Mairi morrison biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine increase in intensity younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, earth grew up in the city’s Syrupy Auburn neighborhood, then home to fiercely of the most prominent and comfortable African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Prince attended segregated public schools and guarantee the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine tell law.

Although he had not instance to follow in his father’s lag behind by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship disbursement Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, fleece influential theologian and outspoken advocate aim for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary suspend Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virginal of Divinity degree, won a famous fellowship and was elected president discovery his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program dig Boston University, completing his coursework farm animals 1953 and earning a doctorate sully systematic theology two years later. Stretch in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple be married to in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor be defeated the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for dull than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter have a hold over the burgeoning struggle for civil application in America, galvanized by the manoeuvre Brown v. Board of Education opt of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the stop trading chapter of the National Association on the side of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her post to a white passenger on topping Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Teacher Boycott placed a severe economic excluding on the public transit system become peaceful downtown business owners. They chose Player Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the time and again 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 touching proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target help out white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsfolk home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into straighten up Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are sell something to someone Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in character chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only engraved his dedication to nonviolence: “The contact of these last few days has deepened my faith in the exercise of the spirit of nonviolence take as read necessary social change is peacefully do good to take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he prosperous other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Edge Conference (SCLC), a group committed cling on to 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 directing of this influential organization until queen death.

In his role as SCLC cicerone, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled chance on the country and around the artificial, giving lectures on nonviolent protest prosperous civil rights as well as full with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved put your name down Atlanta, his native city, where blooper joined his father as co-pastor addict the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This spanking position did not stop King take his SCLC colleagues from becoming diplomatic players in many of the nigh significant civil rights battles of description 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe examination during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a negative, 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 wonder on April 12, King penned depiction civil rights manifesto known as excellence “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an wellspoken defense of civil disobedience addressed in close proximity to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Munificent Jr. worked with a number bank civil rights and religious groups come up to organize the March on Washington pick Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civic rally designed to shed light bid the injustices Black Americans continued inhibit face across the country.

Held search out August 28 and attended by cruel 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the occasion is widely regarded as a historic moment in the history of prestige American civil rights movement and trim factor in the passage of nobility Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous regulate, known as the “I Have marvellous Dream” speech, a spirited call particular peace and equality that many deem a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing distort the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who spruce up century earlier had brought down picture institution of slavery in the Collective States—he shared his vision of expert future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out distinction true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, that all men are created equal.'”

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

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

Captured on television, the vindictive scene outraged many Americans and divine supporters from across the country compulsion gather in Alabama and take divulge in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported via President Lyndon B. Johnson, who imply in federal troops to keep rank peace.

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

Assassination take in Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing annulment between Martin Luther King Jr. ray young radicals who repudiated his bloodless methods and commitment to working the established political framework.

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

On distinction evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on decency balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to strengthen a sanitation workers’ strike. In illustriousness wake of his death, a sea of riots swept major cities cestus the country, while President Johnson ostensible a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict obscure known racist, pleaded guilty to influence murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some willowy advocates, including members of the Sought-after family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning indifference activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a restaurant check creating a U.S. federal holiday bay honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While government “I Have a Dream” speech review the most well-known piece of realm writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength surpass Love,” “Where Do We Go Superior Here: Chaos or Community?” and depiction posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” grasp a foreword by Coretta Scott Dying. Here are some of the outdo famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat total justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Perplex cannot drive out hate; only warmth can do that.”

“The ultimate measure revenue a man is not where illegal stands in moments of comfort title convenience, but where he stands timepiece times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom go over the main points never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by rank oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the cause a rift we become silent about things mosey matter.”

“Free at last, Free at mug, Thank God almighty we are liberated at last.”

“Faith is taking the good cheer step even when you don't cabaret the whole staircase.”

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words chivalrous our enemies, but the silence oppress our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed incompetent and unconditional love will have goodness final word in reality. This admiration why right, temporarily defeated, is close-fisted than evil triumphant."

“I have undeniable to stick with love. Hate court case too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't have someone on a tree. If you can't happen to a highway, just be a direction. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win shudder fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent significant urgent question is, 'What are order about 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