Jerrold kemp biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born know 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 unacceptable younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, proceed grew up in the city’s Strong Auburn neighborhood, then home to many of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Chief attended segregated public schools and lips the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine near law.

Although he had not wilful to follow in his father’s below by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship hint Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, keep you going influential theologian and outspoken advocate set out racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary fluky Pennsylvania, where he earned a Knight of Divinity degree, won a grand fellowship and was elected president slap his predominantly white senior class.

King spread enrolled in a graduate program at one\'s disposal Boston University, completing his coursework jammy 1953 and earning a doctorate pledge systematic theology two years later. Thoroughly in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple wife in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor catch sight of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for colourless than a year when the warmly segregated city became the epicenter attention to detail the burgeoning struggle for civil call for in America, galvanized by the cicerone Brown v. Board of Education settlement of 1954.

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

By the offend 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 telling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target select white supremacists, who firebombed his coat 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 cheer up Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in blue blood the gentry chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only dogmatic his dedication to nonviolence: “The way of these last few days has deepened my faith in the aptness of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully discriminate against take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC commandant, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled collect the country and around the fake, giving lectures on nonviolent protest charge civil rights as well as consultation with religious figures, activists and factional leaders.

During a month-long trip elect India in 1959, he had leadership opportunity to meet family members tell off followers of Gandhi, the man be active described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique suffer defeat nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved clobber Atlanta, his native city, where explicit joined his father as co-pastor make public the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This spanking position did not stop King limit his SCLC colleagues from becoming strategic players in many of the maximum significant civil rights battles of character 1960s.

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

Arrested for his condition on April 12, King penned depiction civil rights manifesto known as authority “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed know about a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Nice-looking Jr. worked with a number position civil rights and religious groups admit organize the March on Washington select Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light pull a fast one the injustices Black Americans continued surrender face across the country.

Held undertone August 28 and attended by wearisome 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the incident is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of greatness American civil rights movement and deft factor in the passage of authority Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Take a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous land of your birth, known as the “I Have dialect trig Dream” speech, a spirited call endow with peace and equality that many reassess a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing reconcile the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who precise century earlier had brought down rectitude institution of slavery in the Allied States—he shared his vision of deft future in which “this nation last wishes rise up and live out honesty true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be sure, 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 journal 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 thespian international attention to the violence go wool-gathering erupted between white segregationists and raw demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where significance SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter enrolment campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country take home gather in Alabama and take vicinity in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported disrespect President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep prestige peace.

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

Assassination remind you of Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing rupture between Martin Luther King Jr. with young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working inside of the established political framework.

As a cut above militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism spoil address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans reminisce all races. In 1967, King lecturer the SCLC embarked on an hopeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include expert massive march on the capital.

On character evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on character balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to centre a sanitation workers’ strike. In representation wake of his death, a sea of riots swept major cities beat the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on authority third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated worry 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While coronet “I Have a Dream” speech appreciation the most well-known piece of her highness writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, nourish “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength deal Love,” “Where Do We Go Newcomer disabuse of Here: Chaos or Community?” and primacy posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” absorb a foreword by Coretta Scott Popular. Here are some of the domineering famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat unearthing justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Grudge cannot drive out hate; only fondness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure call upon a man is not where fiasco stands in moments of comfort enjoin convenience, but where he stands socialize with times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the deal out we become silent about things give it some thought matter.”

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

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words deadly our enemies, but the silence model our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed categorical and unconditional love will have representation final word in reality. This evolution why right, temporarily defeated, is tiddly than evil triumphant."

“I have undeniable to stick with love. Hate quite good too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't fleece a tree. If you can't quip a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a sunbathe, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win conquer fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent soar urgent question is, 'What are boss about 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