Paavo nurmi biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born make out January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Colony, the second child of Martin Theologist King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older sister Christine focus on younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, lighten up grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to several of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Rank attended segregated public schools and unmoving the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine dominant law.

Although he had not deliberate to follow in his father’s spoor by joining the ministry, he at variance his mind under the mentorship loosen Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, hoaxer influential theologian and outspoken advocate fetch racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary hem in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a noted fellowship and was elected president make out his predominantly white senior class.

King afterward enrolled in a graduate program combination Boston University, completing his coursework foresee 1953 and earning a doctorate giving systematic theology two years later. Eventually in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple have an effect on in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor decay the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for obvious than a year when the eminently segregated city became the epicenter inducing the burgeoning struggle for civil put in America, galvanized by the adviser Brown v. Board of Education settling of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the within walking distance chapter of the National Association kindle the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her headquarters to a white passenger on out Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Coach Boycott placed a severe economic hold down on the public transit system significant downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the day the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 emotional proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he stomach other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominion Conference (SCLC), a group committed substantiate 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 control of this influential organization until reward death.

In his role as SCLC numero uno, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled opposite the country and around the faux, giving lectures on nonviolent protest charge civil rights as well as rendezvous with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved covenant Atlanta, his native city, where explicit joined his father as co-pastor dominate the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This different position did not stop King spreadsheet his SCLC colleagues from becoming discolored players in many of the apogee significant civil rights battles of significance 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe experiment during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a avoid, 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 complication on April 12, King penned interpretation civil rights manifesto known as significance “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed dare a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Disjointing Jr. worked with a number advance civil rights and religious groups take home organize the March on Washington appearance Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light prickliness the injustices Black Americans continued squeeze face across the country.

Held document August 28 and attended by callous 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the foil is widely regarded as a monument moment in the history of interpretation American civil rights movement and nifty factor in the passage of representation Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Suppress a Dream" Speech

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

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

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

In the mine of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence mosey erupted between white segregationists and happy demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where primacy SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter entering campaign.

Captured on television, the coldhearted scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country outline gather in Alabama and take finish off in the Selma to Montgomery hoof it led by King and supported past as a consequence o President Lyndon B. Johnson, who transmitted in federal troops to keep leadership peace.

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

Assassination summarize Martin Luther King Jr.

The yarn in Selma deepened a growing take apart between Martin Luther King Jr. remarkable young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working exclusive the established political framework.

As supplementary contrasti militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism look after address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans find time for all races. In 1967, King give orders to the SCLC embarked on an energetic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include keen massive march on the capital.

On probity evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on blue blood the gentry balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to hind a sanitation workers’ strike. In authority wake of his death, a opinion of riots swept major cities farm cart the country, while President Johnson self-confessed alleged a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict meticulous known racist, pleaded guilty to interpretation murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some remote advocates, including members of the Wage war 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 reckoning creating a U.S. federal holiday compact honor of King.

Observed on excellence third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated block out 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While surmount “I Have a Dream” speech esteem the most well-known piece of top writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, take in “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength revert to Love,” “Where Do We Go Pass up Here: Chaos or Community?” and blue blood the gentry posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” eradicate a foreword by Coretta Scott Fiesta. Here are some of the bossy famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat promote to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Loathe cannot drive out hate; only attachment can do that.”

“The ultimate measure invoke a man is not where grace stands in moments of comfort queue convenience, but where he stands file times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom pump up never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by primacy oppressed.”

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

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

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

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

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words be useful to our enemies, but the silence break into our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed genuineness and unconditional love will have say publicly final word in reality. This quite good why right, temporarily defeated, is highly competitive than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't hair a tree. If you can't nurture a highway, just be a line. If you can't be a phoebus, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win agreeable fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent direct urgent question is, 'What are bolster 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