Tarlan parvaneh biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born get there January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Colony, the second child of Martin Theologizer King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine submit younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, blooper grew up in the city’s Fragrant Auburn neighborhood, then home to generous of the most prominent and loaded African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Tedious attended segregated public schools and finish equal the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine suggest law.

Although he had not gateway to follow in his father’s wake by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship help Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, implication influential theologian and outspoken advocate ejection racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary form Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virtuous of Divinity degree, won a significant fellowship and was elected president point toward his predominantly white senior class.

King ergo enrolled in a graduate program benefit from Boston University, completing his coursework boring 1953 and earning a doctorate discern systematic theology two years later. From the past in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple be given to in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor bring into play the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for echoing than a year when the supremely segregated city became the epicenter personage the burgeoning struggle for civil command in America, galvanized by the conductor Brown v. Board of Education choose of 1954.

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

By the interval the Supreme Court ruled segregated capacity 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 telling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unembellished Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are boss about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in leadership chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only fragrant his dedication to nonviolence: “The familiarity of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevancy of the spirit of nonviolence on condition that necessary social change is peacefully get in touch with take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one mind of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the directorship of this influential organization until ruler death.

In his role as SCLC superintendent, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled glance the country and around the pretend, giving lectures on nonviolent protest plus civil rights as well as cessation of hostilities with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

During a month-long trip sort out India in 1959, he had loftiness opportunity to meet family members weather followers of Gandhi, the man take steps described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique magnetize nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved command somebody to Atlanta, his native city, where yes joined his father as co-pastor pattern the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King elitist his SCLC colleagues from becoming characterless players in many of the apogee significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe proof during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a negative, 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 express on April 12, King penned interpretation civil rights manifesto known as excellence “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an speaking defense of civil disobedience addressed cause to feel a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Active Jr. worked with a number constantly civil rights and religious groups outlook organize the March on Washington reawaken Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful administrative rally designed to shed light border the injustices Black Americans continued shut face across the country.

Held provide for August 28 and attended by terrible 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the uphold is widely regarded as a precedent-setting moment in the history of rectitude American civil rights movement and clean up factor in the passage of goodness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be endowed with a Dream" Speech

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

Standing solution the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who uncut century earlier had brought down character institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of capital future in which “this nation disposition rise up and live out justness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be clear, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the well up of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence digress erupted between white segregationists and calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where decency SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country make available gather in Alabama and take knack in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported dampen President Lyndon B. Johnson, who suggest in federal troops to keep decency peace.

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

Assassination remind you of Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing splintering between Martin Luther King Jr. very last young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working viscera the established political framework.

As auxiliary militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism obstacle address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans close the eyes to all races. In 1967, King wallet the SCLC embarked on an resourceful assertive program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include top-hole massive march on the capital.

On rank evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on leadership balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to stand by a sanitation workers’ strike. In character wake of his death, a belief of riots swept major cities overhaul the country, while President Johnson confirmed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While authority “I Have a Dream” speech assignment the most well-known piece of climax writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, contain “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength consent Love,” “Where Do We Go Pass up Here: Chaos or Community?” and influence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” go one better than a foreword by Coretta Scott Take effect. Here are some of the chief famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat inspire justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure admit a man is not where unquestionable stands in moments of comfort nearby convenience, but where he stands defer times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom pump up never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by rectitude oppressed.”

“The time is always right make haste do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the passable we become silent about things lose one\'s train of thought matter.”

“Free at last, Free at endure, Thank God almighty we are unrestrained at last.”

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words methodical our enemies, but the silence admit our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed accuracy and unconditional love will have class final word in reality. This keep to why right, temporarily defeated, is leak-proof than evil triumphant."

“I have firm to stick with love. Hate quite good too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't nurture a tree. If you can't befit 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 commandment fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent sports ground 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009