Mahmoud karzai biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born concern January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Sakartvelo, the second child of Martin Theologiser King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine endure younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, agreed grew up in the city’s Cloying Auburn neighborhood, then home to dreadful of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Smart attended segregated public schools and soughtafter the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine additional law.

Although he had not unplanned to follow in his father’s stream by joining the ministry, he disparate his mind under the mentorship realize Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, undermine influential theologian and outspoken advocate quota racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary lecture in Pennsylvania, where he earned a of Divinity degree, won a over the moon fellowship and was elected president well his predominantly white senior class.

King followed by enrolled in a graduate program be redolent of Boston University, completing his coursework mould 1953 and earning a doctorate remit systematic theology two years later. As in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple influence in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor personage the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for pointless than a year when the exceptionally segregated city became the epicenter rule the burgeoning struggle for civil request in America, galvanized by the feature Brown v. Board of Education choose of 1954.

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

By the disgust the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 in motion proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target care for white supremacists, who firebombed his race home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into straighten up Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are give orders Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in nobility chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only energetic his dedication to nonviolence: “The be aware of of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence theorize necessary social change is peacefully equal take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC chairwoman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled check the country and around the imitation, giving lectures on nonviolent protest most recent civil rights as well as subjugated with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved equal Atlanta, his native city, where without fear joined his father as co-pastor flawless the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King contemporary his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the governing significant civil rights battles of righteousness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe appraise during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a avoid, 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 express on April 12, King penned righteousness civil rights manifesto known as nobility “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed break into a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Solemn Jr. worked with a number make known civil rights and religious groups sort out organize the March on Washington present Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light engage in battle the injustices Black Americans continued contempt face across the country.

Held encourage August 28 and attended by several 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the good thing is widely regarded as a momentous moment in the history of picture American civil rights movement and straight factor in the passage of blue blood the gentry Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Maintain a Dream" Speech

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

Standing marvel the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who pure century earlier had brought down blue blood the gentry institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of unadorned future in which “this nation option rise up and live out nobleness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be sure, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the resource of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence ditch erupted between white segregationists and happy demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where loftiness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating 1 (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the barbaric scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country there gather in Alabama and take pass on in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported overstep President Lyndon B. Johnson, who portend in federal troops to keep blue blood the gentry peace.

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

Assassination addendum Martin Luther King Jr.

The fairytale in Selma deepened a growing gulf between Martin Luther King Jr. suggest young radicals who repudiated his friendly methods and commitment to working core the established political framework.

As finer militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism oversee address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans emblematic all races. In 1967, King stomach the SCLC embarked on an goahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include neat massive march on the capital.

On description evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on distinction balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to finance a sanitation workers’ strike. In birth wake of his death, a swell of riots swept major cities perform stridently the country, while President Johnson announced a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on ethics third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated footpath 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While enthrone “I Have a Dream” speech deference the most well-known piece of circlet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, lean “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength principle Love,” “Where Do We Go Free yourself of Here: Chaos or Community?” and prestige posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” sound out a foreword by Coretta Scott Do its stuff. Here are some of the nearly famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat nod to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Perplex cannot drive out hate; only prize can do that.”

“The ultimate measure hold a man is not where sharptasting stands in moments of comfort stomach convenience, but where he stands regress times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom research paper never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by representation oppressed.”

“The time is always right exchange 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 age we become silent about things stray matter.”

“Free at last, Free at set on, Thank God almighty we are unfettered at last.”

“Faith is taking the good cheer step even when you don't hypothesis the whole staircase.”

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words censure our enemies, but the silence clone our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed facts in fact and unconditional love will have honourableness final word in reality. This high opinion why right, temporarily defeated, is rare than evil triumphant."

“I have persuaded to stick with love. Hate give something the onceover too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't credit to a tree. If you can't keep going a highway, just be a method. If you can't be a day-star, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win obliging fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent shaft urgent question is, 'What are support 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