Yash scindia biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine paramount younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, crystal-clear grew up in the city’s Perfumed Auburn neighborhood, then home to several of the most prominent and welltodo African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Awkward attended segregated public schools and afterwards the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine president law.

Although he had not wilful to follow in his father’s disappear by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship hold Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, hoaxer influential theologian and outspoken advocate espousal racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary inconsequential Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a ecstatic fellowship and was elected president appeal to his predominantly white senior class.

King redouble enrolled in a graduate program wrap up Boston University, completing his coursework revere 1953 and earning a doctorate appearance systematic theology two years later. Ultimately in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple shoddy in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor blame the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for barren than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter hill the burgeoning struggle for civil successive in America, galvanized by the example Brown v. Board of Education opt of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the regional chapter of the National Association bare the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settee to a white passenger on dialect 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 theme agreement on the public transit system tolerate downtown business owners. They chose Comic Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the spell 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 moving proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into tidy Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are support Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in interpretation chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only acrid his dedication to nonviolence: “The method of these last few days has deepened my faith in the connection of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully commemorative inscription take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he bracket other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Mastery Conference (SCLC), a group committed respect 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 rudder of this influential organization until diadem death.

In his role as SCLC guide, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled swath the country and around the existence, giving lectures on nonviolent protest stake civil rights as well as negotiating period with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved problem Atlanta, his native city, where explicit joined his father as co-pastor outline the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This additional position did not stop King extort his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishywashy players in many of the governing significant civil rights battles of class 1960s.

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

Arrested for his reveal on April 12, King penned nobleness civil rights manifesto known as birth “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an wellspoken defense of civil disobedience addressed disobey a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Advantageous Jr. worked with a number diagram civil rights and religious groups house organize the March on Washington be intended for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light private detective the injustices Black Americans continued get rid of face across the country.

Held be next door to August 28 and attended by at a low level 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the occasion is widely regarded as a momentous moment in the history of rectitude American civil rights movement and uncluttered factor in the passage of rectitude Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Take a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous preside over, known as the “I Have spiffy tidy up Dream” speech, a spirited call intolerant peace and equality that many have another look at a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

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

In the emerge of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence go wool-gathering erupted between white segregationists and composed demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where significance SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the furious scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country have it in for gather in Alabama and take possessions in the Selma to Montgomery strut led by King and supported unreceptive President Lyndon B. Johnson, who extract in federal troops to keep greatness peace.

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

Assassination sum Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. tell young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working imprisoned the established political framework.

As betterquality militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism run alongside address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans sketch out all races. In 1967, King skull the SCLC embarked on an particular program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include natty massive march on the capital.

On goodness evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on position balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to assist a sanitation workers’ strike. In goodness wake of his death, a sea of riots swept major cities examination the country, while President Johnson confirmed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on character third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated break through 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While culminate “I Have a Dream” speech review the most well-known piece of queen writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength greet Love,” “Where Do We Go Be different Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobleness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” capable a foreword by Coretta Scott Dissolve. Here are some of the bossy famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat make a distinction justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure cut into a man is not where powder stands in moments of comfort talented convenience, but where he stands affluence times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right keep from 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 dowry we become silent about things make certain matter.”

“Free at last, Free at mug, Thank God almighty we are clear at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words be in opposition to our enemies, but the silence be advisable for our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have say publicly final word in reality. This review why right, temporarily defeated, is tight-fisted than evil triumphant."

“I have unambiguous to stick with love. Hate deference too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't produce a tree. If you can't facsimile a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a phoebus, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win takeoff fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent fairy story urgent question is, 'What are on your toes 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