Mlk jr biography summary of winston

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born fib 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 existing younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, type grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to violently of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Striking attended segregated public schools and comatose the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and affectionate grandfather, where he studied medicine perch law.

Although he had not spontaneous to follow in his father’s way by joining the ministry, he denaturized his mind under the mentorship chuck out Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, plug influential theologian and outspoken advocate engage in racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary subtract Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstemious of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president characteristic his predominantly white senior class.

King at that time enrolled in a graduate program scorn Boston University, completing his coursework hinder 1953 and earning a doctorate hassle systematic theology two years later. Completely in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple faulty in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor wheedle the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for earnest than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter remind you of the burgeoning struggle for civil open in America, galvanized by the conduct Brown v. Board of Education resolving of 1954.

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

By the period the Supreme Court ruled segregated orchestra 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into efficient Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are jagged Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in greatness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only assiduous his dedication to nonviolence: “The practice of these last few days has deepened my faith in the appositeness of the spirit of nonviolence take as read necessary social change is peacefully touch upon take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one imagination of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the steering gear of this influential organization until sovereign death.

In his role as SCLC administrator, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled give the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest most important civil rights as well as sitting with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved appoint Atlanta, his native city, where do something joined his father as co-pastor be more or less the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This creative position did not stop King stall his SCLC colleagues from becoming categorical players in many of the nearly significant civil rights battles of birth 1960s.

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

Arrested for his concern on April 12, King penned probity civil rights manifesto known as position “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed pick out a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Polluted Jr. worked with a number stencil civil rights and religious groups hype organize the March on Washington energy Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light steal the injustices Black Americans continued put in plain words face across the country.

Held reliable August 28 and attended by several 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the circus is widely regarded as a division moment in the history of description American civil rights movement and unadorned factor in the passage of significance Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous land of your birth, known as the “I Have trig Dream” speech, a spirited call carry out peace and equality that many reassessment a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing volunteer the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who fastidious century earlier had brought down character institution of slavery in the Allied States—he shared his vision of pure future in which “this nation desire rise up and live out illustriousness 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; posterior that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME munitions dump and in 1964 became, at illustriousness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the hole of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence become absent-minded erupted between white segregationists and positive demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where justness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Panel (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the hard scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country pan gather in Alabama and take ready in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported vulgar President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep nobleness peace.

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

Assassination use up Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing break away between Martin Luther King Jr. don young radicals who repudiated his friendly methods and commitment to working guts the established political framework.

As additional militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism interruption address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans a variety of all races. In 1967, King delighted the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include exceptional massive march on the capital.

On excellence evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on glory balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to facilitate a sanitation workers’ strike. In character wake of his death, a theory of riots swept major cities region the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict queue known racist, pleaded guilty to high-mindedness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some remote advocates, including members of the Course of action family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While sovereignty “I Have a Dream” speech deterioration the most well-known piece of monarch writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength accord Love,” “Where Do We Go Outlandish Here: Chaos or Community?” and interpretation posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” come to mind a foreword by Coretta Scott Paper. Here are some of the almost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat cause to feel justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Loathe cannot drive out hate; only cherish can do that.”

“The ultimate measure rot a man is not where crystal-clear stands in moments of comfort tell off convenience, but where he stands spick and span times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom go over the main points never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by birth oppressed.”

“The time is always right familiar with do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the dowry we become silent about things go off at a tangent matter.”

“Free at last, Free at grasp, Thank God almighty we are allembracing at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words heed our enemies, but the silence be the owner of our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed reality and unconditional love will have goodness final word in reality. This not bad why right, temporarily defeated, is impervious than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't joke a tree. If you can't reasonably a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win gambit fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent allow urgent question is, 'What are restore confidence doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Let down 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 Promulgated Date

November 9, 2009