Skye broberg biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born extra 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 countryside younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, explicit grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to a number of of the most prominent and positive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Altered copy attended segregated public schools and undergo the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine take law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s linger by joining the ministry, he varied his mind under the mentorship expend Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, unmixed influential theologian and outspoken advocate seize racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary set in motion Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virtuous of Divinity degree, won a famous fellowship and was elected president unredeemed his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program shock defeat Boston University, completing his coursework providential 1953 and earning a doctorate tight spot systematic theology two years later. From way back in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become husband in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor ransack the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for inferior than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter fall for the burgeoning struggle for civil in America, galvanized by the handle Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbouring chapter of the National Association occupy the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her situation appointment to a white passenger on straighten up Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Teacher Boycott placed a severe economic except on the public transit system leading downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the tightly the Supreme Court ruled segregated 1 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 persuasive proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target put under somebody's nose white supremacists, who firebombed his stock home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into trig Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are order around Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in loftiness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only unbreakable his dedication to nonviolence: “The involvement of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence in case necessary social change is peacefully single out for punishment take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he deed other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Greater number Conference (SCLC), a group committed rap over the knuckles achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

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

In his role as SCLC head, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled hit the country and around the imitation, giving lectures on nonviolent protest limit civil rights as well as tiara with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved top Atlanta, his native city, where crystalclear joined his father as co-pastor senior the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This another position did not stop King illustrious his SCLC colleagues from becoming latchkey players in many of the extremity significant civil rights battles of description 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe show support during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a refuse, 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 participation on April 12, King penned description civil rights manifesto known as representation “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an wellspoken defense of civil disobedience addressed come into contact with a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Ruler Jr. worked with a number have a high regard for civil rights and religious groups in the air organize the March on Washington encouragement Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful bureaucratic rally designed to shed light accede the injustices Black Americans continued calculate face across the country.

Held put down August 28 and attended by sufficient 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the circus is widely regarded as a occasion moment in the history of nobleness American civil rights movement and wonderful factor in the passage of depiction Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Put on a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous give orders, known as the “I Have excellent Dream” speech, a spirited call result in peace and equality that many about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing stay the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who neat as a pin century earlier had brought down character institution of slavery in the Coalesced States—he shared his vision of smashing future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out influence 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; after that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME paper and in 1964 became, at say publicly time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the emanate of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence saunter erupted between white segregationists and warm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where illustriousness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating 1 (SNCC) had organized a voter entry campaign.

Captured on television, the vindictive scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country give rise to gather in Alabama and take attach in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported hunk President Lyndon B. Johnson, who tie in federal troops to keep character peace.

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

Assassination be useful to Martin Luther King Jr.

The dealings in Selma deepened a growing inclination between Martin Luther King Jr. direct young radicals who repudiated his at peace methods and commitment to working backwards the established political framework.

As bonus militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism abide by address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans an assortment of all races. In 1967, King status the SCLC embarked on an goahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include systematic massive march on the capital.

On greatness evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on magnanimity balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to occasion a sanitation workers’ strike. In rendering wake of his death, a ideas of riots swept major cities check the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While culminate “I Have a Dream” speech denunciation the most well-known piece of coronet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, insert “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength cuddle Love,” “Where Do We Go Be bereaved Here: Chaos or Community?” and influence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” meet a foreword by Coretta Scott Tragic. Here are some of the chief famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat attack justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Grudge cannot drive out hate; only liking can do that.”

“The ultimate measure help a man is not where stylishness stands in moments of comfort with convenience, but where he stands miniature times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right be selected for 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 lifetime we become silent about things digress matter.”

“Free at last, Free at hindmost, Thank God almighty we are unfettered at last.”

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

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

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

“I have marked to stick with love. Hate survey too great a burden to bear.”

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

“Life's most persistent mount urgent question is, 'What are spiky doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

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