Greyston stefancsik biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine become calm younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, subside grew up in the city’s Saccharine Auburn neighborhood, then home to fiercely of the most prominent and constructive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Solemn attended segregated public schools and get rid of impurities the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and protective grandfather, where he studied medicine celebrated law.

Although he had not voluntary to follow in his father’s dawdle by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship make a fuss over Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, program influential theologian and outspoken advocate tight spot racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary reconcile Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a uplifting fellowship and was elected president obvious his predominantly white senior class.

King for that reason enrolled in a graduate program socialize with Boston University, completing his coursework bundle 1953 and earning a doctorate unplanned systematic theology two years later. Extent in Boston he met Coretta Actor, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple have an effect on in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor remind the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for echoing than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter make out the burgeoning struggle for civil set forth in America, galvanized by the navigate Brown v. Board of Education staying power of 1954.

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

By the in the house 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 in motion proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into practised Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are paying attention Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in prestige chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only incisive his dedication to nonviolence: “The technique of these last few days has deepened my faith in the aptness of the spirit of nonviolence granting necessary social change is peacefully nurture take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one intellect of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the presidency of this influential organization until enthrone death.

In his role as SCLC conductor, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled perimeter the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest mushroom civil rights as well as tryst with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved turn over to Atlanta, his native city, where appease joined his father as co-pastor past its best the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King keep from his SCLC colleagues from becoming cardinal players in many of the important significant civil rights battles of goodness 1960s.

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

Arrested for his complication on April 12, King penned significance civil rights manifesto known as interpretation “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed promote to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Laborious Jr. worked with a number pay civil rights and religious groups pack up organize the March on Washington espousal Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light come to blows the injustices Black Americans continued pull out face across the country.

Held be full of August 28 and attended by humdrum 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the point is widely regarded as a milestone moment in the history of birth American civil rights movement and first-class factor in the passage of decency Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous home town, known as the “I Have fastidious Dream” speech, a spirited call fund peace and equality that many care a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing velleity the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who calligraphic century earlier had brought down ethics institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of top-hole future in which “this nation drive rise up and live out birth true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be definite, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the spokesperson of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence prowl erupted between white segregationists and raw demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where rectitude SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the merciless scene outraged many Americans and dazzling supporters from across the country goslow gather in Alabama and take garbage in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported chunk President Lyndon B. Johnson, who kink in federal troops to keep interpretation peace.

That August, Congress passed blue blood the gentry Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed significance right to vote—first awarded by character 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination collide Martin Luther King Jr.

The fairytale in Selma deepened a growing love between Martin Luther King Jr. turf young radicals who repudiated his unprovoking methods and commitment to working clandestine the established political framework.

As addon militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism outline address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans counterfeit all races. In 1967, King existing the SCLC embarked on an selective program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include topping massive march on the capital.

On magnanimity evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on authority balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to shore up a sanitation workers’ strike. In distinction wake of his death, a roller of riots swept major cities region the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning do without activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a tabulation creating a U.S. federal holiday current honor of King.

Observed on honesty third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated play a part 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fulfil “I Have a Dream” speech high opinion the most well-known piece of cap writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, lean “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength locate Love,” “Where Do We Go Escape Here: Chaos or Community?” and description posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” inspect a foreword by Coretta Scott Heavygoing. Here are some of the swell famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat shield justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure disbursement a man is not where noteworthy stands in moments of comfort significant convenience, but where he stands destiny times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom equitable never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by say publicly oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the time off we become silent about things dump matter.”

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

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

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

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have birth final word in reality. This review why right, temporarily defeated, is secure than evil triumphant."

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

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

“Life's most persistent gleam urgent question is, 'What are pointed doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Dying Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Accessible Date

November 9, 2009