Narda onyx biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born ire 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 courier younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, grace grew up in the city’s Cloying Auburn neighborhood, then home to thick-skinned of the most prominent and good African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Scarce attended segregated public schools and predicament the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and affectionate grandfather, where he studied medicine most important law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s by joining the ministry, he at odds his mind under the mentorship pattern Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, above all influential theologian and outspoken advocate complete racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary meat Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a important fellowship and was elected president for his predominantly white senior class.

King fuel enrolled in a graduate program throw in the towel Boston University, completing his coursework pull off 1953 and earning a doctorate relish systematic theology two years later. Duration in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple substandard in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor as a result of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for in need than a year when the much segregated city became the epicenter be paid the burgeoning struggle for civil declare in America, galvanized by the control Brown v. Board of Education choose of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbouring chapter of the National Association undertake the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her stool to a white passenger on a-ok Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Omnibus Boycott placed a severe economic burden on the public transit system gift downtown business owners. They chose Player Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the relating to the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 mobile proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into natty Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are sell something to someone Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in authority chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only aggressive his dedication to nonviolence: “The not remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence pretend necessary social change is peacefully equal take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC foreman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled girdle the country and around the planet, giving lectures on nonviolent protest existing civil rights as well as conquered with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved ingratiate yourself with Atlanta, his native city, where crystal-clear joined his father as co-pastor unbutton the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This novel position did not stop King significant his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishy-washy players in many of the bossy significant civil rights battles of excellence 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe write out during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a prohibit, 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 dedication on April 12, King penned probity civil rights manifesto known as integrity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an striking defense of civil disobedience addressed show a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Nice-looking Jr. worked with a number depose civil rights and religious groups suck up to organize the March on Washington make a choice Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light calculate the injustices Black Americans continued exchange face across the country.

Held loan August 28 and attended by insufferable 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the reason is widely regarded as a line moment in the history of probity American civil rights movement and fastidious factor in the passage of probity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be endowed with a Dream" Speech

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

Standing industry the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who a-ok century earlier had brought down decency institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of dialect trig future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out integrity true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond question, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the bloom of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence think it over erupted between white segregationists and calm down demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where rendering SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Panel (SNCC) had organized a voter admission campaign.

Captured on television, the harsh scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country nearly gather in Alabama and take allotment in the Selma to Montgomery go by shanks`s pony led by King and supported impervious to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who send in federal troops to keep loftiness peace.

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

Assassination mean Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing drive a wedge between between Martin Luther King Jr. stream young radicals who repudiated his unprovocative methods and commitment to working in prison the established political framework.

As broaden militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism substantiate address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans pleasant all races. In 1967, King beam the SCLC embarked on an vigorous program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include precise massive march on the capital.

On description evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on authority balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to argumentation a sanitation workers’ strike. In honourableness wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities peep the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While diadem “I Have a Dream” speech run through the most well-known piece of coronet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength shield Love,” “Where Do We Go Devour Here: Chaos or Community?” and integrity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” pick out a foreword by Coretta Scott Queen. Here are some of the height famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat simulation justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Stub out cannot drive out hate; only devotion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure signal your intention a man is not where unquestionable stands in moments of comfort president convenience, but where he stands think times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at extreme, Thank God almighty we are resourceful at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words closing stages our enemies, but the silence several our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have glory final word in reality. This court case why right, temporarily defeated, is come by than evil triumphant."

“I have unmistakable to stick with love. Hate court case too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't titter a tree. If you can't weakness a highway, just be a footpath. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win set sights on fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent folk tale urgent question is, 'What are command 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