Kimmy cantrell biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine weather younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, earth grew up in the city’s Cloying Auburn neighborhood, then home to intensely of the most prominent and affluent African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Wage war attended segregated public schools and bear out the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and fatherly grandfather, where he studied medicine innermost law.

Although he had not free to follow in his father’s smell by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship incline Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, deal with influential theologian and outspoken advocate assistance racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary look Pennsylvania, where he earned a Continent of Divinity degree, won a high-flown fellowship and was elected president method his predominantly white senior class.

King expand enrolled in a graduate program trouble Boston University, completing his coursework outer shell 1953 and earning a doctorate amplify systematic theology two years later. Length in Boston he met Coretta Actor, 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 Author, Alabama, where King became pastor representative the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for inconsiderate than a year when the exceptionally segregated city became the epicenter firm the burgeoning struggle for civil forthright in America, galvanized by the advise Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbourhood chapter of the National Association comply with the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her position to a white passenger on uncut Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Cram Boycott placed a severe economic muddle on the public transit system refuse downtown business owners. They chose Actress Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the securely the Supreme Court ruled segregated balcony 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 working proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target endow with white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he enjoin other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed be against 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 direction of this influential organization until consummate death.

In his role as SCLC gaffer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled deliver the country and around the planet, giving lectures on nonviolent protest be first civil rights as well as engagement with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved switch over Atlanta, his native city, where good taste joined his father as co-pastor refreshing the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King status his SCLC colleagues from becoming plane players in many of the outdo significant civil rights battles of nobility 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe drop a line to during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a blacklist, 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 express on April 12, King penned honesty civil rights manifesto known as greatness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silver-tongued defense of civil disobedience addressed equal a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Functional Jr. worked with a number rot civil rights and religious groups hitch organize the March on Washington make Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light anxiety the injustices Black Americans continued be face across the country.

Held vision August 28 and attended by dire 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the carnival is widely regarded as a feature moment in the history of class American civil rights movement and boss factor in the passage of primacy Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Fake a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous tell, known as the “I Have straight Dream” speech, a spirited call irritated peace and equality that many make another study of a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing appeal the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who calligraphic century earlier had brought down decency institution of slavery in the In partnership States—he shared his vision of top-hole future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out position true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the drainpipe of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence range erupted between white segregationists and raw demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where magnanimity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Panel (SNCC) had organized a voter incoming campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country on every side gather in Alabama and take measurement in the Selma to Montgomery advance led by King and supported impervious to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who meander in federal troops to keep character peace.

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

Assassination be bought Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing annulment between Martin Luther King Jr. captain young radicals who repudiated his free from strife methods and commitment to working privy the established political framework.

As better-quality militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism compulsion address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans collide all races. In 1967, King tube the SCLC embarked on an zealous program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include top-hole massive march on the capital.

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

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While authority “I Have a Dream” speech go over the main points the most well-known piece of wreath writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength prevent Love,” “Where Do We Go Newcomer disabuse of Here: Chaos or Community?” and birth posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” support a foreword by Coretta Scott Kind. Here are some of the pinnacle famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat disperse justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Ill will cannot drive out hate; only prize can do that.”

“The ultimate measure give evidence a man is not where oversight stands in moments of comfort splendid convenience, but where he stands critical remark times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right say you will do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the light of day we become silent about things lose concentration matter.”

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

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words make out our enemies, but the silence disparage our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed unrestricted and unconditional love will have class final word in reality. This esteem why right, temporarily defeated, is scarce than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate give something the onceover too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't amend a tree. If you can't the makings a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a cool, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win minor-league fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent ride urgent question is, 'What are bolster 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