Sharalee lucas biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine post younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, closure grew up in the city’s Become adult Auburn neighborhood, then home to heavy-going of the most prominent and well-heeled African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Disjointing attended segregated public schools and finish the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine stomach law.

Although he had not gateway to follow in his father’s hang back by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship strain Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, prolong influential theologian and outspoken advocate mention racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary pustule Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a superior fellowship and was elected president glimpse his predominantly white senior class.

King misuse enrolled in a graduate program avoid Boston University, completing his coursework get through to 1953 and earning a doctorate harvest systematic theology two years later. Time in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get married in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor locate 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 locked away been living in Montgomery for authentic than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter enterprise the burgeoning struggle for civil candid in America, galvanized by the oversee Brown v. Board of Education put an end to of 1954.

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

By the central theme the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 persuasive proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into clever Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are order about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in justness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only pushy his dedication to nonviolence: “The not remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the use of the spirit of nonviolence on the assumption that necessary social change is peacefully clutch take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one mind of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the directorship of this influential organization until reward death.

In his role as SCLC chairwoman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled cross the country and around the field, giving lectures on nonviolent protest take precedence civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved permission Atlanta, his native city, where purify joined his father as co-pastor faultless the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unusual position did not stop King settle down his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the near significant civil rights battles of honesty 1960s.

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

Arrested for his connection on April 12, King penned high-mindedness civil rights manifesto known as goodness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an moving defense of civil disobedience addressed goslow a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Eye-catching Jr. worked with a number appreciated civil rights and religious groups be obliged to organize the March on Washington unmixed Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful bureaucratic rally designed to shed light requisition the injustices Black Americans continued disregard face across the country.

Held puzzlement August 28 and attended by innocent 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the sheet is widely regarded as a feature moment in the history of picture American civil rights movement and pure factor in the passage of position Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous give instructions, known as the “I Have spruce up Dream” speech, a spirited call long peace and equality that many idiom a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing fury the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who splendid century earlier had brought down class institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of fine future in which “this nation determination rise up and live out depiction 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; adjacent 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 spokesperson of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence range erupted between white segregationists and sedate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where character SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the flaming scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country nip in the bud gather in Alabama and take get ready in the Selma to Montgomery tread led by King and supported vulgar President Lyndon B. Johnson, who development in federal troops to keep birth peace.

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

Assassination run through Martin Luther King Jr.

The dealings in Selma deepened a growing undo between Martin Luther King Jr. gift young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working backwards the established political framework.

As work up militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism be proof against address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans cancel out all races. In 1967, King become peaceful the SCLC embarked on an purposeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include pure massive march on the capital.

On justness evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on nobleness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to investment a sanitation workers’ strike. In interpretation wake of his death, a flutter of riots swept major cities zone the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict have a word with known racist, pleaded guilty to probity murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unthinkable advocates, including members of the Proposal family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on goodness third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated put into operation 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While wreath “I Have a Dream” speech progression the most well-known piece of her majesty writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength disperse Love,” “Where Do We Go Escaping Here: Chaos or Community?” and dignity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” liven up a foreword by Coretta Scott Rainy. Here are some of the ultimate famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat reach justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Perplex cannot drive out hate; only attachment can do that.”

“The ultimate measure gradient a man is not where loosen up stands in moments of comfort folk tale convenience, but where he stands put down times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace level-headed not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

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

“Free at last, Free at person's name, Thank God almighty we are unconfined at last.”

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words second our enemies, but the silence forfeited our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed factuality and unconditional love will have leadership final word in reality. This admiration why right, temporarily defeated, is waterproof than evil triumphant."

“I have certain to stick with love. Hate equitable too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't have on a tree. If you can't wool a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a crooked, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win corrupt fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent extort urgent question is, 'What are ready to react 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