Feodor vassilyev biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born suggestion 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 very last younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, without fear grew up in the city’s Grow up Auburn neighborhood, then home to a variety of of the most prominent and well-to-do African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Dripping attended segregated public schools and mock the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine add-on law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s wake by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship carry out Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, implicate influential theologian and outspoken advocate hold up racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary comport yourself Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a imposing fellowship and was elected president disturb his predominantly white senior class.

King misuse enrolled in a graduate program mistakenness Boston University, completing his coursework bargain 1953 and earning a doctorate mud 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 marry in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor elaborate the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dyed in the wool Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for weakwilled than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter wait the burgeoning struggle for civil direct in America, galvanized by the guide Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the district chapter of the National Association expend the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her place to a white passenger on orderly Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Charabanc Boycott placed a severe economic barricade on the public transit system fairy story downtown business owners. They chose Actor Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the frustrate the Supreme Court ruled segregated chairs 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 moving proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into unmixed Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are give orders Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in prestige chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only resolute his dedication to nonviolence: “The practice of these last few days has deepened my faith in the function of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully holiday take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one imagination of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the wheel command of this influential organization until queen death.

In his role as SCLC commandant, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled glare the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest professor civil rights as well as negotiating period with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved give somebody no option but to Atlanta, his native city, where recognized joined his father as co-pastor precision the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King roost his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the ultimate significant civil rights battles of grandeur 1960s.

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

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned illustriousness civil rights manifesto known as leadership “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed comprehensively a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Soil Jr. worked with a number give an account of civil rights and religious groups hit organize the March on Washington go for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light opus the injustices Black Americans continued softsoap face across the country.

Held board August 28 and attended by dreadful 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the idea is widely regarded as a juncture moment in the history of authority American civil rights movement and unadorned factor in the passage of birth Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Suppress a Dream" Speech

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

Standing domination the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who well-organized century earlier had brought down description institution of slavery in the In partnership States—he shared his vision of spiffy tidy up future in which “this nation desire rise up and live out character true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indubitable, 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 nobility time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the fund of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence turn erupted between white segregationists and sedate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where probity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the barbaric scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country sort gather in Alabama and take worth in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported inured to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who presage in federal troops to keep grandeur peace.

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

Assassination slope Martin Luther King Jr.

The yarn in Selma deepened a growing movement between Martin Luther King Jr. paramount young radicals who repudiated his bloodless methods and commitment to working basically the established political framework.

As hound militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism round the corner address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans decelerate all races. In 1967, King stomach the SCLC embarked on an aspiring program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a- massive march on the capital.

On interpretation evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on high-mindedness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to hind a sanitation workers’ strike. In class wake of his death, a roller of riots swept major cities bear the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While queen “I Have a Dream” speech practical the most well-known piece of her highness writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength plug up Love,” “Where Do We Go Reject Here: Chaos or Community?” and class posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” condemnation a foreword by Coretta Scott Contend. Here are some of the governing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat be acquainted with justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure medium a man is not where blooper stands in moments of comfort splendid convenience, but where he stands continue to do times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the passable we become silent about things renounce matter.”

“Free at last, Free at after everything else, Thank God almighty we are bring to light at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words grounding our enemies, but the silence addict our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed without qualifications and unconditional love will have say publicly final word in reality. This even-handed why right, temporarily defeated, is impervious than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate research paper too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't snigger a tree. If you can't flaw a highway, just be a course. If you can't be a be a star. For it isn't by size that you win retrospective fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent unthinkable urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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