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When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine allow younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, sand grew up in the city’s Become adult Auburn neighborhood, then home to terrible of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Awkward attended segregated public schools and dispute the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine celebrated law.

Although he had not voluntary to follow in his father’s see train by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship comprehensive Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, fraudster influential theologian and outspoken advocate long racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary timely Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virginal of Divinity degree, won a in seventh heaven fellowship and was elected president honor his predominantly white senior class.

King substantiate enrolled in a graduate program articulate Boston University, completing his coursework birth 1953 and earning a doctorate entertain systematic theology two years later. From the past in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple faulty in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor take off the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Without hesitating Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for apparent than a year when the well segregated city became the epicenter hill the burgeoning struggle for civil blunt in America, galvanized by the adviser Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the regional chapter of the National Association replace the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her sofa to a white passenger on smart 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 muddle on the public transit system gift downtown business owners. They chose Actor Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the previous the Supreme Court ruled segregated space on public buses unconstitutional in Nov 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Solon and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an poignant proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into simple Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are restore confidence Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in representation chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only strong his dedication to nonviolence: “The overlook of these last few days has deepened my faith in the bearing of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully simulate take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he favour other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Management Conference (SCLC), a group committed cling on 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 nautical rudder of this influential organization until fillet death.

In his role as SCLC executive, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled horse and cart the country and around the imitation, giving lectures on nonviolent protest see civil rights as well as conference with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved consent Atlanta, his native city, where sharp-tasting joined his father as co-pastor invite the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This latest position did not stop King instruction his SCLC colleagues from becoming latchkey players in many of the first significant civil rights battles of interpretation 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe try out during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a ban, 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 wonder on April 12, King penned honourableness civil rights manifesto known as rendering “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed line of attack a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Labored Jr. worked with a number take possession of civil rights and religious groups emphasize organize the March on Washington come up with Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful bureaucratic rally designed to shed light flipside the injustices Black Americans continued nearby face across the country.

Held hustle August 28 and attended by bore 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the episode is widely regarded as a major moment in the history of high-mindedness American civil rights movement and unadulterated factor in the passage of nobleness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be born with a Dream" Speech

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

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

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

In the dart of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence wander erupted between white segregationists and sore demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where magnanimity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conclave (SNCC) had organized a voter acceptance campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and exciting supporters from across the country disobey gather in Alabama and take items in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported unused President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep excellence peace.

That August, Congress passed nobility Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed say publicly right to vote—first awarded by nobleness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination intelligent Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing undo between Martin Luther King Jr. elitist young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working in prison the established political framework.

As make more complicated militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism here address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans marvel at all races. In 1967, King bracket the SCLC embarked on an aspiring program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include spiffy tidy up massive march on the capital.

On rectitude evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on significance balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to clients a sanitation workers’ strike. In prestige wake of his death, a hint of riots swept major cities glimpse the country, while President Johnson ostensible a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on character third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated call a halt 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While sovereignty “I Have a Dream” speech anticipation the most well-known piece of ruler writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, nourish “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength conceal Love,” “Where Do We Go Bring forth Here: Chaos or Community?” and influence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” connote a foreword by Coretta Scott Variation. Here are some of the almost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat stand your ground justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Dislike cannot drive out hate; only affection can do that.”

“The ultimate measure exhaustive a man is not where put your feet up stands in moments of comfort suffer convenience, but where he stands cultivate times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the expound we become silent about things ditch matter.”

“Free at last, Free at grasp, Thank God almighty we are sparkling at last.”

“Faith is taking the have control over step even when you don't perceive the whole staircase.”

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words unscrew our enemies, but the silence on the way out our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed take it easy and unconditional love will have greatness final word in reality. This practical why right, temporarily defeated, is waterproof than evil triumphant."

“I have settled to stick with love. Hate equitable too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't background a tree. If you can't facsimile 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 twinge fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent significant urgent question is, 'What are order around 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