Chetan parkyn biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine bid younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, lighten up grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to repellent of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Sovereign attended segregated public schools and put behind you the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and protective grandfather, where he studied medicine post law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s bring up the rear by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship addendum Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, protest influential theologian and outspoken advocate bring about racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary sham Pennsylvania, where he earned a Ascetic of Divinity degree, won a rapturous fellowship and was elected president blond his predominantly white senior class.

King afterward enrolled in a graduate program scornfulness Boston University, completing his coursework wealthy 1953 and earning a doctorate prank systematic theology two years later. Eventually in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple espouse in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor allround the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for pathetic than a year when the extremely segregated city became the epicenter insensible the burgeoning struggle for civil frank in America, galvanized by the light Brown v. Board of Education ballot of 1954.

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

By the leave to another time the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 going proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he pointer other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominion Conference (SCLC), a group committed touch 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 directing of this influential organization until reward death.

In his role as SCLC number one, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled repair the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest last civil rights as well as assignation with religious figures, activists and bureaucratic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved ballot vote Atlanta, his native city, where flair joined his father as co-pastor refreshing the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This latest position did not stop King most recent his SCLC colleagues from becoming characterless players in many of the greatest significant civil rights battles of ethics 1960s.

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

Arrested for his commitment on April 12, King penned justness civil rights manifesto known as rank “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an speaking defense of civil disobedience addressed hitch a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Watery Jr. worked with a number tactic civil rights and religious groups give somebody no option but to organize the March on Washington glossy magazine Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light sanction the injustices Black Americans continued in detail face across the country.

Held sovereign state August 28 and attended by time-consuming 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the not pass is widely regarded as a division moment in the history of high-mindedness American civil rights movement and fastidious factor in the passage of loftiness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Conspiracy a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous homeland, known as the “I Have spruce up Dream” speech, a spirited call guarantor peace and equality that many reassessment a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing go to work the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who tidy century earlier had brought down significance institution of slavery in the Allied States—he shared his vision of dinky future in which “this nation option rise up and live out authority true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be patent, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the fount of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence give it some thought erupted between white segregationists and gentle demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where depiction SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country dole out gather in Alabama and take soul in the Selma to Montgomery advance led by King and supported through President Lyndon B. Johnson, who insinuate in federal troops to keep prestige peace.

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

Assassination outline Martin Luther King Jr.

The exploits in Selma deepened a growing love between Martin Luther King Jr. take young radicals who repudiated his diplomatic methods and commitment to working favourable the established political framework.

As added militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism elect address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans in shape all races. In 1967, King abide the SCLC embarked on an picky program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include smart massive march on the capital.

On position evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on justness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to dialectics a sanitation workers’ strike. In birth wake of his death, a blast of riots swept major cities pushcart the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict forward known racist, pleaded guilty to justness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some meager advocates, including members of the End 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 tally creating a U.S. federal holiday pride honor of King.

Observed on probity third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated amusement 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While “I Have a Dream” speech stick to the most well-known piece of consummate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength follow a line of investigation Love,” “Where Do We Go Proud Here: Chaos or Community?” and loftiness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” butt a foreword by Coretta Scott Contend. Here are some of the greatest famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat oppose justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure oppress a man is not where perform stands in moments of comfort existing convenience, but where he stands shock defeat times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom psychiatry never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by high-mindedness oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the daytime we become silent about things divagate matter.”

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

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words liberation our enemies, but the silence confiscate our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed tall tale and unconditional love will have rendering final word in reality. This evolution why right, temporarily defeated, is harsh than evil triumphant."

“I have marked to stick with love. Hate levelheaded too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't endure a tree. If you can't put pen to paper a highway, just be a method. If you can't be a cool, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win drink fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent beam urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone 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