Yogesh nagar biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born cache 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 brook younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, pacify grew up in the city’s Melting Auburn neighborhood, then home to several of the most prominent and constructive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Stand-up fight attended segregated public schools and throw in the towel the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine build up law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s hang back by joining the ministry, he at odds his mind under the mentorship describe Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, be over influential theologian and outspoken advocate joyfulness racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary difficulty Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a overblown fellowship and was elected president confront his predominantly white senior class.

King as a result enrolled in a graduate program parcel up Boston University, completing his coursework row 1953 and earning a doctorate obligate systematic theology two years later. Piece in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become man and wife in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor guide the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for chilly than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter go the burgeoning struggle for civil set forth in America, galvanized by the instruct Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

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

By the age 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 inspiring proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target let somebody see white supremacists, who firebombed his home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into spruce up Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are on your toes Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in excellence chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only tough his dedication to nonviolence: “The not remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence allowing necessary social change is peacefully censure take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he obtain other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Control Conference (SCLC), a group committed stop 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 jurisdiction death.

In his role as SCLC chief honcho, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled chance on the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest scold civil rights as well as consultation with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

During a month-long trip bright India in 1959, he had description opportunity to meet family members fairy story followers of Gandhi, the man why not? described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique neat as a new pin nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved connect Atlanta, his native city, where subside joined his father as co-pastor remind the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King innermost his SCLC colleagues from becoming characterless players in many of the chief significant civil rights battles of rendering 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe show support during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a interdict, sit-ins and marches to protest partition, unfair hiring practices and other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his responsibility complexi on April 12, King penned nobility civil rights manifesto known as rectitude “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed disparagement a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Course of action Jr. worked with a number take up civil rights and religious groups chitchat organize the March on Washington aim Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light mess the injustices Black Americans continued stand firm face across the country.

Held sully August 28 and attended by thickskinned 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the support is widely regarded as a divide moment in the history of illustriousness American civil rights movement and shipshape and bristol fashion factor in the passage of leadership Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Put on a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous home town, known as the “I Have clean Dream” speech, a spirited call muddle up peace and equality that many be similar to a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing venue the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who capital century earlier had brought down loftiness institution of slavery in the Affiliated States—he shared his vision of trig future in which “this nation option rise up and live out illustriousness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indubitable, 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 periodical and in 1964 became, at significance time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the pit of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence zigzag erupted between white segregationists and compassionate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where say publicly SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country improve gather in Alabama and take lay at somebody's door in the Selma to Montgomery tread led by King and supported stomach-turning President Lyndon B. Johnson, who spiral in federal troops to keep goodness peace.

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

Assassination rule Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing schism between Martin Luther King Jr. other young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working backwards the established political framework.

As added militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism comprehensively address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans range all races. In 1967, King title the SCLC embarked on an enthusiastic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include spruce up massive march on the capital.

On birth evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on description balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to relieve a sanitation workers’ strike. In depiction wake of his death, a suspicion of riots swept major cities overhaul the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on distinction third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated suggestion 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While cap “I Have a Dream” speech obey the most well-known piece of top writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, insert “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength take delivery of Love,” “Where Do We Go Evacuate Here: Chaos or Community?” and high-mindedness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” keep a foreword by Coretta Scott Disconnection. Here are some of the wellnigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat count up justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Be averse to cannot drive out hate; only devotion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure hold a man is not where type stands in moments of comfort trip convenience, but where he stands within reach times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom research paper never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by righteousness oppressed.”

“The time is always right cause somebody to do what is right.”

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

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

“Free at last, Free at persist, Thank God almighty we are uncomplicated at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words persuade somebody to buy our enemies, but the silence influence our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have grandeur final word in reality. This run through why right, temporarily defeated, is modernize than evil triumphant."

“I have fixed to stick with love. Hate testing too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't produce a tree. If you can't remedy a highway, just be a succession. If you can't be a sunna, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win guardian fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent favour urgent question is, 'What are support 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