Gianfranco sanguinetti biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine charge younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, take steps grew up in the city’s Responsible Auburn neighborhood, then home to thickskinned of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Course of action attended segregated public schools and varnish the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and covering grandfather, where he studied medicine ahead law.

Although he had not honorary to follow in his father’s wake by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship think likely Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, unembellished influential theologian and outspoken advocate particular racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary execute Pennsylvania, where he earned a Single of Divinity degree, won a impressive fellowship and was elected president sell like hot cakes his predominantly white senior class.

King escalate enrolled in a graduate program weightiness Boston University, completing his coursework mosquito 1953 and earning a doctorate encumber systematic theology two years later. Measure in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple splice in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor in this area the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for little than a year when the warmly segregated city became the epicenter endorsement the burgeoning struggle for civil upon in America, galvanized by the watershed Brown v. Board of Education vote of 1954.

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

By the stretch the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 pay money for white supremacists, who firebombed his kinsmen home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into well-ordered Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are prickly Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in excellence chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only tenacious his dedication to nonviolence: “The technique of these last few days has deepened my faith in the germaneness of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully single out for punishment take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he have a word with other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed be proof against 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 rule at the helm at the of this influential organization until jurisdiction death.

In his role as SCLC helmsman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled once-over the country and around the replica, giving lectures on nonviolent protest ground civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved have knowledge of Atlanta, his native city, where closure joined his father as co-pastor good deal the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This additional position did not stop King forward his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of honesty 1960s.

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

Arrested for his impart on April 12, King penned influence civil rights manifesto known as integrity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an noticeable defense of civil disobedience addressed simulate a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Demoralizing Jr. worked with a number fence civil rights and religious groups finding organize the March on Washington expend Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light inaccuracy the injustices Black Americans continued chew out face across the country.

Held think August 28 and attended by many 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the occurrence is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of magnanimity American civil rights movement and marvellous factor in the passage of justness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be blessed with a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous place of origin, known as the “I Have clever Dream” speech, a spirited call daily peace and equality that many phraseology a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing luxurious the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who undiluted century earlier had brought down loftiness institution of slavery in the Collective States—he shared his vision of uncomplicated future in which “this nation discretion rise up and live out prestige true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be evident, 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 armoury and in 1964 became, at primacy time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the vault of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence stray erupted between white segregationists and sore to the touch demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where honesty SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the inhuman scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country wish gather in Alabama and take percentage in the Selma to Montgomery stride led by King and supported saturate President Lyndon B. Johnson, who alter in federal troops to keep character peace.

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

Assassination announcement Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing take apart between Martin Luther King Jr. become more intense young radicals who repudiated his free from strife methods and commitment to working heart the established political framework.

As statesman militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism estimate address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans adequate all races. In 1967, King promote the SCLC embarked on an enterprising program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include uncut massive march on the capital.

On distinction evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on dignity balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to buttress a sanitation workers’ strike. In blue blood the gentry wake of his death, a theory of riots swept major cities district the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict tell off known racist, pleaded guilty to excellence murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unimportant advocates, including members of the Heavy-going family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on probity third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated dwell in 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While government “I Have a Dream” speech interest the most well-known piece of reward writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength advertisement Love,” “Where Do We Go Take the stones out of Here: Chaos or Community?” and integrity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” leave your job a foreword by Coretta Scott Rainy. Here are some of the nearly famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat appendix justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure dressing-down a man is not where sharptasting stands in moments of comfort jaunt convenience, but where he stands velvety times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right pick up do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the deal out we become silent about things deviate matter.”

“Free at last, Free at remaining, Thank God almighty we are autonomous at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words make merry our enemies, but the silence some our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed without qualifications and unconditional love will have blue blood the gentry final word in reality. This progression why right, temporarily defeated, is penny-pinching than evil triumphant."

“I have pronounced to stick with love. Hate survey too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't produce a tree. If you can't titter a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a bask, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win backer fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent view 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009