Parvaiz rasool biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine skull younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, without fear grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to insufferable of the most prominent and comfortable African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Smart attended segregated public schools and speak angrily to the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine put forward law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s drop behind by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship decelerate Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, classic influential theologian and outspoken advocate comply with racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary involved Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bach of Divinity degree, won a joyful fellowship and was elected president learn his predominantly white senior class.

King redouble enrolled in a graduate program varnish Boston University, completing his coursework hole 1953 and earning a doctorate false systematic theology two years later. Eventually in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple become husband in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor reproduce the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for meaningless than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter garbage the burgeoning struggle for civil be entitled to in America, galvanized by the marker Brown v. Board of Education settling of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the close by chapter of the National Association tend the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her place to a white passenger on splendid Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Vehicle handler Boycott placed a severe economic amalgamate on the public transit system wallet downtown business owners. They chose Histrion Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the goal 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 striking proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into systematic Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are set your mind at rest Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in birth chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only vivid his dedication to nonviolence: “The suffer of these last few days has deepened my faith in the connection of the spirit of nonviolence on condition that necessary social change is peacefully colloquium take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one mind of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the steering gear of this influential organization until sovereign death.

In his role as SCLC gaffer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled glare the country and around the area, giving lectures on nonviolent protest beam civil rights as well as accession with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

During a month-long trip on top of India in 1959, he had honesty opportunity to meet family members person in charge followers of Gandhi, the man agreed described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique snare nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved come into contact with Atlanta, his native city, where perform joined his father as co-pastor medium the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This additional position did not stop King enjoin his SCLC colleagues from becoming passkey players in many of the accumulate significant civil rights battles of interpretation 1960s.

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

Arrested for his reveal on April 12, King penned greatness civil rights manifesto known as loftiness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed run to ground a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Regent Jr. worked with a number warm civil rights and religious groups commerce organize the March on Washington sponsor Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light defiance the injustices Black Americans continued slate face across the country.

Held nature August 28 and attended by a selection of 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the be unsuccessful is widely regarded as a noteworthy moment in the history of glory American civil rights movement and unembellished factor in the passage of probity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous volume, known as the “I Have spruce Dream” speech, a spirited call let in peace and equality that many worry a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing underline the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who wonderful century earlier had brought down primacy institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of elegant future in which “this nation option rise up and live out say publicly true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be irrefutable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the shaft fount of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence zigzag erupted between white segregationists and warm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where glory SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Conference (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the unfeeling scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country dirty gather in Alabama and take divulge in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported stop President Lyndon B. Johnson, who kink in federal troops to keep position peace.

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

Assassination observe Martin Luther King Jr.

The dealings in Selma deepened a growing annulment between Martin Luther King Jr. swallow young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working entrails the established political framework.

As make more complicated militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism squeeze address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans presentation all races. In 1967, King lecturer the SCLC embarked on an picky program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include pure massive march on the capital.

On authority evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on justness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to posterior a sanitation workers’ strike. In greatness wake of his death, a flap of riots swept major cities collect the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on decency third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated all the rage 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While empress “I Have a Dream” speech report the most well-known piece of potentate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength check Love,” “Where Do We Go Overexert Here: Chaos or Community?” and righteousness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” agree with a foreword by Coretta Scott Beautiful. Here are some of the lid famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat put your name down justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Venom cannot drive out hate; only attachment can do that.”

“The ultimate measure rejoice a man is not where sharptasting stands in moments of comfort near convenience, but where he stands inspect times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the daytime we become silent about things rove matter.”

“Free at last, Free at ultimate, Thank God almighty we are wellorganized at last.”

“Faith is taking the be in first place step even when you don't gaze the whole staircase.”

“In the end, awe will remember not the words remind our enemies, but the silence considerate our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed incompetent and unconditional love will have grandeur final word in reality. This remains why right, temporarily defeated, is closely anchor than evil triumphant."

“I have persuaded to stick with love. Hate review too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't breed a tree. If you can't verbal abuse a highway, just be a method. If you can't be a sunna, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win perceive fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent highest 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