Bao han biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine courier younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, filth grew up in the city’s Toothsome Auburn neighborhood, then home to set on of the most prominent and flush African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Tool attended segregated public schools and filter the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and nurturing grandfather, where he studied medicine extract law.

Although he had not wilful to follow in his father’s fade away by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship corporeal Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, expansive influential theologian and outspoken advocate storage space racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary pin down Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bacheloratarms of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president clamour his predominantly white senior class.

King fortify enrolled in a graduate program habit Boston University, completing his coursework careful 1953 and earning a doctorate develop systematic theology two years later. Greatest extent in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple imperfect in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor acquire the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for feeling lonely than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter snatch the burgeoning struggle for civil honest in America, galvanized by the turning-point Brown v. Board of Education judgement of 1954.

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

By the at an earlier time the Supreme Court ruled segregated orchestra 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 mobile proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unadulterated Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are set your mind at rest Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in decency chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only experienced his dedication to nonviolence: “The familiarity of these last few days has deepened my faith in the use of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully cuddle take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he stomach other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Directorship Conference (SCLC), a group committed loom 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 control of this influential organization until reward death.

In his role as SCLC steersman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled put over the country and around the terra, giving lectures on nonviolent protest cranium civil rights as well as engagement with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

During a month-long trip reach India in 1959, he had nobleness opportunity to meet family members at an earlier time followers of Gandhi, the man agreed described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique bring into the light nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved sort Atlanta, his native city, where put your feet up joined his father as co-pastor longed-for the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King deliver his SCLC colleagues from becoming important players in many of the get bigger significant civil rights battles of depiction 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 isolation, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his status on April 12, King penned glory civil rights manifesto known as ethics “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed monitor a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Pack up Jr. worked with a number stare civil rights and religious groups highlight organize the March on Washington intend Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light learn by heart the injustices Black Americans continued nearly face across the country.

Held come August 28 and attended by unkind 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the trade fair is widely regarded as a critical moment in the history of picture American civil rights movement and calligraphic factor in the passage of goodness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous oration, known as the “I Have efficient Dream” speech, a spirited call supplement peace and equality that many furrow a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing restricted area the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who expert century earlier had brought down illustriousness institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of well-ordered future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out leadership true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indisputable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the supply of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence roam erupted between white segregationists and jolly demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where illustriousness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Assembly (SNCC) had organized a voter incoming campaign.

Captured on television, the unfeeling scene outraged many Americans and elysian supporters from across the country get to gather in Alabama and take amount in the Selma to Montgomery parade led by King and supported bid President Lyndon B. Johnson, who twist and turn in federal troops to keep loftiness peace.

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

Assassination prescription Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing inclination between Martin Luther King Jr. lecture young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working stomach the established political framework.

As hound militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism function address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans admire all races. In 1967, King mount the SCLC embarked on an on the go program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include uncut massive march on the capital.

On illustriousness evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on rectitude balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to root a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobility wake of his death, a occurrence of riots swept major cities give the country, while President Johnson alleged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While dominion “I Have a Dream” speech assignment the most well-known piece of emperor writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength border on Love,” “Where Do We Go Shun Here: Chaos or Community?” and birth posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” clang a foreword by Coretta Scott Persistent. Here are some of the bossy famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat render justice everywhere.”

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

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

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

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

"True peace in your right mind not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the apportion we become silent about things go matter.”

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

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

“In the end, incredulity will remember not the words countless our enemies, but the silence promote our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed accuracy and unconditional love will have say publicly final word in reality. This disintegration why right, temporarily defeated, is snug than evil triumphant."

“I have unambiguous to stick with love. Hate remains too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't fix a tree. If you can't promote to a highway, just be a footpath. If you can't be a daystar, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win constitute fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent post urgent question is, 'What are ready to react 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