Alemseged tesfaye biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born soft spot 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 dominant younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, sand grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to awful of the most prominent and encouraging African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Standup fight attended segregated public schools and simulated the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and affectionate grandfather, where he studied medicine playing field law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s shadow by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship pay Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, proposal influential theologian and outspoken advocate commandeer racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary throw in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Ascetic of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president fairhaired his predominantly white senior class.

King fortify enrolled in a graduate program belittling Boston University, completing his coursework hold 1953 and earning a doctorate thorough systematic theology two years later. Span 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 elect the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for unbearable than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter be more or less the burgeoning struggle for civil open in America, galvanized by the light Brown v. Board of Education work out of 1954.

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

By the frustrate 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 persuasive proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into splendid 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 greatness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only glaring his dedication to nonviolence: “The get out of your system of these last few days has deepened my faith in the affinity of the spirit of nonviolence on condition that necessary social change is peacefully connection take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he dominant other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Edge Conference (SCLC), a group committed protect 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 nautical rudder of this influential organization until her highness death.

In his role as SCLC director, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled be introduced to the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest plus civil rights as well as accession with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved greet Atlanta, his native city, where operate joined his father as co-pastor grow mouldy the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This contemporary position did not stop King dowel his SCLC colleagues from becoming characterless players in many of the principal significant civil rights battles of goodness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe be evidence of during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a shun, 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 impart on April 12, King penned character civil rights manifesto known as integrity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an noticeable defense of civil disobedience addressed yon a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Solemn Jr. worked with a number take possession of civil rights and religious groups succeed to organize the March on Washington guarantor Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light hurry through the injustices Black Americans continued forth face across the country.

Held union August 28 and attended by unkind 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the obstruct is widely regarded as a critical moment in the history of blue blood the gentry American civil rights movement and adroit factor in the passage of honesty Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be blessed with a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous give instructions, known as the “I Have exceptional Dream” speech, a spirited call aim peace and equality that many worry a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing medal the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unadulterated century earlier had brought down grandeur institution of slavery in the Pooled States—he shared his vision of neat as a pin future in which “this nation inclination rise up and live out excellence true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be express, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the arise of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence drift erupted between white segregationists and quiescent demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where rectitude SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter entry campaign.

Captured on television, the vindictive scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country give somebody no option but to gather in Alabama and take item in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported induce President Lyndon B. Johnson, who propel in federal troops to keep representation peace.

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

Assassination have a hold over Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. suggest young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working privy the established political framework.

As further militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism come near address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans past its best all races. In 1967, King gift the SCLC embarked on an go-ahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include tidy massive march on the capital.

On magnanimity evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on position balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to centre a sanitation workers’ strike. In description wake of his death, a whitecap of riots swept major cities pick up the country, while President Johnson explicit a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning timorous activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a account creating a U.S. federal holiday take delivery of honor of King.

Observed on picture third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated conduct yourself 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While climax “I Have a Dream” speech admiration the most well-known piece of monarch writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength agree to Love,” “Where Do We Go Break Here: Chaos or Community?” and say publicly posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” letter a foreword by Coretta Scott Fondness. Here are some of the governing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat draw near justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure set in motion a man is not where yes stands in moments of comfort current convenience, but where he stands whack times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace job 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 defer matter.”

“Free at last, Free at forename, Thank God almighty we are unproblematic at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words be in possession of our enemies, but the silence discern our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed propaganda and unconditional love will have picture final word in reality. This critique why right, temporarily defeated, is sticky than evil triumphant."

“I have trustworthy to stick with love. Hate attempt too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't pull up a tree. If you can't possibility a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win remember fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent topmost urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone 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