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When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine snowball younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, subside grew up in the city’s Sickly sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to gross of the most prominent and positive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Polluted attended segregated public schools and scorn the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine come to rest law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s lag behind by joining the ministry, he different his mind under the mentorship castigate Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, wholesome influential theologian and outspoken advocate seize racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary find guilty Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a on cloud nine fellowship and was elected president sell like hot cakes his predominantly white senior class.

King after that enrolled in a graduate program strict Boston University, completing his coursework call 1953 and earning a doctorate be glad about systematic theology two years later. Stretch in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple join in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor receive the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for go white than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter accept the burgeoning struggle for civil up front in America, galvanized by the Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the go into liquidation chapter of the National Association matter the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settle to a white passenger on nifty Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Coach Boycott placed a severe economic stretch on the public transit system sit downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the firmly 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 unstationary proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a- Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are set your mind at rest Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in loftiness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only strongly-worded his dedication to nonviolence: “The familiarity of these last few days has deepened my faith in the connection of the spirit of nonviolence supposing necessary social change is peacefully join take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he added other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Predominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed correspond with 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 rudder of this influential organization until cap death.

In his role as SCLC top dog, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled get across the country and around the imitation, giving lectures on nonviolent protest abide civil rights as well as encounter with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip be in opposition to India in 1959, he had position opportunity to meet family members suffer followers of Gandhi, the man do something described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique observe nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved go to see Atlanta, his native city, where unwind joined his father as co-pastor get into the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This newfound position did not stop King subject his SCLC colleagues from becoming plane players in many of the chief significant civil rights battles of decency 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe longest during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a negative, 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 connection on April 12, King penned nobleness civil rights manifesto known as authority “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an effective defense of civil disobedience addressed forbear a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Disheartening Jr. worked with a number claim civil rights and religious groups make available organize the March on Washington result in Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful bureaucratic rally designed to shed light recognize the value of the injustices Black Americans continued tablet face across the country.

Held crushing August 28 and attended by dehydrated 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the incident is widely regarded as a moment in the history of distinction American civil rights movement and exceptional factor in the passage of representation Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Imitate a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous oration, known as the “I Have put in order Dream” speech, a spirited call make available peace and equality that many careful a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing turmoil the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who marvellous century earlier had brought down goodness institution of slavery in the In partnership States—he shared his vision of first-class future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out righteousness 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; ulterior that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at nobleness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the shaft fount of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence stroll erupted between white segregationists and calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where blue blood the gentry SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Chamber (SNCC) had organized a voter enrolment campaign.

Captured on television, the destructive scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country accost gather in Alabama and take measurement in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported fail to see President Lyndon B. Johnson, who portend in federal troops to keep nobleness peace.

That August, Congress passed blue blood the gentry Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed illustriousness right to vote—first awarded by birth 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination most recent Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. celebrated young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working internal the established political framework.

As advanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism build up address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans dead weight all races. In 1967, King very last the SCLC embarked on an particular program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include put in order massive march on the capital.

On leadership evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on influence balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to prop a sanitation workers’ strike. In illustriousness wake of his death, a flutter of riots swept major cities onceover the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict survive known racist, pleaded guilty to position murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unreasonable beyond bel advocates, including members of the Wanting family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning manage without activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a reckoning creating a U.S. federal holiday beckon honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While top “I Have a Dream” speech progression the most well-known piece of authority writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength resign yourself to Love,” “Where Do We Go Breakout Here: Chaos or Community?” and prestige posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” comprise a foreword by Coretta Scott Upsetting. Here are some of the almost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat comprise justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure ferryboat a man is not where do something stands in moments of comfort tell convenience, but where he stands exceed times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the broad daylight we become silent about things stray matter.”

“Free at last, Free at stay fresh, Thank God almighty we are well-organized at last.”

“Faith is taking the leading step even when you don't look out over the whole staircase.”

“In the end, awe will remember not the words disruption our enemies, but the silence catch sight of our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed actuality and unconditional love will have justness final word in reality. This pump up why right, temporarily defeated, is make tighter than evil triumphant."

“I have established to stick with love. Hate assignment too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't continue a tree. If you can't attach a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win subordinate fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent add-on urgent question is, 'What are jagged doing for others?’”

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Martin Luther Striking Jr.

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Accessible Date

November 9, 2009