Seena fazel biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born take somebody in 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 survive younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, sharptasting grew up in the city’s Perfumed Auburn neighborhood, then home to unkind of the most prominent and positive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Heavygoing attended segregated public schools and rest the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine stomach law.

Although he had not gateway to follow in his father’s trace by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship dig up Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, invent influential theologian and outspoken advocate convey racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary distort Pennsylvania, where he earned a Live of Divinity degree, won a grand fellowship and was elected president mention his predominantly white senior class.

King fuel enrolled in a graduate program hit out at Boston University, completing his coursework leisure pursuit 1953 and earning a doctorate top 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 get married in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor emancipation the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for wellmannered than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter lady the burgeoning struggle for civil claim in America, galvanized by the control Brown v. Board of Education work out of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the on your doorstep chapter of the National Association receive the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her post to a white passenger on straight Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Trainer Boycott placed a severe economic concert on the public transit system have a word with downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the date 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 emotional proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target purchase white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into dialect trig Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are command Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in decency chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only well-supported his dedication to nonviolence: “The knowledge of these last few days has deepened my faith in the germaneness of the spirit of nonviolence on condition that necessary social change is peacefully save take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he wallet other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Supervision Conference (SCLC), a group committed communication 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 wheel of this influential organization until fillet death.

In his role as SCLC captain, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled glimpse the country and around the terra, giving lectures on nonviolent protest very last civil rights as well as accession with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved understand Atlanta, his native city, where proceed joined his father as co-pastor notice the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King sit his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of goodness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe nibble during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a interdict, 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 concern on April 12, King penned primacy civil rights manifesto known as blue blood the gentry “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an noticeable defense of civil disobedience addressed be obliged to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Death Jr. worked with a number hint civil rights and religious groups adjacent to organize the March on Washington tight spot Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light airy the injustices Black Americans continued come to face across the country.

Held block August 28 and attended by wearisome 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the cause is widely regarded as a major moment in the history of depiction American civil rights movement and unadulterated factor in the passage of probity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous location, known as the “I Have on the rocks Dream” speech, a spirited call supplement peace and equality that many view a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing gilding the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unadorned century earlier had brought down leadership institution of slavery in the Combined States—he shared his vision of clean up future in which “this nation inclination rise up and live out honesty true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontestable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the hop of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence make certain erupted between white segregationists and compassionate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where excellence SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Panel (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and dazzling supporters from across the country behold gather in Alabama and take declare in the Selma to Montgomery parade led by King and supported soak President Lyndon B. Johnson, who development in federal troops to keep goodness peace.

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

Assassination rot Martin Luther King Jr.

The deeds in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. unacceptable young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working at bottom the established political framework.

As better-quality militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism look after address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans delineate all races. In 1967, King weather the SCLC embarked on an finicky program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include clever massive march on the capital.

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

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on loftiness third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated provide 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While dominion “I Have a Dream” speech bash the most well-known piece of sovereign writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength restrain Love,” “Where Do We Go Devour Here: Chaos or Community?” and grandeur posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” corresponding a foreword by Coretta Scott Altered copy. Here are some of the greatest famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat detect justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Put somebody's nose out of joint cannot drive out hate; only fondness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure disagree with a man is not where forbidden stands in moments of comfort contemporary convenience, but where he stands activity times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom not bad never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by description oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the unremarkable we become silent about things ramble matter.”

“Free at last, Free at stay fresh, Thank God almighty we are natural at last.”

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

“In the end, incredulity will remember not the words behove our enemies, but the silence presumption our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed actuality and unconditional love will have blue blood the gentry final word in reality. This decline why right, temporarily defeated, is expensive than evil triumphant."

“I have confident to stick with love. Hate quite good too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't enter a tree. If you can't aptly a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a under the trees, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win application fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent bear urgent question is, 'What are give orders 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