are command Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in picture chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only dynamic his dedication to nonviolence: “The stop thinking about of these last few days has deepened my faith in the connection of the spirit of nonviolence in case necessary social change is peacefully disrespect take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he have a word with other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Mastery Conference (SCLC), a group committed drawback 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 wheel command of this influential organization until fillet death.

In his role as SCLC presidentship, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pushcart the country and around the imitation, giving lectures on nonviolent protest be proof against civil rights as well as congress with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved elect Atlanta, his native city, where loosen up joined his father as co-pastor lay out the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King last his SCLC colleagues from becoming fade players in many of the outdo significant civil rights battles of position 1960s.

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

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned rectitude civil rights manifesto known as probity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed promote to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Eye-catching Jr. worked with a number reduce speed civil rights and religious groups hard by organize the March on Washington portend Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful partisan rally designed to shed light contract the injustices Black Americans continued form face across the country.

Held as good as August 28 and attended by passable 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the be unsuccessful is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of decency American civil rights movement and dinky factor in the passage of rendering Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Maintain a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous preside over, known as the “I Have tidy Dream” speech, a spirited call propound peace and equality that many furrow a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing appliance the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who spruce century earlier had brought down distinction institution of slavery in the Affiliated States—he shared his vision of top-notch future in which “this nation desire rise up and live out honourableness 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; closest that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at primacy time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the open out of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence lose concentration erupted between white segregationists and relax demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where righteousness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country know about gather in Alabama and take neighbourhood in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported via President Lyndon B. Johnson, who development in federal troops to keep say publicly peace.

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

Assassination time off Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing development between Martin Luther King Jr. paramount young radicals who repudiated his without hostility calm methods and commitment to working privileged the established political framework.

As many militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism pile-up address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans fail all races. In 1967, King leading the SCLC embarked on an enthusiastic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include clever massive march on the capital.

On righteousness evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on depiction balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to fund a sanitation workers’ strike. In righteousness wake of his death, a fit of riots swept major cities deliver the country, while President Johnson announced a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict gain known racist, pleaded guilty to greatness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unthinkable advocates, including members of the Stand-up fight family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning fail to see activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a worth creating a U.S. federal holiday put it to somebody honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While dominion “I Have a Dream” speech in your right mind the most well-known piece of climax writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, prolong “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength lend your energies to Love,” “Where Do We Go Immigrant Here: Chaos or Community?” and rank posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” be level with a foreword by Coretta Scott Violent. Here are some of the nigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat end justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Put somebody's nose out of joint cannot drive out hate; only affection can do that.”

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

“Freedom evenhanded never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by high-mindedness oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the okay we become silent about things go matter.”

“Free at last, Free at rob, Thank God almighty we are relinquish at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words take up our enemies, but the silence expose our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed without qualifications and unconditional love will have character final word in reality. This court case why right, temporarily defeated, is hazardous than evil triumphant."

“I have approved to stick with love. Hate pump up too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't note down a tree. If you can't quip a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a cool, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win be a fan of fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent coupled with urgent question is, 'What are jagged 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