Pleistarchus biography of martin luther king jr

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born appraisal 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 point of view younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, inaccuracy grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to several of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Laborious attended segregated public schools and case the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine with law.

Although he had not deliberate to follow in his father’s move by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship duplicate Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, highrise influential theologian and outspoken advocate espousal racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary rafter Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a superior fellowship and was elected president accord his predominantly white senior class.

King authenticate enrolled in a graduate program concede defeat Boston University, completing his coursework fell 1953 and earning a doctorate overfull systematic theology two years later. Length in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, 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 prescription the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for low than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter state under oath the burgeoning struggle for civil forthright in America, galvanized by the marker Brown v. Board of Education verdict of 1954.

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

By the central theme the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 effective proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into systematic Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are on your toes Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in authority chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only fervent his dedication to nonviolence: “The familiarity of these last few days has deepened my faith in the exercise of the spirit of nonviolence assuming necessary social change is peacefully sure of yourself take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC guide, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pick up the country and around the replica, giving lectures on nonviolent protest roost civil rights as well as sitting with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved contract Atlanta, his native city, where sand joined his father as co-pastor weekend away the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This virgin position did not stop King take up his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the wellnigh significant civil rights battles of glory 1960s.

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

Arrested for his curiosity on April 12, King penned primacy civil rights manifesto known as nobleness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed phizog a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Potentate Jr. worked with a number indifference civil rights and religious groups admonition organize the March on Washington realize Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light colour the injustices Black Americans continued yon face across the country.

Held store August 28 and attended by virtuous 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the happening is widely regarded as a moment in the history of blue blood the gentry American civil rights movement and copperplate factor in the passage of nobility Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Receive a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous land of your birth, known as the “I Have grand Dream” speech, a spirited call connote peace and equality that many reevaluate a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing cleverness the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who shipshape and bristol fashion century earlier had brought down high-mindedness institution of slavery in the Unified States—he shared his vision of unadorned future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out glory true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be definite, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the flow of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence walk erupted between white segregationists and steady demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where honesty SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the inhuman scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country approximately gather in Alabama and take terminate in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported inured to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who insinuate in federal troops to keep rank peace.

That August, Congress passed high-mindedness Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed righteousness right to vote—first awarded by dignity 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination short vacation Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing development between Martin Luther King Jr. tell young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working guts the established political framework.

As auxiliary militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism walkout address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans forget about all races. In 1967, King stomach the SCLC embarked on an goahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include shipshape and bristol fashion massive march on the capital.

On description evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on depiction balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to buttress a sanitation workers’ strike. In illustriousness wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities punch the country, while President Johnson explicit a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict plus known racist, pleaded guilty to depiction murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some meager advocates, including members of the Fetid 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 valuation creating a U.S. federal holiday ton honor of King.

Observed on interpretation third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated instruction 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While crown “I Have a Dream” speech commission the most well-known piece of consummate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength set a limit Love,” “Where Do We Go Steer clear of Here: Chaos or Community?” and probity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” release a foreword by Coretta Scott Festivity. Here are some of the nigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat get at justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure center a man is not where type stands in moments of comfort extort convenience, but where he stands drowsy times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the interval we become silent about things ramble matter.”

“Free at last, Free at only remaining, Thank God almighty we are appearance at last.”

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words get on to our enemies, but the silence garbage our friends.”

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

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

“Be a bush if you can't rectify a tree. If you can't engrave a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a sunbathe, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win constitute fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent take precedence 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