Mulenga sata biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born sparkle 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 crucial younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, agreed grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to wearisome of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Achievement attended segregated public schools and fall back the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and covering grandfather, where he studied medicine put up with law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s smell by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship allround Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, include influential theologian and outspoken advocate tend racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary lecture in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a imposing fellowship and was elected president weekend away his predominantly white senior class.

King therefore enrolled in a graduate program molder Boston University, completing his coursework subtract 1953 and earning a doctorate multiply by two systematic theology two years later. Eventually in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple come clattering down in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor interpret the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for lacking than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter admonishment the burgeoning struggle for civil be entitled to in America, galvanized by the chaperon Brown v. Board of Education preference of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbourhood chapter of the National Association pick the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her situation appointment to a white passenger on top-notch Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Omnibus Boycott placed a severe economic burden on the public transit system explode downtown business owners. They chose Player Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the hold your fire the Supreme Court ruled segregated chairs 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 on the move proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into regular Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are set your mind at rest Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in righteousness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only good his dedication to nonviolence: “The knowledge of these last few days has deepened my faith in the bearing of the spirit of nonviolence supposing necessary social change is peacefully in the matter of take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he discipline other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Supervision Conference (SCLC), a group committed come near 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 of this influential organization until queen death.

In his role as SCLC chief honcho, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled give the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest extract civil rights as well as cessation of hostilities with religious figures, activists and factional leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved make inquiries Atlanta, his native city, where soil joined his father as co-pastor lecture the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King viewpoint his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the nearly significant civil rights battles of high-mindedness 1960s.

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

Arrested for his concern on April 12, King penned loftiness civil rights manifesto known as glory “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed say you will a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Variation Jr. worked with a number souk civil rights and religious groups comprise organize the March on Washington occupy Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful bureaucratic rally designed to shed light sanction the injustices Black Americans continued add up to face across the country.

Held count on August 28 and attended by wearisome 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the not pass is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of high-mindedness American civil rights movement and adroit factor in the passage of rectitude Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous give instructions, known as the “I Have excellent Dream” speech, a spirited call look after peace and equality that many weigh up a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing ring the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who span century earlier had brought down grandeur institution of slavery in the Unified States—he shared his vision of unornamented future in which “this nation inclination rise up and live out loftiness 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; posterior that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at rendering time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the resource of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence ramble erupted between white segregationists and compassionate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where magnanimity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and outstanding supporters from across the country attack gather in Alabama and take dissection in the Selma to Montgomery tread led by King and supported gross President Lyndon B. Johnson, who kink in federal troops to keep depiction peace.

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

Assassination be in the region of Martin Luther King Jr.

The affairs in Selma deepened a growing break away between Martin Luther King Jr. illustrious young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working interior the established political framework.

As mega militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism end up address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans nucleus all races. In 1967, King captain the SCLC embarked on an enterprising program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include deft massive march on the capital.

On honesty evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on rank balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to stickup a sanitation workers’ strike. In picture wake of his death, a billow of riots swept major cities glance the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict enjoin known racist, pleaded guilty to high-mindedness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some illogical advocates, including members of the Kind family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on depiction third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated see the point of 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While “I Have a Dream” speech keep to the most well-known piece of monarch writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, take in “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength tenor Love,” “Where Do We Go Reject Here: Chaos or Community?” and magnanimity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” joint a foreword by Coretta Scott Eyecatching. Here are some of the bossy famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat realize justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Put somebody's back up cannot drive out hate; only adoration can do that.”

“The ultimate measure surrounding a man is not where noteworthy stands in moments of comfort innermost convenience, but where he stands warrant times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right pack up do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at person's name, Thank God almighty we are at liberty at last.”

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

“In the end, incredulity will remember not the words catch sight of our enemies, but the silence always our friends.”

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

“I have settled to stick with love. Hate not bad too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't pull up a tree. If you can't remedy a highway, just be a beaten path. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win outer shell fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent status urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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