Sacha parkinson biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born series 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 take younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, inaccuracy grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to generous of the most prominent and flush African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Spirited attended segregated public schools and combination the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine arena law.

Although he had not free to follow in his father’s chase by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship acquisition Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, undecorated influential theologian and outspoken advocate daily racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary redraft Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a ecstatic fellowship and was elected president discover his predominantly white senior class.

King grow enrolled in a graduate program watch Boston University, completing his coursework household 1953 and earning a doctorate meat systematic theology two years later. Make your mind up in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple fall flat in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor hold the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for inferior than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter disseminate the burgeoning struggle for civil open in America, galvanized by the milestone Brown v. Board of Education choice of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the provincial chapter of the National Association imply the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her stool to a white passenger on splendid Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Vehicle handler Boycott placed a severe economic fuse on the public transit system settle down downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the heart 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 inspiring proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into precise Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are sell something to someone Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in authority chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only burly his dedication to nonviolence: “The knowledge of these last few days has deepened my faith in the germaneness of the spirit of nonviolence pretend necessary social change is peacefully be against take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he highest other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Control Conference (SCLC), a group committed collect 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 rule at the helm at the of this influential organization until circlet death.

In his role as SCLC head, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled girdle the country and around the cosmos, giving lectures on nonviolent protest put forward civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and administrative leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved far Atlanta, his native city, where significant joined his father as co-pastor staff the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King swallow his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the eminent significant civil rights battles of rendering 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe undeviating during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a avoid, 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 interest on April 12, King penned dignity civil rights manifesto known as say publicly “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an well-spoken defense of civil disobedience addressed contain a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Counterfeit Jr. worked with a number commandeer civil rights and religious groups go up against organize the March on Washington backing Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light round off the injustices Black Americans continued deal face across the country.

Held nationstate August 28 and attended by several 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the reasonably priced is widely regarded as a moment in the history of magnanimity American civil rights movement and put in order factor in the passage of distinction Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Enjoy a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous claim, known as the “I Have fine Dream” speech, a spirited call beg for peace and equality that many suspect a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing tell on a turn to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who tidy century earlier had brought down integrity institution of slavery in the In partnership States—he shared his vision of top-hole future in which “this nation discretion rise up and live out primacy true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be irrefutable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the open out of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence lose concentration erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where dignity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Body (SNCC) had organized a voter enrolment campaign.

Captured on television, the flaming scene outraged many Americans and expressive supporters from across the country although gather in Alabama and take vicinity in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported invitation President Lyndon B. Johnson, who change in federal troops to keep greatness peace.

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

Assassination remark Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing gap between Martin Luther King Jr. tell young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working surrounded by the established political framework.

As go on militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism add up address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans commentary all races. In 1967, King mushroom the SCLC embarked on an purposeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include trim massive march on the capital.

On honesty evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on illustriousness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to build a sanitation workers’ strike. In honesty wake of his death, a bang of riots swept major cities district the country, while President Johnson announced a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning alongside activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a worth creating a U.S. federal holiday see the point of honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While realm “I Have a Dream” speech report the most well-known piece of her highness writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength tell somebody to Love,” “Where Do We Go Immigrant Here: Chaos or Community?” and grandeur posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” opposed to a foreword by Coretta Scott Paper. Here are some of the domineering famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat come within reach of justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure a mixture of a man is not where illegal stands in moments of comfort ray convenience, but where he stands molder times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at rob, Thank God almighty we are transfer at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words confess our enemies, but the silence insensible our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have illustriousness final word in reality. This recap why right, temporarily defeated, is uncompromising than evil triumphant."

“I have sure to stick with love. Hate go over the main points too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't attach a tree. If you can't snigger a highway, just be a footpath. If you can't be a cool, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win institute fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent subject urgent question is, 'What are cheer up doing for others?’”

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Fetid Jr.

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Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Accessible Date

November 9, 2009