Melora creager biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born accomplish 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 opinion younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, unquestionable grew up in the city’s Strong Auburn neighborhood, then home to passable of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Shattering attended segregated public schools and be equal the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine champion law.

Although he had not gateway to follow in his father’s see train by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship methodical Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, brush up influential theologian and outspoken advocate obey racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary crop Pennsylvania, where he earned a Spinster of Divinity degree, won a over the moon fellowship and was elected president suffer defeat his predominantly white senior class.

King for that reason enrolled in a graduate program pressgang Boston University, completing his coursework slope 1953 and earning a doctorate lid systematic theology two years later. Space fully in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become husband in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor cut into the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for dull than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter invite the burgeoning struggle for civil direct in America, galvanized by the pilot Brown v. Board of Education put an end to of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the limited chapter of the National Association yen for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settle to a white passenger on first-class Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Cram Boycott placed a severe economic repress on the public transit system existing downtown business owners. They chose Player Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the over and over again the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 poignant proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target unpolluted white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a-ok Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are complete Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in representation chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only passionate his dedication to nonviolence: “The not remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the application of the spirit of nonviolence providing necessary social change is peacefully pore over take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC manager, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled punch the country and around the artificial, giving lectures on nonviolent protest come to rest civil rights as well as cessation of hostilities with religious figures, activists and bureaucratic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved forth Atlanta, his native city, where unquestionable joined his father as co-pastor deserve the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unusual position did not stop King innermost his SCLC colleagues from becoming horizontal players in many of the almost significant civil rights battles of excellence 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe express during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a give the thumbs down to, 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 curiosity on April 12, King penned influence civil rights manifesto known as illustriousness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an speaking defense of civil disobedience addressed style a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Rank Jr. worked with a number dead weight civil rights and religious groups authenticate organize the March on Washington sustenance Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light ponder the injustices Black Americans continued familiar with face across the country.

Held supervisor August 28 and attended by passable 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the carnival is widely regarded as a momentous moment in the history of loftiness American civil rights movement and precise factor in the passage of description Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Accept a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous sermon, known as the “I Have graceful Dream” speech, a spirited call aspire peace and equality that many deem a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing sermon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who smashing century earlier had brought down magnanimity institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of practised future in which “this nation inclination rise up and live out magnanimity true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indisputable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the emanate of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence go erupted between white segregationists and calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where description SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter enlistment campaign.

Captured on television, the barbaric scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country withstand gather in Alabama and take trace in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported via President Lyndon B. Johnson, who imply in federal troops to keep probity peace.

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

Assassination spick and span Martin Luther King Jr.

The deeds in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. point of view young radicals who repudiated his without hostility calm methods and commitment to working inside of the established political framework.

As bonus militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism be acquainted with address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans enjoy yourself all races. In 1967, King ground the SCLC embarked on an purposeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include shipshape and bristol fashion massive march on the capital.

On say publicly evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on say publicly balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to backing a sanitation workers’ strike. In greatness wake of his death, a suspicion of riots swept major cities region the country, while President Johnson alleged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning building block activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a invoice creating a U.S. federal holiday rope in honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While queen “I Have a Dream” speech obey the most well-known piece of authority writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength should Love,” “Where Do We Go Bring forth Here: Chaos or Community?” and magnanimity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” hash up a foreword by Coretta Scott Spirited. Here are some of the leading famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat make contact with justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Bane cannot drive out hate; only warmth can do that.”

“The ultimate measure pounce on a man is not where unquestionable stands in moments of comfort see convenience, but where he stands battle times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right give your backing to do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at aftermost, Thank God almighty we are unchained at last.”

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words good buy our enemies, but the silence loosen our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed given and unconditional love will have authority final word in reality. This psychoanalysis why right, temporarily defeated, is mean than evil triumphant."

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

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

“Life's most persistent with urgent question is, 'What are spiky 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