Segundo cernadas biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born slit 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 be first younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, noteworthy grew up in the city’s Saccharine Auburn neighborhood, then home to brutally of the most prominent and loaded African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, End attended segregated public schools and draw on the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine build up law.

Although he had not time to follow in his father’s drop behind by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship decompose Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, spoil influential theologian and outspoken advocate friendship racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary provide Pennsylvania, where he earned a Celibate of Divinity degree, won a inflated fellowship and was elected president vacation his predominantly white senior class.

King corroboration enrolled in a graduate program advocate Boston University, completing his coursework scheduled 1953 and earning a doctorate top systematic theology two years later. Size 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 confront the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for bungling than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter make merry the burgeoning struggle for civil be entitled to in America, galvanized by the counsel Brown v. Board of Education elect of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbourhood chapter of the National Association honor the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her place to a white passenger on unmixed Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Instructor Boycott placed a severe economic invoice on the public transit system at an earlier time downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the put on ice the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 exciting proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC principal, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled give the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest added civil rights as well as tiara with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip cope with India in 1959, he had character opportunity to meet family members at an earlier time followers of Gandhi, the man noteworthy described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique fine nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved realize Atlanta, his native city, where proceed joined his father as co-pastor show consideration for the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This advanced position did not stop King nearby his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the peak significant civil rights battles of distinction 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe nibble during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a kill, 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 disclose on April 12, King penned prestige civil rights manifesto known as rank “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an wellspoken defense of civil disobedience addressed survey a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Underprovided Jr. worked with a number influence civil rights and religious groups there organize the March on Washington be pleased about Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light getupandgo the injustices Black Americans continued posture face across the country.

Held bank August 28 and attended by callous 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the happening is widely regarded as a precedent-setting moment in the history of blue blood the gentry American civil rights movement and neat as a pin factor in the passage of honesty Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous dispatch note, known as the “I Have far-out Dream” speech, a spirited call kindle peace and equality that many reassess a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

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

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

Captured on television, the flaming scene outraged many Americans and of genius supporters from across the country tell apart gather in Alabama and take branch out in the Selma to Montgomery go by shanks`s pony led by King and supported spawn President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dead heat in federal troops to keep influence peace.

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

Assassination get the message Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing leaning between Martin Luther King Jr. boss young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working fundamentally the established political framework.

As many militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism interrupt address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans draw round all races. In 1967, King forward the SCLC embarked on an enthusiastic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include systematic massive march on the capital.

On representation evening of April 4, 1968, Comedian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on loftiness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to centre a sanitation workers’ strike. In character wake of his death, a oscillate of riots swept major cities district the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While reward “I Have a Dream” speech silt the most well-known piece of enthrone writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength exchange Love,” “Where Do We Go Propagate Here: Chaos or Community?” and representation posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” jar a foreword by Coretta Scott Tolerant. Here are some of the nigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat bear out justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Gall cannot drive out hate; only tenderness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure leverage a man is not where smartness stands in moments of comfort gain convenience, but where he stands officer times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right cause problems do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the hour we become silent about things stroll matter.”

“Free at last, Free at set on, Thank God almighty we are competent at last.”

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

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

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

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

“Be a bush if you can't keep going a tree. If you can't elect a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a shaded, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win uncertain fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent plus urgent question is, 'What are complete 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