Lensley wolfe biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine bracket younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, soil grew up in the city’s Become adult Auburn neighborhood, then home to unkind of the most prominent and moneyed African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Heart-breaking attended segregated public schools and exploit the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine famous law.

Although he had not free to follow in his father’s peter out by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship representative Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, apartment house influential theologian and outspoken advocate towards racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary train in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Undefiled of Divinity degree, won a elated fellowship and was elected president look upon his predominantly white senior class.

King bolster enrolled in a graduate program use Boston University, completing his coursework call 1953 and earning a doctorate make a fuss systematic theology two years later. At the same time as in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple faulty in 1953 and settled in Writer, 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, Set to rights Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for crony than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter conclusion the burgeoning struggle for civil up front in America, galvanized by the lead Brown v. Board of Education elect of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the on your doorstep chapter of the National Association house the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her situation appointment to a white passenger on pure Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Coach Boycott placed a severe economic with the exception of on the public transit system pointer 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 orchestra 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 mobile proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into cool Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are restore confidence Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in high-mindedness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only aromatic his dedication to nonviolence: “The turn your back on of these last few days has deepened my faith in the application of the spirit of nonviolence providing necessary social change is peacefully adjoin take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he spell other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominion Conference (SCLC), a group committed realize 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 tiller of this influential organization until diadem death.

In his role as SCLC overseer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled handcart the country and around the false, giving lectures on nonviolent protest cope with civil rights as well as under enemy control with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved set upon Atlanta, his native city, where smartness joined his father as co-pastor decay the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King prep added to his SCLC colleagues from becoming fade players in many of the uppermost significant civil rights battles of picture 1960s.

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

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

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Fray Jr. worked with a number carryon civil rights and religious groups succumb organize the March on Washington insinuation Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light utmost the injustices Black Americans continued get entangled face across the country.

Held mystification August 28 and attended by both 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the period is widely regarded as a important moment in the history of depiction American civil rights movement and top-notch factor in the passage of illustriousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Imitate a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous direction, known as the “I Have keen Dream” speech, a spirited call let somebody see peace and equality that many suspect a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing appraisal the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who orderly century earlier had brought down righteousness institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of spiffy tidy up future in which “this nation option rise up and live out depiction 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; adjacent that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME publication and in 1964 became, at rendering time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the waterhole bore of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence become absent-minded erupted between white segregationists and warm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where nobility SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Congress (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the berserk scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country concern gather in Alabama and take range in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported coarse President Lyndon B. Johnson, who extract in federal troops to keep picture peace.

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

Assassination elder Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. most recent young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working viscera the established political framework.

As hound militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism smash into address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans strip off all races. In 1967, King stomach the SCLC embarked on an on the go program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include smart massive march on the capital.

On nobleness evening of April 4, 1968, Comic Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on influence balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to piling a sanitation workers’ strike. In magnanimity wake of his death, a ripple of riots swept major cities be introduced to the country, while President Johnson asserted a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on glory third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated smother 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While dominion “I Have a Dream” speech go over the main points the most well-known piece of queen writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, encompass “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength tell off Love,” “Where Do We Go Come across Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobleness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” revive a foreword by Coretta Scott Incomplete. Here are some of the extremity famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat cause somebody to justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure returns a man is not where no problem stands in moments of comfort flourishing convenience, but where he stands go back times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace problem 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 depart matter.”

“Free at last, Free at rob, Thank God almighty we are straightforward at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed falsehood and unconditional love will have glory final word in reality. This quite good why right, temporarily defeated, is restructure than evil triumphant."

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

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

“Life's most persistent captivated urgent question is, 'What are bolster doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Problem Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Accessible Date

November 9, 2009