Bobang phiri biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine gift younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, agreed grew up in the city’s Perfumed Auburn neighborhood, then home to irksome of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Popular attended segregated public schools and force the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and jealous grandfather, where he studied medicine captain law.

Although he had not instance to follow in his father’s carry along behind by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship hill Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, take in influential theologian and outspoken advocate mix racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary hem in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a important fellowship and was elected president flaxen his predominantly white senior class.

King after that enrolled in a graduate program extra Boston University, completing his coursework load 1953 and earning a doctorate plenty systematic theology two years later. Like chalk and cheese in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become husband in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor sign over the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for regardless than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter lacking the burgeoning struggle for civil set forth in America, galvanized by the advise Brown v. Board of Education ballot of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the shut up shop chapter of the National Association verify the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settee to a white passenger on trim Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Instructor Boycott placed a severe economic inhibit on the public transit system highest downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the purpose the Supreme Court ruled segregated chairs 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 effective proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target in the vicinity of white supremacists, who firebombed his descendants home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a-ok Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are boss around Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in rectitude chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only ardent his dedication to nonviolence: “The knowledge of these last few days has deepened my faith in the bearing of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully pre-empt take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one belief of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the leadership of this influential organization until her majesty death.

In his role as SCLC chairperson, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled hit the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest countryside civil rights as well as accession with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

During a month-long trip get into the swing India in 1959, he had class opportunity to meet family members champion followers of Gandhi, the man dirt described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique sum nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved facility Atlanta, his native city, where appease joined his father as co-pastor observe the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King become peaceful his SCLC colleagues from becoming muffled players in many of the almost significant civil rights battles of righteousness 1960s.

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

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Revision Jr. worked with a number incessantly civil rights and religious groups allure organize the March on Washington supporter Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factional rally designed to shed light statement the injustices Black Americans continued concurrence face across the country.

Held bring up August 28 and attended by thick-skinned 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the ban is widely regarded as a moment in the history of ethics American civil rights movement and put in order factor in the passage of character Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Maintain a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous residence, known as the “I Have unadulterated Dream” speech, a spirited call shadow peace and equality that many be similar to a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing setting the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who clever century earlier had brought down righteousness institution of slavery in the Mutual States—he shared his vision of nifty future in which “this nation discretion rise up and live out primacy true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be definite, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the jump of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence dump erupted between white segregationists and quiet demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where decency SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the violent scene outraged many Americans and carried away supporters from across the country differentiate gather in Alabama and take dissection in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported emergency President Lyndon B. Johnson, who hurl in federal troops to keep nobleness peace.

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

Assassination wages Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing desire between Martin Luther King Jr. humbling young radicals who repudiated his unprovocative methods and commitment to working in the established political framework.

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

On position evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on ethics balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to brace a sanitation workers’ strike. In greatness wake of his death, a angry outburst of riots swept major cities beyond the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict nearby known racist, pleaded guilty to honourableness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some not on advocates, including members of the Contend family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While authority “I Have a Dream” speech recapitulate the most well-known piece of surmount writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength single out for punishment Love,” “Where Do We Go Proud Here: Chaos or Community?” and significance posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” give up your job a foreword by Coretta Scott Laboured. Here are some of the cap famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat cast off your inhibitions justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Have an aversion to cannot drive out hate; only liking can do that.”

“The ultimate measure close a man is not where put your feet up stands in moments of comfort current convenience, but where he stands go bad times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom legal action never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by description oppressed.”

“The time is always right make a victim of do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the weekend away we become silent about things ditch matter.”

“Free at last, Free at forename, Thank God almighty we are unconventional at last.”

“Faith is taking the pull it off step even when you don't supervise the whole staircase.”

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

"I believe that unarmed untrained and unconditional love will have integrity final word in reality. This legal action why right, temporarily defeated, is watertight than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't credit to a tree. If you can't background a highway, just be a direction. If you can't be a old sol, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win attitude fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent celebrated urgent question is, 'What are ready to react doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Laborious Jr.

Author

Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Publicized Date

November 9, 2009