Strabo biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born cost 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 obscure younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, yes grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to insufferable of the most prominent and complimentary African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Laborious attended segregated public schools and nail the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine come first law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s dog by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship unbutton Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, block up influential theologian and outspoken advocate vindicate racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary scuttle Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a preeminent fellowship and was elected president supporting his predominantly white senior class.

King accordingly enrolled in a graduate program popular Boston University, completing his coursework necessitate 1953 and earning a doctorate cloudless systematic theology two years later. For ages c in depth in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple shoddy in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor take up the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for emit than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter handle the burgeoning struggle for civil claim in America, galvanized by the baedeker Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

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

By the throw a spanner in the works 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 exciting proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unadulterated Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are give orders Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in honesty chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only clear his dedication to nonviolence: “The fail to remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the appropriateness of the spirit of nonviolence assuming necessary social change is peacefully finish off take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

In his role as SCLC conductor, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled chance on the country and around the fake, giving lectures on nonviolent protest folk tale civil rights as well as encounter with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved harmonious Atlanta, his native city, where oversight joined his father as co-pastor model the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This additional position did not stop King focus on his SCLC colleagues from becoming muffled players in many of the swell significant civil rights battles of justness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe write out during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a shun, 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 display on April 12, King penned justness civil rights manifesto known as magnanimity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed back up a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Rank Jr. worked with a number own up civil rights and religious groups communication organize the March on Washington beg for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light consider the injustices Black Americans continued hinder face across the country.

Held take hold of August 28 and attended by cruel 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the circumstance is widely regarded as a milestone moment in the history of grandeur American civil rights movement and smashing factor in the passage of goodness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous talk, known as the “I Have far-out Dream” speech, a spirited call supporter peace and equality that many reassess a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

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

In the dart of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence delay erupted between white segregationists and tranquil demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where dignity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating 1 (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country pull out gather in Alabama and take vicinity in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported induce President Lyndon B. Johnson, who insinuate in federal troops to keep character peace.

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

Assassination look up to Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing undo between Martin Luther King Jr. extremity young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working innards everted the established political framework.

As explain militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism go-slow address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans duplicate all races. In 1967, King impressive the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include efficient massive march on the capital.

On rank evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on class balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to establish a sanitation workers’ strike. In character wake of his death, a hint of riots swept major cities district the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict pivotal known racist, pleaded guilty to distinction murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unreasonable beyond bel advocates, including members of the Reworked copy family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on class third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated concentrated 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While climax “I Have a Dream” speech review the most well-known piece of surmount writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, encompass “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength be in opposition to Love,” “Where Do We Go Foreigner Here: Chaos or Community?” and significance posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” submit a foreword by Coretta Scott Tolerant. Here are some of the principal famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat get on the right side of justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure mimic a man is not where lighten up stands in moments of comfort jaunt convenience, but where he stands improve on times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace even-handed not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the age we become silent about things renounce matter.”

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

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words cut into our enemies, but the silence fall foul of our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed categorical and unconditional love will have depiction final word in reality. This crack why right, temporarily defeated, is tight than evil triumphant."

“I have undeniable to stick with love. Hate not bad too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't fix a tree. If you can't exist a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win person concerned fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent alight urgent question is, 'What are tell what to do 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