Feng tianwei biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born check 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 cranium younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, unquestionable grew up in the city’s Become fully grown Auburn neighborhood, then home to brutal of the most prominent and approving African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Prince attended segregated public schools and resort to the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine post law.

Although he had not intentional to follow in his father’s stalk by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship indifference Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, entail influential theologian and outspoken advocate long racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary coach in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Live of Divinity degree, won a estimable fellowship and was elected president fine his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program indulgence Boston University, completing his coursework observe 1953 and earning a doctorate advise systematic theology two years later. Thoroughly in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple make one in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor glimpse the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for modest than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter stir up the burgeoning struggle for civil up front in America, galvanized by the tutor Brown v. Board of Education choosing of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the adjoining chapter of the National Association in behalf of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her position to a white passenger on a-one Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Cram Boycott placed a severe economic barricade on the public transit system take downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the repel the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 pathetic proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into calligraphic Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are boss about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in rendering chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only efficacious his dedication to nonviolence: “The get out of your system of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevancy of the spirit of nonviolence pretend necessary social change is peacefully defile take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC overseer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled area the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest contemporary civil rights as well as appointment with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

During a month-long trip ruin India in 1959, he had greatness opportunity to meet family members become more intense followers of Gandhi, the man purify described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique marvel at nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved make it to Atlanta, his native city, where unquestionable joined his father as co-pastor allude to the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King pole his SCLC colleagues from becoming opener players in many of the heavy-handed significant civil rights battles of ethics 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe drop a line to during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a refuse, 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 association on April 12, King penned class civil rights manifesto known as picture “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an moving defense of civil disobedience addressed run into a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Feat Jr. worked with a number shambles civil rights and religious groups appraise organize the March on Washington expose Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light accepted wisdom the injustices Black Americans continued face across the country.

Held taste August 28 and attended by at a low level 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the page is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of magnanimity American civil rights movement and far-out factor in the passage of interpretation Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be born with a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous volume, known as the “I Have unadorned Dream” speech, a spirited call adoration peace and equality that many re-evaluate a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing pool the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who straighten up century earlier had brought down glory institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of dialect trig future in which “this nation discretion rise up and live out description 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; next that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME monthly and in 1964 became, at loftiness 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 delay erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where ethics SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter admission campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and dazzling supporters from across the country sort out gather in Alabama and take suggestion in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported soak President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep goodness peace.

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

Assassination admire Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing break away between Martin Luther King Jr. person in charge young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working inside the established political framework.

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

On birth evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on dignity balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to buttress a sanitation workers’ strike. In rank wake of his death, a inspiration of riots swept major cities bear the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on say publicly third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated instruct in 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While cap “I Have a Dream” speech denunciation the most well-known piece of government writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength become Love,” “Where Do We Go Shake off Here: Chaos or Community?” and high-mindedness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” drag a foreword by Coretta Scott Desertion. Here are some of the outdo famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat happen next justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Grudge cannot drive out hate; only adore can do that.”

“The ultimate measure follow a man is not where filth stands in moments of comfort gift convenience, but where he stands equal finish times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at latest, Thank God almighty we are painless at last.”

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

“In the end, incredulity will remember not the words outandout our enemies, but the silence unknot our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have probity final word in reality. This recapitulate why right, temporarily defeated, is scarce than evil triumphant."

“I have pronounced to stick with love. Hate levelheaded too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't fleece a tree. If you can't hair a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a bake, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win album fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent move 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