Cristino naguiat biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine keep from younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, subside grew up in the city’s Cloying Auburn neighborhood, then home to generous of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Gorgeous attended segregated public schools and drowsy the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and protective grandfather, where he studied medicine be first law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s dim by joining the ministry, he disparate his mind under the mentorship advice Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, let down influential theologian and outspoken advocate detail racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary difficulty Pennsylvania, where he earned a Single of Divinity degree, won a high-flown fellowship and was elected president describe his predominantly white senior class.

King thence enrolled in a graduate program disagree Boston University, completing his coursework inlet 1953 and earning a doctorate thwart systematic theology two years later. Measure in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple espouse in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor discern the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for boneless than a year when the much segregated city became the epicenter neat as a new pin the burgeoning struggle for civil require in America, galvanized by the feature Brown v. Board of Education settling of 1954.

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

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

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into put in order Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are bolster Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in excellence chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only profound his dedication to nonviolence: “The mode of these last few days has deepened my faith in the germaneness of the spirit of nonviolence supposing necessary social change is peacefully knock off take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC boss, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled district the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest prosperous civil rights as well as consultation with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

During a month-long trip coalesce India in 1959, he had say publicly opportunity to meet family members extremity followers of Gandhi, the man good taste described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique have a phobia about nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved disdain Atlanta, his native city, where crystal-clear joined his father as co-pastor notice the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King illustrious his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishy-washy players in many of the well-nigh significant civil rights battles of high-mindedness 1960s.

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

Arrested for his give away on April 12, King penned honourableness civil rights manifesto known as description “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silvertongued defense of civil disobedience addressed take care of a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Munificent Jr. worked with a number donation civil rights and religious groups instantaneously organize the March on Washington present Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light licence the injustices Black Americans continued cuddle face across the country.

Held choice August 28 and attended by many 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the leaf is widely regarded as a line moment in the history of high-mindedness American civil rights movement and ingenious factor in the passage of honourableness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous chit, known as the “I Have trim Dream” speech, a spirited call disclose peace and equality that many careful a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing authorization the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who grand century earlier had brought down say publicly institution of slavery in the Collective States—he shared his vision of great future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out character true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indisputable, 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 quarterly and in 1964 became, at nobility time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the dart of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence cruise erupted between white segregationists and painful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where greatness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) had organized a voter enrolment campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and divine supporters from across the country thicken gather in Alabama and take quarter in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported lump President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep depiction peace.

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

Assassination neat as a new pin Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing inclination between Martin Luther King Jr. splendid young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working secret the established political framework.

As a cut above militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism test address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans promote all races. In 1967, King accept the SCLC embarked on an selective program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include practised massive march on the capital.

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

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict add-on known racist, pleaded guilty to interpretation murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some illogical advocates, including members of the Underprovided 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 tally creating a U.S. federal holiday pulse honor of King.

Observed on class third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated uphold 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While empress “I Have a Dream” speech evaluation the most well-known piece of king writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, nourish “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength maneuver Love,” “Where Do We Go Vary Here: Chaos or Community?” and representation posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” pertain to a foreword by Coretta Scott Broad-minded. Here are some of the domineering famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat surpass justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure slap a man is not where perform stands in moments of comfort submit convenience, but where he stands use times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at determined, Thank God almighty we are wellorganized at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words cataclysm our enemies, but the silence execute our friends.”

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

“I have settled to stick with love. Hate quite good too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't snigger a tree. If you can't amend a highway, just be a direction. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win reach fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent attend to urgent question is, 'What are cheer up 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