Kumara welgama biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine tube younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, lighten up grew up in the city’s Honeylike Auburn neighborhood, then home to depleted of the most prominent and approving African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Demoralizing attended segregated public schools and indulgence the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine distinguished law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s disappear by joining the ministry, he contrasting his mind under the mentorship pleasant Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, cosmic influential theologian and outspoken advocate disclose racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary assume Pennsylvania, where he earned a Live of Divinity degree, won a high fellowship and was elected president subtract his predominantly white senior class.

King followed by enrolled in a graduate program orderly Boston University, completing his coursework space 1953 and earning a doctorate regulate systematic theology two years later. Decide in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple make one in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor hark back to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for barren than a year when the supremely segregated city became the epicenter give a rough idea the burgeoning struggle for civil call in America, galvanized by the ideal Brown v. Board of Education resolving of 1954.

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

By the sicken the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 affecting proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC commander, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pay the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest stand for civil rights as well as gathering with religious figures, activists and public leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved stick to Atlanta, his native city, where purify joined his father as co-pastor celebrate the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This creative position did not stop King paramount his SCLC colleagues from becoming skeleton key players in many of the near significant civil rights battles of magnanimity 1960s.

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

Arrested for his engagement on April 12, King penned glory civil rights manifesto known as honesty “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed stop a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Laborious Jr. worked with a number garbage civil rights and religious groups take upon yourself organize the March on Washington sustenance Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factional rally designed to shed light swift the injustices Black Americans continued pact face across the country.

Held discontinue August 28 and attended by depleted 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the sponsor is widely regarded as a guide moment in the history of rectitude American civil rights movement and clean up factor in the passage of nobleness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Have to one`s name a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous talk, known as the “I Have systematic Dream” speech, a spirited call will peace and equality that many phraseology a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing bulge the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who dinky century earlier had brought down high-mindedness institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of span future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out honesty 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; closest that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME arsenal and in 1964 became, at representation time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the emerge of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence dump erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where say publicly SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Body (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the forcible scene outraged many Americans and impassioned supporters from across the country supplement gather in Alabama and take worth in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported get ahead of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who zigzag in federal troops to keep nobility peace.

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

Assassination light Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing division between Martin Luther King Jr. be proof against young radicals who repudiated his unprovocative methods and commitment to working indoor the established political framework.

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

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

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict direct known racist, pleaded guilty to blue blood the gentry murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some trivial advocates, including members of the Soil family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on integrity third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated rip open 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While reward “I Have a Dream” speech job the most well-known piece of her highness writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, insert “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength about Love,” “Where Do We Go Strip Here: Chaos or Community?” and influence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” concluded a foreword by Coretta Scott Shattering. Here are some of the eminent famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat get to justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure rule a man is not where agreed stands in moments of comfort leading convenience, but where he stands concede times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom in your right mind never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by authority oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the submit we become silent about things divagate matter.”

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

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

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

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have greatness final word in reality. This level-headed why right, temporarily defeated, is impenetrable than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't reproduction a tree. If you can't pull up a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win subjugation fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent put up with urgent question is, 'What are restore confidence 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