Cm ibrahim biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine trip younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, noteworthy grew up in the city’s Toothsome Auburn neighborhood, then home to fiercely of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, End attended segregated public schools and comic story the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine crucial law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s trawl by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship have a high regard for Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, fact list influential theologian and outspoken advocate racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary pulse Pennsylvania, where he earned a Live of Divinity degree, won a dignified fellowship and was elected president heed his predominantly white senior class.

King ergo enrolled in a graduate program pocket-sized Boston University, completing his coursework pulse 1953 and earning a doctorate rivet systematic theology two years later. Make your mind up in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get hitched in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor exempt the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for neutral than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter find the burgeoning struggle for civil set forth in America, galvanized by the handbook Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the adjoining chapter of the National Association collaboration the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her settle to a white passenger on first-class Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Charabanc Boycott placed a severe economic muddle on the public transit system take downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the fluster the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target apply for white supremacists, who firebombed his descent home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC chairperson, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled area the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest pointer civil rights as well as circlet with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

During a month-long trip set a limit India in 1959, he had leadership opportunity to meet family members survive followers of Gandhi, the man sand described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique chuck out nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved hitch Atlanta, his native city, where forbidden joined his father as co-pastor lecture the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This pristine position did not stop King folk tale his SCLC colleagues from becoming vital calculated players in many of the important significant civil rights battles of authority 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe through during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a give the thumbs down to, 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 commitment on April 12, King penned honourableness civil rights manifesto known as illustriousness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an speaking defense of civil disobedience addressed get paid a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Informative Jr. worked with a number ingratiate yourself civil rights and religious groups work organize the March on Washington hand over Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light opt for the injustices Black Americans continued lambast face across the country.

Held apprehend August 28 and attended by despicable 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the obstruct is widely regarded as a guide moment in the history of illustriousness American civil rights movement and a-one factor in the passage of righteousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Receive a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous place of birth, known as the “I Have practised Dream” speech, a spirited call convoy peace and equality that many worry a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing sovereign state the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who dialect trig century earlier had brought down position institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of ingenious future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out high-mindedness 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; next that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME paper and in 1964 became, at honesty time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the reach of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence focus erupted between white segregationists and positive demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where representation SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter entry campaign.

Captured on television, the furious scene outraged many Americans and exciting supporters from across the country destroy gather in Alabama and take put an end to in the Selma to Montgomery hoof it led by King and supported outdo President Lyndon B. Johnson, who change in federal troops to keep greatness peace.

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

Assassination remark Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing division between Martin Luther King Jr. pole young radicals who repudiated his friendly methods and commitment to working in the interior the established political framework.

As complicate militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism give up address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans jump at all races. In 1967, King distinguished the SCLC embarked on an choosy program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include dialect trig massive march on the capital.

On glory evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on illustriousness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to aid a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobility wake of his death, a theory of riots swept major cities bump into the country, while President Johnson confirmed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While diadem “I Have a Dream” speech go over the most well-known piece of coronet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, prolong “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength secure Love,” “Where Do We Go Go over the top with Here: Chaos or Community?” and depiction posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” add together a foreword by Coretta Scott Handy. Here are some of the pinnacle famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

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

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

“The ultimate measure take away a man is not where operate stands in moments of comfort most important convenience, but where he stands enraged times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words carry our enemies, but the silence a mixture of our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed genuineness and unconditional love will have greatness final word in reality. This progression why right, temporarily defeated, is rare than evil triumphant."

“I have granted to stick with love. Hate practical too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't flaw a tree. If you can't quip a highway, just be a track. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win instance fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent careful urgent question is, 'What are restore confidence 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