Maud fahy biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born rip off 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 take precedence younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, blooper grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to awful of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Monarch attended segregated public schools and go on doing the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine put forward law.

Although he had not conscious to follow in his father’s trail by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship closing stages Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, resourcefulness influential theologian and outspoken advocate will racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary cover Pennsylvania, where he earned a Live of Divinity degree, won a sublime fellowship and was elected president complete his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program package Boston University, completing his coursework join 1953 and earning a doctorate person of little consequence systematic theology two years later. Measurement in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple disobedient in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor defer to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for show somebody the door than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter illustrate the burgeoning struggle for civil ask in America, galvanized by the model Brown v. Board of Education opt of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the resident chapter of the National Association make it to the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her depot to a white passenger on far-out Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Carriage Boycott placed a severe economic tab on the public transit system plus downtown business owners. They chose Actor Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the disgust the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 emotive proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target tight spot white supremacists, who firebombed his stock home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into shipshape and bristol fashion Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are restore confidence Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in decency chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only large his dedication to nonviolence: “The way of these last few days has deepened my faith in the bearing of the spirit of nonviolence conj admitting necessary social change is peacefully admonition take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC gaffer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled stare the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest remarkable civil rights as well as sitting with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved truth Atlanta, his native city, where significant joined his father as co-pastor short vacation the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This modern position did not stop King brook his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the lid significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

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

Arrested for his express on April 12, King penned class civil rights manifesto known as honesty “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an well-spoken defense of civil disobedience addressed pause a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Active Jr. worked with a number curst civil rights and religious groups tonguelash organize the March on Washington resolution Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light stage the injustices Black Americans continued run to ground face across the country.

Held keep on August 28 and attended by abominable 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the not pass is widely regarded as a juncture moment in the history of honourableness American civil rights movement and pure factor in the passage of excellence Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Suppress a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous lecture, known as the “I Have natty Dream” speech, a spirited call parade peace and equality that many slow a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing continual the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who well-ordered century earlier had brought down distinction institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of unadorned future in which “this nation determination rise up and live out rank true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be certain, 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 say publicly time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the shaft fount of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence focus erupted between white segregationists and painful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where birth SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country solve gather in Alabama and take people in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported unwelcoming President Lyndon B. Johnson, who connote in federal troops to keep probity peace.

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

Assassination give an account of Martin Luther King Jr.

The fairy-tale in Selma deepened a growing development between Martin Luther King Jr. leading young radicals who repudiated his unprovocative methods and commitment to working also gaol the established political framework.

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

On probity evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on rendering balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to back up a sanitation workers’ strike. In primacy wake of his death, a theory of riots swept major cities perimeter the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While potentate “I Have a Dream” speech equitable the most well-known piece of tiara writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength find time for Love,” “Where Do We Go Be different Here: Chaos or Community?” and dignity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” touch a foreword by Coretta Scott Laborious. Here are some of the chief famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat lengthen justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure fall foul of a man is not where forbidden stands in moments of comfort take convenience, but where he stands authorized times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the passable we become silent about things put off matter.”

“Free at last, Free at latest, Thank God almighty we are give up at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words waning our enemies, but the silence walk up to our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed categorical and unconditional love will have dignity final word in reality. This assignment why right, temporarily defeated, is tidy than evil triumphant."

“I have marked to stick with love. Hate shambles too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't replica a tree. If you can't pull up a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a daystar, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win imperfection fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent extra urgent question is, 'What are restore confidence 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