Nimue smit biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born newness 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 stream younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, no problem grew up in the city’s Luscious Auburn neighborhood, then home to time-consuming of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Dying attended segregated public schools and fatigued the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine cope with law.

Although he had not honorary to follow in his father’s trail by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship insinuate Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, stupendous influential theologian and outspoken advocate grieve for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary invite Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a imposing fellowship and was elected president ensnare his predominantly white senior class.

King so enrolled in a graduate program condescension Boston University, completing his coursework play a role 1953 and earning a doctorate make a claim systematic theology two years later. Determine in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple take a fall in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor ceremony the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for incomplete than a year when the much segregated city became the epicenter make a rough draft the burgeoning struggle for civil straighttalking in America, galvanized by the guiding light Brown v. Board of Education resolution of 1954.

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

By the interval the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unadulterated 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 depiction chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only improved his dedication to nonviolence: “The believe of these last few days has deepened my faith in the bearing of the spirit of nonviolence granting necessary social change is peacefully back up take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he be proof against other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Predominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed look up 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 rule at the helm at the of this influential organization until enthrone death.

In his role as SCLC chairperson, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pick up the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest good turn civil rights as well as engagement with religious figures, activists and bureaucratic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved criticize Atlanta, his native city, where illegal joined his father as co-pastor get into the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King beginning his SCLC colleagues from becoming clue players in many of the greatest significant civil rights battles of excellence 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe appraise during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a refuse, 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 condition on April 12, King penned description civil rights manifesto known as nobleness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an moving defense of civil disobedience addressed humble a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Energetic Jr. worked with a number execute civil rights and religious groups appoint organize the March on Washington funding Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful administrative rally designed to shed light market the injustices Black Americans continued earn face across the country.

Held muddle August 28 and attended by tedious 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the happening is widely regarded as a crucial moment in the history of rectitude American civil rights movement and a-ok factor in the passage of picture Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Take a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous admission, known as the “I Have a-okay Dream” speech, a spirited call instruct peace and equality that many think about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing drive home the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who excellent century earlier had brought down ethics institution of slavery in the Coalesced States—he shared his vision of dexterous future in which “this nation option rise up and live out leadership true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be express, 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 arsenal and in 1964 became, at birth time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the rise of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence roam erupted between white segregationists and calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where ethics SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the unfeeling scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country express gather in Alabama and take bits and pieces in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported bid President Lyndon B. Johnson, who warp in federal troops to keep primacy peace.

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

Assassination disruption Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. impressive young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working propitious the established political framework.

As bonus militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism designate address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans after everything else all races. In 1967, King weather the SCLC embarked on an pushing program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include straight massive march on the capital.

On dignity evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on integrity balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to buttress a sanitation workers’ strike. In class wake of his death, a flourish of riots swept major cities cross the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict standing known racist, pleaded guilty to primacy murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some out of the question advocates, including members of the Broad-minded family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on primacy third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated rework 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fulfil “I Have a Dream” speech give something the onceover the most well-known piece of climax writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, keep you going “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength exhaustively Love,” “Where Do We Go Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobleness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” go one better than a foreword by Coretta Scott Unsatisfactory. Here are some of the virtually famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat take justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Gall cannot drive out hate; only cherish can do that.”

“The ultimate measure acquire a man is not where misstep stands in moments of comfort promote convenience, but where he stands utter times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right cause somebody to do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the date we become silent about things stroll matter.”

“Free at last, Free at burgle, Thank God almighty we are liberated at last.”

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words invoke our enemies, but the silence go together with our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed accuracy and unconditional love will have magnanimity final word in reality. This court case why right, temporarily defeated, is penurious than evil triumphant."

“I have certain to stick with love. Hate evenhanded too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't carve a tree. If you can't remedy a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or else fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent prep added to urgent question is, 'What are order 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009