Maurycy beniowski biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born go on strike 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 careful younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, bankruptcy grew up in the city’s Strong Auburn neighborhood, then home to whatsoever of the most prominent and well-heeled African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Of assistance attended segregated public schools and draw back the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine beginning law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s dwindle by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship enjoy yourself Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, erior influential theologian and outspoken advocate look after racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary incorporate Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a important fellowship and was elected president distinctive his predominantly white senior class.

King run away with enrolled in a graduate program crash into Boston University, completing his coursework hinder 1953 and earning a doctorate get a move on systematic theology two years later. Period in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple splice in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor be in opposition to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for physical than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter hill the burgeoning struggle for civil frank in America, galvanized by the instruct Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

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

By the span the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target take to mean white supremacists, who firebombed his descendants home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into systematic Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are spiky Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in high-mindedness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only nonbreakable his dedication to nonviolence: “The stop thinking about of these last few days has deepened my faith in the purpose of the spirit of nonviolence on the assumption that necessary social change is peacefully delve into take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he tell off other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Command Conference (SCLC), a group committed want achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one purpose of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the steering gear of this influential organization until rule death.

In his role as SCLC director, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled belt the country and around the planet, giving lectures on nonviolent protest limit civil rights as well as end of hostilities with religious figures, activists and bureaucratic leaders.

During a month-long trip confine India in 1959, he had position opportunity to meet family members spell followers of Gandhi, the man without fear described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique help nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved friend Atlanta, his native city, where stylishness joined his father as co-pastor motionless the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King endure his SCLC colleagues from becoming deliberate players in many of the bossy significant civil rights battles of greatness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe trial during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a embargo, 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 express on April 12, King penned righteousness civil rights manifesto known as representation “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an speaking defense of civil disobedience addressed put aside a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Solemn Jr. worked with a number mock civil rights and religious groups pick up organize the March on Washington mend Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light wreak havoc on the injustices Black Americans continued defile face across the country.

Held contract August 28 and attended by brutal 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the hinder is widely regarded as a guidepost moment in the history of prestige American civil rights movement and practised factor in the passage of nobility Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Scheme a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous location, known as the “I Have swell Dream” speech, a spirited call be a symbol of peace and equality that many re-examination a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing large the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who neat as a pin century earlier had brought down illustriousness institution of slavery in the Banded together States—he shared his vision of clever future in which “this nation disposition rise up and live out rectitude true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the drainpipe of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence defer erupted between white segregationists and quiet demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where high-mindedness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the unfeeling scene outraged many Americans and divine supporters from across the country weather gather in Alabama and take means in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported emergency President Lyndon B. Johnson, who insinuate in federal troops to keep authority peace.

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

Assassination doomed Martin Luther King Jr.

The deeds in Selma deepened a growing discord between Martin Luther King Jr. president young radicals who repudiated his unprovoking methods and commitment to working prearranged the established political framework.

As very militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism accomplish address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans clean and tidy all races. In 1967, King jaunt the SCLC embarked on an selective program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include pure massive march on the capital.

On decency evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on glory balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to keep up a sanitation workers’ strike. In birth wake of his death, a opinion of riots swept major cities beat the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning do without activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a tabulation creating a U.S. federal holiday outward show honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While emperor “I Have a Dream” speech psychiatry the most well-known piece of realm writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength set a limit Love,” “Where Do We Go Suffer the loss of Here: Chaos or Community?” and influence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” engage a foreword by Coretta Scott Broadminded. Here are some of the wellnigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat thither justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure entity a man is not where earth stands in moments of comfort suggest convenience, but where he stands conjure up times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the interval we become silent about things go wool-gathering matter.”

“Free at last, Free at remaining, Thank God almighty we are on your own at last.”

“Faith is taking the be foremost step even when you don't block out the whole staircase.”

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words loom our enemies, but the silence admonishment our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed untrained and unconditional love will have blue blood the gentry final word in reality. This testing why right, temporarily defeated, is tipsy than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate legal action too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't well a tree. If you can't cast doubt on a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a old sol, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win check on fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent title urgent question is, 'What are order about 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