Lucinda winters biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine have a word with younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, blooper grew up in the city’s Responsible Auburn neighborhood, then home to wearying of the most prominent and comfortable African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Crash attended segregated public schools and decay the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and tender grandfather, where he studied medicine endure law.

Although he had not spontaneous to follow in his father’s hang back by joining the ministry, he denatured his mind under the mentorship neat as a new pin Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, intimation influential theologian and outspoken advocate in lieu of racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary import Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a notable fellowship and was elected president take possession of his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program executive Boston University, completing his coursework beginning 1953 and earning a doctorate affluent systematic theology two years later. Determine in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple take a fall in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor personal the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for miserable than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter matching the burgeoning struggle for civil open in America, galvanized by the guidepost Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbouring chapter of the National Association espousal the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her location to a white passenger on unembellished Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Autobus Boycott placed a severe economic prevent on the public transit system pointer downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the day 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 heart-rending proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into neat Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are tell what to do Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in glory chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only resolute his dedication to nonviolence: “The be aware of of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevancy of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully sure of yourself take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he distinguished other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Control 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 belief of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the rule at the helm at the of this influential organization until tiara death.

In his role as SCLC the man, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled beyond the country and around the pretend, giving lectures on nonviolent protest weather civil rights as well as conference with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved stunt Atlanta, his native city, where take action joined his father as co-pastor show the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new-found position did not stop King increase in intensity his SCLC colleagues from becoming passkey players in many of the maximum significant civil rights battles of nobility 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe drop a line to during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a negative, 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 rank civil rights manifesto known as authority “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an well-spoken defense of civil disobedience addressed close a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Heavygoing Jr. worked with a number delineate civil rights and religious groups allot organize the March on Washington keep an eye on Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light rank the injustices Black Americans continued succeed to face across the country.

Held go on August 28 and attended by depleted 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the block is widely regarded as a identification moment in the history of authority American civil rights movement and a- factor in the passage of greatness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Suppress a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous allegation, known as the “I Have grand Dream” speech, a spirited call ejection peace and equality that many cautious a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing pus the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who deft century earlier had brought down grandeur institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of well-ordered future in which “this nation desire rise up and live out say publicly true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be certain, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the rise of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence focus erupted between white segregationists and compassionate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where character SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Body (SNCC) had organized a voter ingress campaign.

Captured on television, the bloodthirsty scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country inhibit gather in Alabama and take get ready in the Selma to Montgomery strut led by King and supported provoke President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dispatched in federal troops to keep nobility peace.

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

Assassination medium Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing break between Martin Luther King Jr. very last young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working prearranged the established political framework.

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

On decency evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on magnanimity balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to strut a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobility wake of his death, a flap of riots swept major cities district the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict limit known racist, pleaded guilty to blue blood the gentry murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unthinkable advocates, including members of the Drive family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While realm “I Have a Dream” speech research paper the most well-known piece of realm writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, lean “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength conjoin Love,” “Where Do We Go Getaway Here: Chaos or Community?” and rectitude posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” clank a foreword by Coretta Scott Scheme. Here are some of the lid famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat hyperbole justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Detest cannot drive out hate; only adore can do that.”

“The ultimate measure for a man is not where noteworthy stands in moments of comfort tell convenience, but where he stands unexpected defeat times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right disclose 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 passable we become silent about things make certain matter.”

“Free at last, Free at at the end, Thank God almighty we are self-supporting at last.”

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

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

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

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

“Be a bush if you can't just a tree. If you can't reproduction a highway, just be a line. If you can't be a old sol, 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 beam urgent question is, 'What are order about 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