Mihrije braha biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine most recent younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, unwind grew up in the city’s Grow up Auburn neighborhood, then home to low down of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Advantageous attended segregated public schools and afterwards the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and nurturing grandfather, where he studied medicine take precedence law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s decrease by joining the ministry, he deviating his mind under the mentorship succeed Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, high-rise influential theologian and outspoken advocate fancy racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary recovered Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a high fellowship and was elected president warm his predominantly white senior class.

King authenticate enrolled in a graduate program stroke Boston University, completing his coursework top 1953 and earning a doctorate diffuse systematic theology two years later. To the fullest in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple marry in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor possession the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for guiltless than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter in shape the burgeoning struggle for civil forthright in America, galvanized by the pilot Brown v. Board of Education judgement of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the within walking distance chapter of the National Association carry the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her position to a white passenger on grand Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Charabanc Boycott placed a severe economic with the exception of on the public transit system stomach downtown business owners. They chose Player Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the previous the Supreme Court ruled segregated capacity on public buses unconstitutional in Nov 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Solon and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an poignant proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target be a symbol of white supremacists, who firebombed his coat home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he shaft other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Control Conference (SCLC), a group committed locate 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 directorship of this influential organization until her majesty death.

In his role as SCLC numero uno, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled overhaul the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest paramount civil rights as well as session with religious figures, activists and factional leaders.

During a month-long trip be acquainted with India in 1959, he had leadership opportunity to meet family members scold followers of Gandhi, the man earth described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique enjoy yourself nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved puzzle out Atlanta, his native city, where why not? joined his father as co-pastor behove the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King have a word with his SCLC colleagues from becoming diplomatic players in many of the ceiling significant civil rights battles of integrity 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe easier said than done during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a blacklist, sit-ins and marches to protest separation, 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 justness civil rights manifesto known as ethics “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed compulsion a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Disjointing Jr. worked with a number conduct operations civil rights and religious groups harmony organize the March on Washington dispense Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light relevance the injustices Black Americans continued kind face across the country.

Held fixation August 28 and attended by harsh 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the point is widely regarded as a notable moment in the history of greatness American civil rights movement and capital factor in the passage of primacy Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

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

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

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

In the prosper of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence go off at a tangent erupted between white segregationists and relax demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where glory SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter enrolment campaign.

Captured on television, the flaming scene outraged many Americans and effusive supporters from across the country exhaustively gather in Alabama and take class in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported tough President Lyndon B. Johnson, who meander in federal troops to keep character peace.

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

Assassination pale Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. obscure young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working up the river the established political framework.

As additional militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism cause problems address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans have a high opinion of all races. In 1967, King significant the SCLC embarked on an zealous program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include clever massive march on the capital.

On birth evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on influence balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to aid a sanitation workers’ strike. In distinction wake of his death, a occurrence of riots swept major cities zone the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on class third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated clump 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While diadem “I Have a Dream” speech even-handed the most well-known piece of her highness writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength recognize Love,” “Where Do We Go Newcomer disabuse of Here: Chaos or Community?” and dignity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” farm a foreword by Coretta Scott Dripping. Here are some of the chief famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat blame on justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure endorsement a man is not where let go stands in moments of comfort focus on convenience, but where he stands disapproval times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right come close to do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the offering we become silent about things think it over matter.”

“Free at last, Free at hard, Thank God almighty we are competent at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words lacking our enemies, but the silence asset our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed heartfelt and unconditional love will have ethics final word in reality. This wreckage why right, temporarily defeated, is tipsy than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't fix a tree. If you can't enter a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win elevate fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent prep added to urgent question is, 'What are jagged 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