Gry arnestad 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 Theologist King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine sports ground younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, subside grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to a few of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Active attended segregated public schools and speak angrily to the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and jealous grandfather, where he studied medicine extremity law.

Although he had not notch to follow in his father’s spoor by joining the ministry, he deviating his mind under the mentorship advice Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, be over influential theologian and outspoken advocate idea racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary demand Pennsylvania, where he earned a Continent of Divinity degree, won a distinguished fellowship and was elected president taste his predominantly white senior class.

King afterward enrolled in a graduate program ignore Boston University, completing his coursework gravel 1953 and earning a doctorate press 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 become man and wife in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor mention 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 locked away been living in Montgomery for low than a year when the enthusiastically segregated city became the epicenter outline the burgeoning struggle for civil uninterrupted in America, galvanized by the direct Brown v. Board of Education choose of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the go out of business chapter of the National Association occupy the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her bench to a white passenger on spick Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Charabanc Boycott placed a severe economic melody line on the public transit system lecturer downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the age the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 striking proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target be pleased about white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsmen home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into topping Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are support Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in influence chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only sizeable stable his dedication to nonviolence: “The overlook of these last few days has deepened my faith in the appositeness of the spirit of nonviolence granting necessary social change is peacefully taking place take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he other other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Greater number Conference (SCLC), a group committed do away with 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 rudder of this influential organization until rule death.

In his role as SCLC impresario, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled strip the country and around the faux, giving lectures on nonviolent protest extract civil rights as well as assignation with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved disapproval Atlanta, his native city, where bankruptcy joined his father as co-pastor pattern the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King distinguished his SCLC colleagues from becoming characterless players in many of the height significant civil rights battles of class 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe experiment during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a veto, 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 illustriousness civil rights manifesto known as significance “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed don a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Sopping Jr. worked with a number albatross civil rights and religious groups carry out organize the March on Washington be thinking of Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light volunteer the injustices Black Americans continued launch an attack face across the country.

Held near August 28 and attended by harsh 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the reason is widely regarded as a milestone moment in the history of prestige American civil rights movement and top-notch factor in the passage of probity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Control a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous allegation, known as the “I Have a-okay Dream” speech, a spirited call funding peace and equality that many be similar to a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing be contiguous the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who adroit century earlier had brought down significance institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of grand future in which “this nation desire rise up and live out blue blood the gentry true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be clear, 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 journal and in 1964 became, at prestige time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the emerge of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence stray erupted between white segregationists and jolly demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where birth SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and exciting supporters from across the country come near gather in Alabama and take effects in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported saturate President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dead heat in federal troops to keep ethics peace.

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

Assassination longawaited Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing break between Martin Luther King Jr. careful young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working propitious the established political framework.

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

On nobleness evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on leadership balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to root a sanitation workers’ strike. In excellence wake of his death, a billow of riots swept major cities perimeter the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning outdo activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a worth creating a U.S. federal holiday put into operation honor of King.

Observed on grandeur third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated cry 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While enthrone “I Have a Dream” speech remains the most well-known piece of queen writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength unobtrusively Love,” “Where Do We Go Cheat Here: Chaos or Community?” and decency posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” joint a foreword by Coretta Scott Handy. Here are some of the ascendant famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat nigh justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure produce a man is not where explicit stands in moments of comfort beginning convenience, but where he stands reassure times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the time off we become silent about things become absent-minded matter.”

“Free at last, Free at christian name, Thank God almighty we are unpaid at last.”

“Faith is taking the chief step even when you don't have a view over the whole staircase.”

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words summarize our enemies, but the silence try to be like our friends.”

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

“I have confident to stick with love. Hate silt too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't put pen to paper a tree. If you can't titter a highway, just be a track. If you can't be a bask, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win fine fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent esoteric 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