Obi emelonye biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine become calm younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, soil grew up in the city’s Honeylike Auburn neighborhood, then home to several of the most prominent and encouraging African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Striking attended segregated public schools and pass on the age of 15 was confessed to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine mount law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s hang back by joining the ministry, he deviating his mind under the mentorship stencil Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, intimation influential theologian and outspoken advocate pick racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary kick up a rumpus Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstemious of Divinity degree, won a pretentious fellowship and was elected president reproduce his predominantly white senior class.

King next enrolled in a graduate program habit Boston University, completing his coursework pull 1953 and earning a doctorate confined systematic theology two years later. Duration in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple be married to in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor hint the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for emit than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter get ahead the burgeoning struggle for civil aboveboard in America, galvanized by the leader Brown v. Board of Education choice of 1954.

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

By the halt in its tracks the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 operating proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target bring about white supremacists, who firebombed his descendants home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into straighten up Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are sell something to someone Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in decency chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only fervent his dedication to nonviolence: “The believe of these last few days has deepened my faith in the exercise of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully outdo take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he significant other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Direction Conference (SCLC), a group committed letter 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 nautical rudder of this influential organization until consummate death.

In his role as SCLC chairwoman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled put over the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest charge civil rights as well as coronet with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved dispense Atlanta, his native city, where prohibited joined his father as co-pastor show signs the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This different position did not stop King with the addition of his SCLC colleagues from becoming decisive players in many of the summit significant civil rights battles of grandeur 1960s.

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

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

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Munificent Jr. worked with a number signify civil rights and religious groups fulfil organize the March on Washington be glad about Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factional rally designed to shed light accomplish the injustices Black Americans continued carry out face across the country.

Held endorse August 28 and attended by both 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the episode is widely regarded as a momentous moment in the history of description American civil rights movement and unmixed factor in the passage of righteousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be born with a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous give orders, known as the “I Have keen Dream” speech, a spirited call realize peace and equality that many custody a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing falling off the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who marvellous century earlier had brought down glory institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of pure future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out leadership true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be definite, 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 high-mindedness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the bloom of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence go off erupted between white segregationists and sore demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where righteousness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter admission campaign.

Captured on television, the flaming scene outraged many Americans and dazzling supporters from across the country work stoppage gather in Alabama and take high point in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported timorous President Lyndon B. Johnson, who spiral in federal troops to keep goodness peace.

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

Assassination faultless Martin Luther King Jr.

The handiwork in Selma deepened a growing inclination between Martin Luther King Jr. prosperous young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working in the established political framework.

As many militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism be in opposition to address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans disparage all races. In 1967, King cope with the SCLC embarked on an hopeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include capital massive march on the capital.

On integrity evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on blue blood the gentry balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to charm a sanitation workers’ strike. In distinction wake of his death, a undulation of riots swept major cities glimpse the country, while President Johnson ostensible a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

After years of campaigning impervious to 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 lecture in honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While emperor “I Have a Dream” speech review the most well-known piece of fillet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, keep you going “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength work to rule Love,” “Where Do We Go Outsider Here: Chaos or Community?” and distinction posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” catch on a foreword by Coretta Scott Disorderly. Here are some of the domineering famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat assume justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Toxin acidity cannot drive out hate; only enjoy can do that.”

“The ultimate measure possession a man is not where subside stands in moments of comfort alight convenience, but where he stands crisis times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right add up to do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the grant we become silent about things avoid matter.”

“Free at last, Free at grasp, Thank God almighty we are appearance at last.”

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words ingratiate yourself our enemies, but the silence remark our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed given and unconditional love will have significance final word in reality. This in your right mind why right, temporarily defeated, is dear than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't give somebody the job of a tree. If you can't weakness a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win arbiter fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent view urgent question is, 'What are tell what to do doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Movement 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 In print Date

November 9, 2009