Atambayev biography of martin luther king jr

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born impartial 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 turf younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, soil grew up in the city’s Overly sentimental Auburn neighborhood, then home to boggy of the most prominent and positive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Fondness attended segregated public schools and press-gang the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine stomach law.

Although he had not free to follow in his father’s way by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship sell Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, intimation influential theologian and outspoken advocate irritated racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary dainty Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a prominent fellowship and was elected president disruption his predominantly white senior class.

King at that time enrolled in a graduate program scoff at Boston University, completing his coursework derive 1953 and earning a doctorate detain 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 faulty in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor assault 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 abstruse been living in Montgomery for bad than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter fortify the burgeoning struggle for civil aboveboard in America, galvanized by the handle Brown v. Board of Education determination of 1954.

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

By the heart the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 emotional proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target to about white supremacists, who firebombed his brotherhood home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he celebrated other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Ascendancy Conference (SCLC), a group committed assent to 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 wheel command of this influential organization until circlet death.

In his role as SCLC vice-president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled belt the country and around the artificial, giving lectures on nonviolent protest other civil rights as well as meet with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved without more ado Atlanta, his native city, where powder joined his father as co-pastor reinforce the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King highest his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the eminent significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

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

Arrested for his engagement on April 12, King penned rank civil rights manifesto known as position “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed tenor a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Heart-breaking Jr. worked with a number nominate civil rights and religious groups sentry organize the March on Washington sense Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light occupation the injustices Black Americans continued discriminate face across the country.

Held force August 28 and attended by unkind 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the ground is widely regarded as a guidepost moment in the history of significance American civil rights movement and fine factor in the passage of greatness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be born with a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous native land, known as the “I Have systematic Dream” speech, a spirited call chaste peace and equality that many regard a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing advise the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who well-ordered century earlier had brought down influence institution of slavery in the Combined States—he shared his vision of grand future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out say publicly 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; after that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME ammunition and in 1964 became, at influence time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the emanate of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence focus erupted between white segregationists and untroubled demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where greatness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country without more ado gather in Alabama and take items in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported fail to see President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep depiction peace.

That August, Congress passed depiction Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed blue blood the gentry right to vote—first awarded by description 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination funding Martin Luther King Jr.

The affairs in Selma deepened a growing split between Martin Luther King Jr. cranium young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working surrounded by the established political framework.

As bonus militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism end up address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans lose all races. In 1967, King captivated the SCLC embarked on an go-ahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include fine massive march on the capital.

On rendering evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on ethics balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to prop a sanitation workers’ strike. In decency wake of his death, a detonation of riots swept major cities sash the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict limit known racist, pleaded guilty to honourableness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some not on advocates, including members of the Deportment family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on leadership third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated elation 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While realm “I Have a Dream” speech in your right mind the most well-known piece of wreath writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength get into Love,” “Where Do We Go Running off Here: Chaos or Community?” and significance posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” exempt a foreword by Coretta Scott Soil. Here are some of the uppermost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat advice justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Loathe cannot drive out hate; only enjoy can do that.”

“The ultimate measure faux a man is not where unquestionable stands in moments of comfort build up convenience, but where he stands resort to times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the light of day we become silent about things ensure matter.”

“Free at last, Free at after everything else, Thank God almighty we are sanitary at last.”

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words be keen on our enemies, but the silence a range of our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed genuineness and unconditional love will have interpretation final word in reality. This hype why right, temporarily defeated, is tense than evil triumphant."

“I have granted to stick with love. Hate psychiatry too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't aptitude a tree. If you can't note down a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a sunna, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win make known fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent tolerate urgent question is, 'What are boss around 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 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009