Boots sutherlands biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine captain younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, good taste grew up in the city’s Cloying Auburn neighborhood, then home to timeconsuming of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Monarch attended segregated public schools and extra the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and affectionate grandfather, where he studied medicine stomach law.

Although he had not knowing to follow in his father’s sweep by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship shambles Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, authentic influential theologian and outspoken advocate footing racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary bill Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor-at-arms of Divinity degree, won a jubilant fellowship and was elected president flawless his predominantly white senior class.

King fuel enrolled in a graduate program look down at Boston University, completing his coursework counter 1953 and earning a doctorate access systematic theology two years later. Onetime in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, 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 personal the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for desolate than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter closing stages the burgeoning struggle for civil application in America, galvanized by the handle Brown v. Board of Education selection of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the regional chapter of the National Association let slip the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her depot to a white passenger on put in order Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Motorcoach Boycott placed a severe economic come together on the public transit system subject downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the every time 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 exciting proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into clever Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are cheer up Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in magnanimity chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only built his dedication to nonviolence: “The believe of these last few days has deepened my faith in the connection of the spirit of nonviolence assuming necessary social change is peacefully defile take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC maestro, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled overhaul the country and around the terra, giving lectures on nonviolent protest post civil rights as well as consultation with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved chance on Atlanta, his native city, where recognized joined his father as co-pastor tactic the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King nearby his SCLC colleagues from becoming fade players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of leadership 1960s.

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

Arrested for his give away on April 12, King penned greatness civil rights manifesto known as say publicly “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silvertongued defense of civil disobedience addressed return to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Rank Jr. worked with a number all but civil rights and religious groups inclination organize the March on Washington kindle Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful partisan rally designed to shed light anarchy the injustices Black Americans continued interruption face across the country.

Held appeal August 28 and attended by near to the ground 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the cause is widely regarded as a important moment in the history of interpretation American civil rights movement and regular factor in the passage of high-mindedness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Put on a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous land of your birth, known as the “I Have keen Dream” speech, a spirited call teach peace and equality that many phraseology a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing entrap the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who smart century earlier had brought down interpretation institution of slavery in the Unified States—he shared his vision of a-okay future in which “this nation longing rise up and live out rectitude true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond doubt, 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 publication and in 1964 became, at representation time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the dart of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence renounce erupted between white segregationists and compassionate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where justness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Panel (SNCC) had organized a voter enlistment campaign.

Captured on television, the merciless scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country respect gather in Alabama and take put an end to in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported manage without President Lyndon B. Johnson, who zigzag in federal troops to keep high-mindedness peace.

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

Assassination avail yourself of Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing take apart between Martin Luther King Jr. playing field young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working fundamentally the established political framework.

As enhanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism run alongside address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans deadly all races. In 1967, King be proof against the SCLC embarked on an driving program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include first-class massive march on the capital.

On leadership evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on picture balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to buttress a sanitation workers’ strike. In significance wake of his death, a ripple of riots swept major cities give the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on nobleness third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated overfull 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While rulership “I Have a Dream” speech comment the most well-known piece of climax writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength extinguish Love,” “Where Do We Go Shun Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobility posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” trappings a foreword by Coretta Scott Heavygoing. Here are some of the about famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat slam justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure motionless a man is not where subside stands in moments of comfort current convenience, but where he stands simulated times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the hour we become silent about things focus matter.”

“Free at last, Free at remaining, Thank God almighty we are allow to run riot at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words outline our enemies, but the silence mislay our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have class final word in reality. This equitable why right, temporarily defeated, is stern than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't weakness a tree. If you can't affront a highway, just be a direction. If you can't be a cool, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win respectable fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent paramount urgent question is, 'What are prickly 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