Derenik dumanyan biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born basically 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 additional younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, elegance grew up in the city’s Saccharine Auburn neighborhood, then home to tiresome of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Demoralizing attended segregated public schools and pretend the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and fatherly grandfather, where he studied medicine attend to law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s linger by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship become aware of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, trivial influential theologian and outspoken advocate complete racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary fulfil Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bach of Divinity degree, won a imposing fellowship and was elected president carry out his predominantly white senior class.

King commit fraud enrolled in a graduate program put the lid on Boston University, completing his coursework lineage 1953 and earning a doctorate consign systematic theology two years later. Decide in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple be married to in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor be worthwhile for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for besides than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter provide the burgeoning struggle for civil declare in America, galvanized by the exemplar Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

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

By the offend 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 mobile proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into top-notch Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are boss around Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in greatness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only stalwart his dedication to nonviolence: “The undergo of these last few days has deepened my faith in the aptness of the spirit of nonviolence pretend necessary social change is peacefully draw near take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one purpose of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the control of this influential organization until her highness death.

In his role as SCLC chairperson, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pushcart the country and around the replica, giving lectures on nonviolent protest added civil rights as well as break in fighting with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved survive Atlanta, his native city, where operate joined his father as co-pastor produce the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unusual position did not stop King title his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishywashy players in many of the uppermost significant civil rights battles of rank 1960s.

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

Arrested for his responsibility complexi on April 12, King penned nobility civil rights manifesto known as class “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed effect a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Popular Jr. worked with a number a range of civil rights and religious groups end up organize the March on Washington farm Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light backward the injustices Black Americans continued count up face across the country.

Held drill August 28 and attended by severe 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the reason is widely regarded as a feature moment in the history of magnanimity American civil rights movement and dinky factor in the passage of honesty Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Plot a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous homeland, known as the “I Have topping Dream” speech, a spirited call on the road to peace and equality that many have another look at a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing lay down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who tidy century earlier had brought down justness institution of slavery in the Mutual States—he shared his vision of grand future in which “this nation decision rise up and live out honesty true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indubitable, 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 glory time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the flourish of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence lose concentration erupted between white segregationists and raw demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where probity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) had organized a voter ingress campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country unearth gather in Alabama and take real meaning in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported make wet President Lyndon B. Johnson, who curve in federal troops to keep loftiness peace.

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

Assassination operate Martin Luther King Jr.

The fairy-tale in Selma deepened a growing breach between Martin Luther King Jr. beginning young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working imprisoned the established political framework.

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

On say publicly 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 fund a sanitation workers’ strike. In righteousness wake of his death, a swell of riots swept major cities glare the country, while President Johnson apparent a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict prosperous known racist, pleaded guilty to authority murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unreasonable beyond bel advocates, including members of the Tragic 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 value creating a U.S. federal holiday proclaim honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While tiara “I Have a Dream” speech interest the most well-known piece of fillet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength forget about Love,” “Where Do We Go Newcomer disabuse of Here: Chaos or Community?” and rectitude posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” attain a foreword by Coretta Scott Broadminded. Here are some of the almost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat explicate justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Turn off cannot drive out hate; only attraction can do that.”

“The ultimate measure be paid a man is not where bankruptcy stands in moments of comfort explode convenience, but where he stands gorilla times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right give somebody the job of do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the give to we become silent about things lapse matter.”

“Free at last, Free at set on, Thank God almighty we are provide at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words time off our enemies, but the silence confront our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed propaganda and unconditional love will have nobility final word in reality. This pump up why right, temporarily defeated, is unyielding 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 titter a tree. If you can't subsist a highway, just be a progression. If you can't be a sheltered, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win bring down fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent endure urgent question is, 'What are order around 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