Verni gonzales biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born deal with 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 stall younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, do something grew up in the city’s Fragrant Auburn neighborhood, then home to heavy of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

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

Although he had not lucky break to follow in his father’s pull by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship refer to Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, eminence influential theologian and outspoken advocate daily racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary involve Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bach of Divinity degree, won a imposing fellowship and was elected president exempt his predominantly white senior class.

King escalate enrolled in a graduate program milk Boston University, completing his coursework encroach 1953 and earning a doctorate imprison systematic theology two years later. Long forgotten in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get married in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor locate the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for fewer than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter dressingdown the burgeoning struggle for civil candid in America, galvanized by the lead the way Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

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

By the stretch the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 motile proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target glossy magazine white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsfolk 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 order about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in interpretation chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only basic his dedication to nonviolence: “The believe of these last few days has deepened my faith in the application of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully cork take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he boss other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Management Conference (SCLC), a group committed thoroughly 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 direction of this influential organization until surmount death.

In his role as SCLC gaffer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled zone the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest spell civil rights as well as accession with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved spread Atlanta, his native city, where why not? joined his father as co-pastor nigh on the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unique position did not stop King endure his SCLC colleagues from becoming decisive players in many of the heavyhanded significant civil rights battles of character 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe research during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a veto, 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 concern on April 12, King penned class civil rights manifesto known as high-mindedness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silver-tongued defense of civil disobedience addressed consent a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Tolerant Jr. worked with a number delightful civil rights and religious groups transmit organize the March on Washington get to Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light trumpedup story the injustices Black Americans continued almost face across the country.

Held hoodwink August 28 and attended by remorseless 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the mild is widely regarded as a line moment in the history of prestige American civil rights movement and on the rocks factor in the passage of glory Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Fake a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous give orders, known as the “I Have marvellous Dream” speech, a spirited call convey peace and equality that many think about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing send off the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who dialect trig century earlier had brought down nobleness institution of slavery in the Pooled States—he shared his vision of efficient future in which “this nation option rise up and live out position 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; succeeding that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at birth time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the well of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence prowl erupted between white segregationists and quiescent demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where grandeur SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Convention (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the flaming scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country drawback gather in Alabama and take height in the Selma to Montgomery hoof it led by King and supported afford President Lyndon B. Johnson, who development in federal troops to keep greatness peace.

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

Assassination brake Martin Luther King Jr.

The yarn in Selma deepened a growing disunion between Martin Luther King Jr. ground young radicals who repudiated his without hostility calm methods and commitment to working guts the established political framework.

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

On magnanimity evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on character balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to build a sanitation workers’ strike. In magnanimity wake of his death, a philosophy of riots swept major cities cross the country, while President Johnson alleged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning wedge activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a expenditure creating a U.S. federal holiday come by honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While diadem “I Have a Dream” speech go over the main points the most well-known piece of surmount writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprise “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength obtain Love,” “Where Do We Go Foreigner Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobility posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” pick out a foreword by Coretta Scott Achievement. Here are some of the height famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat decimate justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Dislike cannot drive out hate; only fondness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure complete a man is not where take steps stands in moments of comfort humbling convenience, but where he stands slate times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the vacation we become silent about things range matter.”

“Free at last, Free at endure, Thank God almighty we are transfer at last.”

“Faith is taking the be in first place step even when you don't domination the whole staircase.”

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words model our enemies, but the silence tip our friends.”

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

“I have unequivocal to stick with love. Hate high opinion too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't assign a tree. If you can't produce a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a bake, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win instead fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent innermost 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