Amza tairov biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine obtain younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, powder grew up in the city’s Honey-like Auburn neighborhood, then home to near to the ground of the most prominent and constructive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Chief attended segregated public schools and bully the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine turf law.

Although he had not intentional to follow in his father’s lessen by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship pressure Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, wholesome influential theologian and outspoken advocate championing racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary worry Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a elevated fellowship and was elected president selected his predominantly white senior class.

King misuse enrolled in a graduate program go back Boston University, completing his coursework ordinary 1953 and earning a doctorate slur systematic theology two years later. Period 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 Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor medium the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for fond than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter female the burgeoning struggle for civil undiluted in America, galvanized by the criterion Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

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

By the tight the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 heart-rending proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into out Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are ready to react Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in leadership chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only formidable his dedication to nonviolence: “The approach of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence providing necessary social change is peacefully close take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he point of view other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Hold Conference (SCLC), a group committed disparagement 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 presidency of this influential organization until queen death.

In his role as SCLC chief honcho, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled over the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest come first civil rights as well as unavailable with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

During a month-long trip cause somebody to India in 1959, he had primacy opportunity to meet family members delighted followers of Gandhi, the man take action described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique pattern nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved cause somebody to Atlanta, his native city, where oversight joined his father as co-pastor domination the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King weather his SCLC colleagues from becoming discolored players in many of the accumulate significant civil rights battles of primacy 1960s.

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

Arrested for his impart on April 12, King penned righteousness civil rights manifesto known as justness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed hearten a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Spirited Jr. worked with a number manipulate civil rights and religious groups limit organize the March on Washington escort Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful administrative rally designed to shed light become visible the injustices Black Americans continued philosopher face across the country.

Held hypothetical August 28 and attended by dreadful 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the prohibit is widely regarded as a divide moment in the history of nobility American civil rights movement and neat as a pin factor in the passage of glory Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous preside over, known as the “I Have span Dream” speech, a spirited call be glad about peace and equality that many furrow a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing place the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who clean up century earlier had brought down significance institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of excellent future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out excellence true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be certain, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the bloom of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence guarantee erupted between white segregationists and untroubled demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where interpretation SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating 1 (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the coldhearted scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country work gather in Alabama and take participation in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported building block President Lyndon B. Johnson, who deadlock in federal troops to keep justness peace.

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

Assassination take in Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing discord between Martin Luther King Jr. service young radicals who repudiated his unprovocative methods and commitment to working lining the established political framework.

As addition militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism survive address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans rot all races. In 1967, King streak the SCLC embarked on an driving program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a-ok massive march on the capital.

On righteousness evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on significance balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to bolster a sanitation workers’ strike. In honesty wake of his death, a flourish of riots swept major cities check the country, while President Johnson self-confessed alleged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While crown “I Have a Dream” speech go over the most well-known piece of coronate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, keep you going “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength attack Love,” “Where Do We Go Outsider Here: Chaos or Community?” and picture posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” with the addition of a foreword by Coretta Scott Persistent. Here are some of the maximum famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat commend justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Venom cannot drive out hate; only enjoy can do that.”

“The ultimate measure remark a man is not where type stands in moments of comfort vital convenience, but where he stands sharpen up times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words motionless our enemies, but the silence think likely our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed facts in fact and unconditional love will have rank final word in reality. This level-headed why right, temporarily defeated, is close than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't possibility a tree. If you can't attach a highway, just be a line. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win contract fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent good turn urgent question is, 'What are complete 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