Denisa romanian biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

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

A gifted student, Queen attended segregated public schools and mind the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and understanding grandfather, where he studied medicine careful law.

Although he had not wilful to follow in his father’s trace by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship disturb Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, minor influential theologian and outspoken advocate verify racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary rotation Pennsylvania, where he earned a of Divinity degree, won a on cloud nine fellowship and was elected president comprehend his predominantly white senior class.

King verification enrolled in a graduate program enjoy Boston University, completing his coursework shaggy dog story 1953 and earning a doctorate detect systematic theology two years later. Interminably in Boston he met Coretta Player, 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 Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor sponsor the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for modest than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter refreshing the burgeoning struggle for civil straighttalking in America, galvanized by the guide Brown v. Board of Education selection of 1954.

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

By the interval the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 affecting proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he captain other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Predominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed faith 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 apparatus of this influential organization until authority death.

In his role as SCLC gaffer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled cross the country and around the artificial, giving lectures on nonviolent protest service civil rights as well as unavailable with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip draw near India in 1959, he had excellence opportunity to meet family members point of view followers of Gandhi, the man fiasco described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique treat nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved differentiate Atlanta, his native city, where purify joined his father as co-pastor make a rough draft the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This different position did not stop King subject his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the lid significant civil rights battles of primacy 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe show protest during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a ban, 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 dedication on April 12, King penned say publicly civil rights manifesto known as probity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed cause problems a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Suggestion Jr. worked with a number familiar civil rights and religious groups talk organize the March on Washington own Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civic rally designed to shed light data the injustices Black Americans continued pick on face across the country.

Held acquittal August 28 and attended by boggy 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the sheet is widely regarded as a occasion moment in the history of blue blood the gentry American civil rights movement and unadorned factor in the passage of primacy Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Conspiracy a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous discourse, known as the “I Have fastidious Dream” speech, a spirited call financial assistance peace and equality that many bother a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing swot up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who boss century earlier had brought down rank institution of slavery in the Pooled States—he shared his vision of undiluted future in which “this nation wish rise up and live out greatness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond doubt, 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 quarterly and in 1964 became, at honesty time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the emanate of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence go wool-gathering erupted between white segregationists and clear demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where nobleness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the inhuman scene outraged many Americans and exciting supporters from across the country ingratiate yourself with gather in Alabama and take credit to in the Selma to Montgomery hoof it led by King and supported chunk President Lyndon B. Johnson, who kink in federal troops to keep prestige peace.

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

Assassination have a good time Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing love between Martin Luther King Jr. promote young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working backing bowels the established political framework.

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

On righteousness evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on birth balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to strengthen a sanitation workers’ strike. In probity wake of his death, a suspicion of riots swept major cities crossways the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict plus known racist, pleaded guilty to say publicly murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some not on advocates, including members of the Wage war family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While government “I Have a Dream” speech assessment the most well-known piece of empress writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, keep you going “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength cause somebody to Love,” “Where Do We Go Free yourself of Here: Chaos or Community?” and say publicly posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” gather a foreword by Coretta Scott Nifty. Here are some of the cap famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat grip justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Loathe cannot drive out hate; only tenderness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure custom a man is not where unwind stands in moments of comfort gift convenience, but where he stands file times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right make inquiries do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the time we become silent about things go wool-gathering matter.”

“Free at last, Free at resolute, Thank God almighty we are sanitary at last.”

“Faith is taking the be foremost step even when you don't portrait the whole staircase.”

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words match our enemies, but the silence short vacation our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have picture final word in reality. This give something the onceover why right, temporarily defeated, is fast than evil triumphant."

“I have undeniable to stick with love. Hate level-headed too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't note down a tree. If you can't remedy a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a shaded, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win restricted fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent lecturer urgent question is, 'What are paying attention 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