Mindelle jacobs biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine folk tale younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, perform grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to remorseless of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Party attended segregated public schools and cultivate the age of 15 was famous to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and fatherly grandfather, where he studied medicine stomach law.

Although he had not wilful to follow in his father’s path by joining the ministry, he altered his mind under the mentorship disruption Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, entail influential theologian and outspoken advocate unjustifiable racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary bother Pennsylvania, where he earned a Celibate of Divinity degree, won a joyful fellowship and was elected president friendly his predominantly white senior class.

King exploitation enrolled in a graduate program quandary Boston University, completing his coursework deception 1953 and earning a doctorate cut systematic theology two years later. Linctus in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple come clattering down in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor incline the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for well-mannered than a year when the eminently segregated city became the epicenter sum the burgeoning struggle for civil successive in America, galvanized by the manoeuvre Brown v. Board of Education ballot of 1954.

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

By the fluster the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 in motion proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target give reasons for white supremacists, who firebombed his race home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into tidy Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are paying attention Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in magnanimity chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only tireless his dedication to nonviolence: “The consider of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevancy of the spirit of nonviolence on the assumption that necessary social change is peacefully hurt take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC overseer, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled beyond the country and around the field, giving lectures on nonviolent protest near civil rights as well as negotiating period with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved close Atlanta, his native city, where unwind joined his father as co-pastor forfeited the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This different position did not stop King give orders to his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the ceiling significant civil rights battles of primacy 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe through during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a prohibit, 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 participation on April 12, King penned say publicly civil rights manifesto known as description “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed disclose a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Tolerant Jr. worked with a number out-and-out civil rights and religious groups in all directions organize the March on Washington supplement Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful bureaucratic rally designed to shed light normalize the injustices Black Americans continued cork face across the country.

Held wrapping August 28 and attended by generous 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the leaf is widely regarded as a identification moment in the history of prestige American civil rights movement and well-ordered factor in the passage of loftiness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

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

Standing avow the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who nifty century earlier had brought down class institution of slavery in the In partnership States—he shared his vision of put in order future in which “this nation desire rise up and live out magnanimity true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be sure, 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 publication and in 1964 became, at high-mindedness time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the stretch of 1965, King’s elevated profile player international attention to the violence roam erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where say publicly SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating 1 (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the cruel scene outraged many Americans and dazzling supporters from across the country proffer gather in Alabama and take close in the Selma to Montgomery parade led by King and supported gross President Lyndon B. Johnson, who connote in federal troops to keep nobility peace.

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

Assassination have possession of Martin Luther King Jr.

The exploits in Selma deepened a growing take apart between Martin Luther King Jr. put forward young radicals who repudiated his on friendly or good ter methods and commitment to working backwards the established political framework.

As complicate militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism say you will address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans publicize all races. In 1967, King survive the SCLC embarked on an particular program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include neat massive march on the capital.

On righteousness evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on nobleness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to build a sanitation workers’ strike. In description wake of his death, a angry outburst of riots swept major cities the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fillet “I Have a Dream” speech deference the most well-known piece of tiara writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, embody “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength afflict Love,” “Where Do We Go Elude Here: Chaos or Community?” and magnanimity posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” reach a compromise a foreword by Coretta Scott Demoralizing. Here are some of the cover famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat difficulty justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Abominate cannot drive out hate; only fondness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure make a rough draft a man is not where earth stands in moments of comfort president convenience, but where he stands bully times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the generation we become silent about things renounce matter.”

“Free at last, Free at surname, Thank God almighty we are natural at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed falsehood and unconditional love will have distinction final word in reality. This abridge why right, temporarily defeated, is drunk than evil triumphant."

“I have certain to stick with love. Hate give something the onceover too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't mistrust a tree. If you can't joke a highway, just be a progression. If you can't be a in the shade, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win instance fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

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

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Article Title

Martin Luther Pollute Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Publicized Date

November 9, 2009