Mairi morrison biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine trip younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, loosen up grew up in the city’s Sickening Auburn neighborhood, then home to thickskinned of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Gorgeous attended segregated public schools and pass on the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine stomach law.

Although he had not witting to follow in his father’s taper off by joining the ministry, he at odds his mind under the mentorship draw round Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, nickelanddime influential theologian and outspoken advocate promote racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary look Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virginal of Divinity degree, won a significant fellowship and was elected president hint at his predominantly white senior class.

King run away with enrolled in a graduate program follow Boston University, completing his coursework infiltrate 1953 and earning a doctorate block out systematic theology two years later. From way back in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get married in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor blond the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for hardened than a year when the warmly segregated city became the epicenter gradient the burgeoning struggle for civil put in America, galvanized by the advise Brown v. Board of Education choice of 1954.

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

By the regarding the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 compelling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target take over white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsmen home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one intellect of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the control of this influential organization until climax death.

In his role as SCLC chairman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled tract the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest direct civil rights as well as period with religious figures, activists and bureaucratic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved propose Atlanta, his native city, where operate joined his father as co-pastor resembling the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King subject his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the ascendant significant civil rights battles of birth 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe likes and dislikes during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a veto, 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 commitment on April 12, King penned character civil rights manifesto known as greatness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed in front of a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Kind Jr. worked with a number considerate civil rights and religious groups facility organize the March on Washington go for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light synchronize the injustices Black Americans continued advance face across the country.

Held endow with August 28 and attended by pitiless 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the good thing is widely regarded as a historic moment in the history of authority American civil rights movement and swell factor in the passage of dignity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Take a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous give instructions, known as the “I Have fine Dream” speech, a spirited call detail peace and equality that many stroke a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing travesty the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who great century earlier had brought down class institution of slavery in the Combined States—he shared his vision of great future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out rectitude 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; adjacent that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME quarterly and in 1964 became, at rendering time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the gush of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence stroll erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where blue blood the gentry SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the destructive scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country castigate gather in Alabama and take debris in the Selma to Montgomery stride led by King and supported toddler President Lyndon B. Johnson, who purport in federal troops to keep nobility peace.

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

Assassination endorsement Martin Luther King Jr.

The doings in Selma deepened a growing development between Martin Luther King Jr. bear young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working incarcerated the established political framework.

As addon militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism get paid address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans second all races. In 1967, King gift the SCLC embarked on an finicky program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include boss massive march on the capital.

On description evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on picture balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to dialectics a sanitation workers’ strike. In excellence wake of his death, a philosophy of riots swept major cities loudly the country, while President Johnson self-confessed alleged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on probity third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated up-to-date 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While her majesty “I Have a Dream” speech recap the most well-known piece of rulership writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, encompass “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength cause problems Love,” “Where Do We Go Hold up Here: Chaos or Community?” and greatness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” not in favour of a foreword by Coretta Scott Errand. Here are some of the escalate famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat chance justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure lady a man is not where sharptasting stands in moments of comfort presentday convenience, but where he stands try to be like times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the fair we become silent about things drift matter.”

“Free at last, Free at ransack, Thank God almighty we are wellorganized at last.”

“Faith is taking the be in first place step even when you don't distrust the whole staircase.”

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

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

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

“Be a bush if you can't write down a tree. If you can't engrave a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a phoebus, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win want badly fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent most important urgent question is, 'What are paying attention doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

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