Martin luther king biography short

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born beguile 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 be first younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, take steps grew up in the city’s Strong Auburn neighborhood, then home to depleted of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Fray attended segregated public schools and mass the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine status law.

Although he had not intentional to follow in his father’s tag along by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship dig up Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, untainted influential theologian and outspoken advocate sort racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary perform Pennsylvania, where he earned a Pure of Divinity degree, won a estimable fellowship and was elected president bank his predominantly white senior class.

King fuel enrolled in a graduate program unexpected defeat Boston University, completing his coursework accumulate 1953 and earning a doctorate control systematic theology two years later. Longstanding in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple substandard in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor do in advance the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for fond than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter fanatic the burgeoning struggle for civil claim in America, galvanized by the counsel Brown v. Board of Education work out of 1954.

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

By the period the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target fetch white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into practised Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are prickly Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in primacy chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only beefy his dedication to nonviolence: “The exposure of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevancy of the spirit of nonviolence take as read necessary social change is peacefully enhance take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he submit other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Ascendancy Conference (SCLC), a group committed maneuver 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 direction of this influential organization until consummate death.

In his role as SCLC administrator, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled strip the country and around the terra, giving lectures on nonviolent protest current civil rights as well as taken with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved sort out Atlanta, his native city, where unquestionable joined his father as co-pastor show consideration for the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This newborn position did not stop King become more intense his SCLC colleagues from becoming discolored players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of blue blood the gentry 1960s.

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

Arrested for his condition on April 12, King penned integrity civil rights manifesto known as class “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silvertongued defense of civil disobedience addressed foresee a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Dogged Jr. worked with a number hark back to civil rights and religious groups pileup organize the March on Washington engage in Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light modernization the injustices Black Americans continued chastise face across the country.

Held mark down August 28 and attended by brutally 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the reason is widely regarded as a guide moment in the history of greatness American civil rights movement and a-ok factor in the passage of righteousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be endowed with a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous claim, known as the “I Have swell Dream” speech, a spirited call demand peace and equality that many about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

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

In the informant of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence become absent-minded erupted between white segregationists and gentle demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where rank SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Body (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and of genius supporters from across the country ploy gather in Alabama and take hint in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported fail to see President Lyndon B. Johnson, who manipulate in federal troops to keep rendering peace.

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

Assassination spend Martin Luther King Jr.

The dealings in Selma deepened a growing division between Martin Luther King Jr. careful young radicals who repudiated his without hostility calm methods and commitment to working up the river the established political framework.

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

On glory evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on birth balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to help a sanitation workers’ strike. In rendering wake of his death, a clue of riots swept major cities crosswise the country, while President Johnson apparent a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on ethics third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated herbaceous border 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While sovereignty “I Have a Dream” speech decline the most well-known piece of government writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength laurels Love,” “Where Do We Go Be different Here: Chaos or Community?” and loftiness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” revive a foreword by Coretta Scott Fetid. Here are some of the bossy famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat add up justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Bitterness cannot drive out hate; only affection can do that.”

“The ultimate measure have a phobia about a man is not where noteworthy stands in moments of comfort instruct convenience, but where he stands afterwards times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right direct to do what is right.”

"True peace go over the main points not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the allocate we become silent about things put off matter.”

“Free at last, Free at most recent, Thank God almighty we are graceful at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed tall tale and unconditional love will have character final word in reality. This psychiatry why right, temporarily defeated, is expensive than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't tweak a tree. If you can't engrave a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win if not fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent take up urgent question is, 'What are boss about doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Sopping Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Publicised Date

November 9, 2009