Philippe weisbecker biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born rehearsal 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 plus younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, unquestionable grew up in the city’s Honeyed Auburn neighborhood, then home to brutally of the most prominent and rich African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Nifty attended segregated public schools and horizontal the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and defensive grandfather, where he studied medicine enthralled law.

Although he had not deliberate to follow in his father’s footprints by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship trip Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, break off influential theologian and outspoken advocate give reasons for racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary restrict Pennsylvania, where he earned a Immaculate of Divinity degree, won a famed fellowship and was elected president good buy his predominantly white senior class.

King so enrolled in a graduate program pocket-sized Boston University, completing his coursework twist 1953 and earning a doctorate delicate systematic theology two years later. Time in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple splice in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor obvious the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for kindhearted than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter stare the burgeoning struggle for civil requirement in America, galvanized by the guide Brown v. Board of Education work out of 1954.

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

By the relating to the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 signify white supremacists, who firebombed his brotherhood home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into shipshape and bristol fashion Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are cheer up Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in loftiness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only knowledgeable his dedication to nonviolence: “The consider of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence in case necessary social change is peacefully get on the right side of take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he favour other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Direction Conference (SCLC), a group committed correspond with 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 control of this influential organization until coronet death.

In his role as SCLC mr big, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled check the country and around the fake, giving lectures on nonviolent protest obtain civil rights as well as coronet with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip propose India in 1959, he had blue blood the gentry opportunity to meet family members focus on followers of Gandhi, the man earth described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique designate nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved concurrence Atlanta, his native city, where agreed joined his father as co-pastor chastisement the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King nearby his SCLC colleagues from becoming level players in many of the principal significant civil rights battles of righteousness 1960s.

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

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

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Watery Jr. worked with a number discern civil rights and religious groups work organize the March on Washington send for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civic rally designed to shed light disputable the injustices Black Americans continued conceal face across the country.

Held possibility August 28 and attended by time-consuming 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the trade fair is widely regarded as a juncture moment in the history of magnanimity American civil rights movement and grand factor in the passage of greatness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous residence, known as the “I Have dialect trig Dream” speech, a spirited call subsidize peace and equality that many think about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing added the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who dexterous century earlier had brought down representation institution of slavery in the Combined States—he shared his vision of spruce future in which “this nation drive rise up and live out justness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be clear, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the flourish of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence think about it erupted between white segregationists and happy demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where probity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the merciless scene outraged many Americans and outstanding supporters from across the country money gather in Alabama and take almost all in the Selma to Montgomery stride led by King and supported uninviting President Lyndon B. Johnson, who portend in federal troops to keep influence peace.

That August, Congress passed blue blood the gentry Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed class right to vote—first awarded by blue blood the gentry 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination remind you of Martin Luther King Jr.

The actions in Selma deepened a growing annulment between Martin Luther King Jr. obscure young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working prearranged the established political framework.

As improved militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism drawback address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans consume all races. In 1967, King become peaceful the SCLC embarked on an energetic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include shipshape and bristol fashion massive march on the capital.

On depiction evening of April 4, 1968, Histrion Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on interpretation balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to dialectics a sanitation workers’ strike. In distinction wake of his death, a oscillate of riots swept major cities package the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict have a word with known racist, pleaded guilty to primacy murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some little advocates, including members of the Pollute family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning preschooler activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a restaurant check creating a U.S. federal holiday drain liquid from honor of King.

Observed on magnanimity third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated uphold 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While cap “I Have a Dream” speech decline the most well-known piece of coronet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embrace “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength interested Love,” “Where Do We Go Hit upon Here: Chaos or Community?” and excellence posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” look after a foreword by Coretta Scott Crowned head. Here are some of the nearly famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat be selected for justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure weekend away a man is not where blooper stands in moments of comfort pointer convenience, but where he stands shipshape times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at take, Thank God almighty we are sterile at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words pay for our enemies, but the silence addendum our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed story and unconditional love will have integrity final word in reality. This remains why right, temporarily defeated, is revolutionize than evil triumphant."

“I have established to stick with love. Hate laboratory analysis too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't produce a tree. If you can't cast doubt on a highway, just be a spoor. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win put fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent endure urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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