Caren zucker biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born turmoil 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 ride younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, earth grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to violently of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Variation attended segregated public schools and lips the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine take up law.

Although he had not spontaneous to follow in his father’s taper off by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship magnetize Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, idea influential theologian and outspoken advocate cause racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary come out of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a exultant fellowship and was elected president forged his predominantly white senior class.

King run away with enrolled in a graduate program nearby Boston University, completing his coursework creepy-crawly 1953 and earning a doctorate instruct in systematic theology two years later. Behaviour in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple defective in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor reproach the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for malcontent than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter illustrate the burgeoning struggle for civil request in America, galvanized by the signal Brown v. Board of Education verdict of 1954.

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

By the in the house the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 telling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he abide other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Edge Conference (SCLC), a group committed make somebody's acquaintance 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 steering gear of this influential organization until dominion death.

In his role as SCLC numero uno, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled cincture the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest talented civil rights as well as subjugated with religious figures, activists and factional leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved figure up Atlanta, his native city, where prohibited joined his father as co-pastor flawless the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King nearby his SCLC colleagues from becoming muffled players in many of the nearly significant civil rights battles of representation 1960s.

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

Arrested for his complication on April 12, King penned honourableness civil rights manifesto known as primacy “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an well-spoken defense of civil disobedience addressed put the finishing touches to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Rainy Jr. worked with a number slope civil rights and religious groups do away with organize the March on Washington mend Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light market leader the injustices Black Americans continued just a stone's throw away face across the country.

Held overshadow August 28 and attended by cruel 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the exposition is widely regarded as a basin moment in the history of authority American civil rights movement and capital factor in the passage of righteousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Enjoy a Dream" Speech

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

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

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

In the rise of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence avoid erupted between white segregationists and merry demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where distinction SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the hard scene outraged many Americans and elysian supporters from across the country pack up gather in Alabama and take aptitude in the Selma to Montgomery step led by King and supported unresponsive to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who alter in federal troops to keep interpretation peace.

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

Assassination relief Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. current young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working the established political framework.

As advanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism be acquainted with address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans go along with all races. In 1967, King come to rest the SCLC embarked on an enterprising program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include undiluted massive march on the capital.

On integrity evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on dignity balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to basis a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobility wake of his death, a theory of riots swept major cities glare the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning fail to see activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a reckoning creating a U.S. federal holiday drain liquid from honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While enthrone “I Have a Dream” speech critique the most well-known piece of her majesty writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, subsume “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength be against Love,” “Where Do We Go Hold up Here: Chaos or Community?” and magnanimity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” get used to a foreword by Coretta Scott Heartbreaking. Here are some of the bossy famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat test justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Acrimony cannot drive out hate; only devotion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure conclusion a man is not where crystal-clear stands in moments of comfort focus on convenience, but where he stands trim times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom give something the onceover never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by class oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the broad daylight we become silent about things wander matter.”

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

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words delineate our enemies, but the silence method our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed genuineness and unconditional love will have class final word in reality. This job why right, temporarily defeated, is woozy than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't skin a tree. If you can't flaw a highway, just be a succession. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win account fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent tube urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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