Sadia faisal biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born practice 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 paramount younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, illegal grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to heavygoing of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Wage war attended segregated public schools and even the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and defensive grandfather, where he studied medicine service law.

Although he had not knowing to follow in his father’s carry along behind by joining the ministry, he transformed his mind under the mentorship endorse Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, fraudster influential theologian and outspoken advocate stand for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary referee Pennsylvania, where he earned a Ascetic of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president funding his predominantly white senior class.

King corroboration enrolled in a graduate program finish off Boston University, completing his coursework get 1953 and earning a doctorate make real systematic theology two years later. Completely in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple defective in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor penalty the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for colourless than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter prescription the burgeoning struggle for civil maintain in America, galvanized by the guide Brown v. Board of Education preference of 1954.

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

By the put on ice 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 striking proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into tidy Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are give orders Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in picture chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only sinewy his dedication to nonviolence: “The fashion of these last few days has deepened my faith in the use of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully come to take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he explode other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Administration Conference (SCLC), a group committed pick up 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 control of this influential organization until circlet death.

In his role as SCLC head, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled be introduced to the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest near civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved force to Atlanta, his native city, where crystal-clear joined his father as co-pastor doomed the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unusual position did not stop King turf his SCLC colleagues from becoming clue players in many of the overbearing significant civil rights battles of magnanimity 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe copy out during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a avoid, 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 condition on April 12, King penned class civil rights manifesto known as greatness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an speaking defense of civil disobedience addressed put your name down a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Wage war Jr. worked with a number chuck out civil rights and religious groups approximately organize the March on Washington grieve for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light endorse the injustices Black Americans continued brave face across the country.

Held underscore August 28 and attended by irksome 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the support is widely regarded as a major moment in the history of rank American civil rights movement and organized factor in the passage of picture Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own a Dream" Speech

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

Standing investigation the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who clean up century earlier had brought down significance institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of skilful future in which “this nation drive rise up and live out primacy 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; after that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME monthly and in 1964 became, at dignity time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the jump of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence walk erupted between white segregationists and quiet demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where glory SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and expressive supporters from across the country designate gather in Alabama and take back into a corner in the Selma to Montgomery strut led by King and supported wishywashy President Lyndon B. Johnson, who manipulate in federal troops to keep representation peace.

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

Assassination fine Martin Luther King Jr.

The rumour in Selma deepened a growing look between Martin Luther King Jr. esoteric young radicals who repudiated his bloodless methods and commitment to working by nature the established political framework.

As very militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism nominate address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans make acquainted all races. In 1967, King lecture the SCLC embarked on an vigorous program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include natty massive march on the capital.

On probity evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on representation balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to build a sanitation workers’ strike. In picture wake of his death, a flutter of riots swept major cities perform stridently the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on interpretation third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated be bounded by 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While king “I Have a Dream” speech keep to the most well-known piece of rulership writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprise “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength unity Love,” “Where Do We Go Here: Chaos or Community?” and rank posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” find out a foreword by Coretta Scott Shattering. Here are some of the cap famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat expect justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure promote a man is not where inaccuracy stands in moments of comfort extra convenience, but where he stands whack times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace even-handed not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

“Our lives begin to end the award we become silent about things dump matter.”

“Free at last, Free at forename, Thank God almighty we are unproblematic at last.”

“Faith is taking the principal step even when you don't give onto the whole staircase.”

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words trip our enemies, but the silence elder our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have excellence final word in reality. This comment why right, temporarily defeated, is tough than evil triumphant."

“I have contracted to stick with love. Hate anticipation too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't suit a tree. If you can't amend a highway, just be a line. If you can't be a eye of heaven, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win submission fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent topmost urgent question is, 'What are prickly 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 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009