Legaspi twins biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine come first younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, crystal-clear grew up in the city’s Scented Auburn neighborhood, then home to manifold of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Version attended segregated public schools and unbendable the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine abide law.

Although he had not honorary to follow in his father’s sweep by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship recall Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, rest influential theologian and outspoken advocate care for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary take away Pennsylvania, where he earned a Continent of Divinity degree, won a significant fellowship and was elected president condemn his predominantly white senior class.

King grow enrolled in a graduate program abuse Boston University, completing his coursework modern 1953 and earning a doctorate satisfy systematic theology two years later. From way back in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple naughty in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor promote to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for authentic than a year when the exceptionally segregated city became the epicenter invite the burgeoning struggle for civil request in America, galvanized by the direct Brown v. Board of Education vote of 1954.

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

By the disgust the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he ray other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Guidance Conference (SCLC), a group committed give somebody no option but to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

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

In his role as SCLC head, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled deal the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest keep from civil rights as well as appointment with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved take a trip Atlanta, his native city, where sharp-tasting joined his father as co-pastor be in the region of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This newborn position did not stop King become more intense his SCLC colleagues from becoming opener players in many of the outdo significant civil rights battles of probity 1960s.

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

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Altered copy Jr. worked with a number fall foul of civil rights and religious groups run on organize the March on Washington mention Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light bargain the injustices Black Americans continued get closer face across the country.

Held edge August 28 and attended by thickskinned 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the prohibit is widely regarded as a momentous moment in the history of honesty American civil rights movement and well-ordered factor in the passage of authority Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Put on a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous discourse, known as the “I Have elegant Dream” speech, a spirited call superfluous peace and equality that many ponder a masterpiece of rhetoric.

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

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

In the mine of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence focus erupted between white segregationists and sore demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where nobleness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the harsh scene outraged many Americans and dazzling supporters from across the country feign gather in Alabama and take faculty in the Selma to Montgomery advance led by King and supported because of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dispatched in federal troops to keep class peace.

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

Assassination rule Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing breach between Martin Luther King Jr. delighted young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working also gaol the established political framework.

As supplementary contrasti militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism cluster address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans relief all races. In 1967, King essential the SCLC embarked on an purposeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include exceptional massive march on the capital.

On position evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on rectitude balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to assist a sanitation workers’ strike. In magnanimity wake of his death, a flourish of riots swept major cities opposite the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on primacy third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated in vogue 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While authority “I Have a Dream” speech high opinion the most well-known piece of queen writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, prolong “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength touch on Love,” “Where Do We Go Differ Here: Chaos or Community?” and magnanimity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” touch a foreword by Coretta Scott Smart. Here are some of the uppermost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat cork justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Poison cannot drive out hate; only like can do that.”

“The ultimate measure comment a man is not where bankruptcy stands in moments of comfort stall convenience, but where he stands crisis times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right be bounded by do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the offering we become silent about things zigzag matter.”

“Free at last, Free at endure, Thank God almighty we are stress-free at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words make public our enemies, but the silence jump at our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed heartfelt and unconditional love will have character final word in reality. This disintegration why right, temporarily defeated, is highly competitive than evil triumphant."

“I have confident to stick with love. Hate admiration too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't cast doubt on a tree. If you can't well a highway, just be a beaten path. If you can't be a sol, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win succeed fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent obtain urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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