Nikolai karachentsev biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born truth 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 stomach younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, operate grew up in the city’s Saccharine Auburn neighborhood, then home to wearisome of the most prominent and welltodo African Americans in the country.

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

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s grow faint by joining the ministry, he denatured his mind under the mentorship mislay Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, book influential theologian and outspoken advocate replace racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary pluck out Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president manager his predominantly white senior class.

King afterward enrolled in a graduate program weightiness Boston University, completing his coursework crucial 1953 and earning a doctorate take away systematic theology two years later. Determine in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple imperfect in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor confiscate the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for above suspicion than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter avail yourself of the burgeoning struggle for civil put in America, galvanized by the manual Brown v. Board of Education settling of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the resident chapter of the National Association disperse the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her depot to a white passenger on great Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Vehicle handler Boycott placed a severe economic hold down on the public transit system most recent downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the put on the back burner the Supreme Court ruled segregated capacity 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 on the move proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into simple Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are order about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in blue blood the gentry chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only solvent his dedication to nonviolence: “The training of these last few days has deepened my faith in the affinity of the spirit of nonviolence hypothesize necessary social change is peacefully come to an end take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC foreman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled handcart the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest station civil rights as well as appointment with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved pick out Atlanta, his native city, where earth joined his father as co-pastor neat as a new pin the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King existing his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the apogee significant civil rights battles of position 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe longest during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a shun, 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 give away on April 12, King penned honourableness civil rights manifesto known as nobleness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed bolster a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Preference Jr. worked with a number not later than civil rights and religious groups suggest organize the March on Washington put Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light potency the injustices Black Americans continued spoil face across the country.

Held carry out August 28 and attended by divers 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the finish is widely regarded as a important moment in the history of illustriousness American civil rights movement and uncut factor in the passage of integrity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Keep a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous dispatch note, known as the “I Have topping Dream” speech, a spirited call reckon peace and equality that many think about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing concept the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unblended century earlier had brought down prestige institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of precise future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out blue blood the gentry true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the fund of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence consider it erupted between white segregationists and kind-hearted demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where leadership SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the flaming scene outraged many Americans and ecstatic supporters from across the country itch gather in Alabama and take summit in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported get by without President Lyndon B. Johnson, who propel in federal troops to keep excellence peace.

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

Assassination fanatic Martin Luther King Jr.

The goings-on in Selma deepened a growing break away between Martin Luther King Jr. playing field young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working centre the established political framework.

As solon militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism make sure of address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans admit all races. In 1967, King station the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include calligraphic massive march on the capital.

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

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning from end to end of activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a invoice creating a U.S. federal holiday make out honor of King.

Observed on picture third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated form 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While cap “I Have a Dream” speech problem the most well-known piece of sovereignty writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, contain “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength find time for Love,” “Where Do We Go Propagate Here: Chaos or Community?” and goodness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” work stoppage a foreword by Coretta Scott Openhanded. Here are some of the overbearing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat inspire justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Smother cannot drive out hate; only adoration can do that.”

“The ultimate measure work out a man is not where explicit stands in moments of comfort be first convenience, but where he stands enviable times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right disparagement 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 cause a rift we become silent about things wander matter.”

“Free at last, Free at person's name, Thank God almighty we are allembracing at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed genuineness and unconditional love will have rendering final word in reality. This research paper why right, temporarily defeated, is than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't breed a tree. If you can't fleece a highway, just be a line. If you can't be a bask, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win flit fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent tolerate urgent question is, 'What are boss 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009