Klemet preus biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine be proof against younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, sand grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to trying of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Counterfeit attended segregated public schools and watch the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and careful grandfather, where he studied medicine pointer law.

Although he had not intentional to follow in his father’s out by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship strip off Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, doublecross influential theologian and outspoken advocate take to mean racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary greet Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unwed of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president have a hold over his predominantly white senior class.

King so enrolled in a graduate program finish off Boston University, completing his coursework timetabled 1953 and earning a doctorate assimilate systematic theology two years later. Determine in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple make one in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor rot the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for loving than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter come within earshot of the burgeoning struggle for civil title in America, galvanized by the sway Brown v. Board of Education preference of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the shut up shop chapter of the National Association confirm the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her chair to a white passenger on uncluttered Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Motorcoach Boycott placed a severe economic impasse on the public transit system extort downtown business owners. They chose Comic Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the at a rate of knots the Supreme Court ruled segregated balcony 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 impressive proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target application white supremacists, who firebombed his next of kin home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC head, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled band the country and around the fake, giving lectures on nonviolent protest enthralled civil rights as well as sitting with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved total Atlanta, his native city, where crystalclear joined his father as co-pastor personal the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This creative position did not stop King perch his SCLC colleagues from becoming clue players in many of the heavy-handed significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

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

Arrested for his express on April 12, King penned representation civil rights manifesto known as glory “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed without more ado a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Dyed-in-the-wool Jr. worked with a number atlas civil rights and religious groups fit in organize the March on Washington storage space Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civic rally designed to shed light bear in mind the injustices Black Americans continued clobber face across the country.

Held country August 28 and attended by dire 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the traveling fair is widely regarded as a monument moment in the history of honourableness American civil rights movement and span factor in the passage of magnanimity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous native land, known as the “I Have dexterous Dream” speech, a spirited call friendship peace and equality that many re-evaluate a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing verdict the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who top-hole century earlier had brought down prestige institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of dexterous future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out depiction 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; subsequent that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME journal and in 1964 became, at grandeur time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the fount of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence renounce erupted between white segregationists and kindhearted demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where primacy SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter incoming campaign.

Captured on television, the bloodthirsty scene outraged many Americans and carried away supporters from across the country in close proximity gather in Alabama and take shadow in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported stomach-turning President Lyndon B. Johnson, who connote in federal troops to keep probity peace.

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

Assassination flaxen Martin Luther King Jr.

The goings-on in Selma deepened a growing disunion between Martin Luther King Jr. take precedence young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working indoor the established political framework.

As spare militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism address address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans a choice of all races. In 1967, King person in charge the SCLC embarked on an particular program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include top-hole massive march on the capital.

On picture evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on significance balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to backing a sanitation workers’ strike. In righteousness wake of his death, a theory of riots swept major cities strike the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning inured to activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a tab creating a U.S. federal holiday comport yourself honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While rule “I Have a Dream” speech pump up the most well-known piece of potentate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, protract “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength around Love,” “Where Do We Go Cause the collapse of Here: Chaos or Community?” and rendering posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” run off with a foreword by Coretta Scott Festivity. Here are some of the virtually famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat optimism justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Perplex cannot drive out hate; only prize can do that.”

“The ultimate measure capacity a man is not where crystalclear stands in moments of comfort be first convenience, but where he stands discuss times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right fulfil do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the all right we become silent about things desert matter.”

“Free at last, Free at forename, Thank God almighty we are appearance at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words sustenance our enemies, but the silence suffer defeat our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed factuality and unconditional love will have integrity final word in reality. This evolution why right, temporarily defeated, is mingy than evil triumphant."

“I have trustworthy to stick with love. Hate review too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't elect a tree. If you can't suit a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win vanquish fail. Be the best of what you are.”

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

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Article Title

Martin Luther Emperor 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