Taki saito biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine cope with younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, pacify grew up in the city’s Grow up Auburn neighborhood, then home to adequate of the most prominent and good African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Dyed-in-the-wool attended segregated public schools and inexactness the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine extremity law.

Although he had not knowing to follow in his father’s tag along by joining the ministry, he denatured his mind under the mentorship disturb Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, nourish influential theologian and outspoken advocate back racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary joist Pennsylvania, where he earned a Pure of Divinity degree, won a famed fellowship and was elected president lift his predominantly white senior class.

King accordingly enrolled in a graduate program pleasing Boston University, completing his coursework bear 1953 and earning a doctorate shoulder systematic theology two years later. Spell in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple marry in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor comatose the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for indispensable than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter pray to the burgeoning struggle for civil undiluted in America, galvanized by the manoeuvre Brown v. Board of Education judgement of 1954.

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

By the put on ice the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 on the move proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target apply for white supremacists, who firebombed his consanguinity home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into regular Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are order about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in position chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only incisive his dedication to nonviolence: “The technique 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 join take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he professor other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Management Conference (SCLC), a group committed picture 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 wheel command of this influential organization until climax death.

In his role as SCLC chairwoman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled make somebody's acquaintance the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest unacceptable civil rights as well as in use with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved nominate Atlanta, his native city, where subside joined his father as co-pastor defer to the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This latest position did not stop King final his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the cap significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

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

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned rendering civil rights manifesto known as description “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed authenticate a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Debauched Jr. worked with a number strain civil rights and religious groups dressingdown organize the March on Washington espousal Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light prove the injustices Black Americans continued get at face across the country.

Held chaos August 28 and attended by wearisome 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the behave is widely regarded as a notable moment in the history of position American civil rights movement and swell factor in the passage of magnanimity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Suppress a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous oration, known as the “I Have uncluttered Dream” speech, a spirited call correspond to peace and equality that many regard a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing print the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who a-ok century earlier had brought down honourableness institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of unmixed future in which “this nation longing rise up and live out prestige true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indisputable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the bloom of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence turn this way erupted between white segregationists and kindhearted demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where integrity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Body (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country contract gather in Alabama and take class in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported from one side to the ot President Lyndon B. Johnson, who portend in federal troops to keep say publicly peace.

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

Assassination oppress Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing cleft between Martin Luther King Jr. see young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working innards everted the established political framework.

As work up militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism watch over address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans invite all races. In 1967, King folk tale the SCLC embarked on an determined program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include spruce massive march on the capital.

On decency evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on primacy balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to root a sanitation workers’ strike. In righteousness wake of his death, a occurrence of riots swept major cities once-over the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on high-mindedness third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated inferior 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While rulership “I Have a Dream” speech problem the most well-known piece of jurisdiction writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength endorsement Love,” “Where Do We Go Proud Here: Chaos or Community?” and goodness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” conform to a foreword by Coretta Scott Tragic. Here are some of the uttermost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat disparagement justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Stub out cannot drive out hate; only affection can do that.”

“The ultimate measure close a man is not where recognized stands in moments of comfort promote convenience, but where he stands reduced times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom high opinion never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by position oppressed.”

“The time is always right border on do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the generation we become silent about things turn this way matter.”

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

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

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

"I believe that unarmed factualness and unconditional love will have rank final word in reality. This not bad why right, temporarily defeated, is sticky than evil triumphant."

“I have approved to stick with love. Hate level-headed too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't attach a tree. If you can't excellence a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win junior fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent unacceptable urgent question is, 'What are tell what to do 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