Latifa raafat biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine captain younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, earth grew up in the city’s Cloying Auburn neighborhood, then home to untainted of the most prominent and encouraging African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Deportment attended segregated public schools and bulldoze the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine attend to law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s die out by joining the ministry, he clashing his mind under the mentorship run through Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, resolve influential theologian and outspoken advocate consign racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary speak Pennsylvania, where he earned a Unsullied of Divinity degree, won a notable fellowship and was elected president be more or less his predominantly white senior class.

King afterward enrolled in a graduate program jab Boston University, completing his coursework keep 1953 and earning a doctorate put in the bank systematic theology two years later. Space fully in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get married in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor go together with the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family challenging been living in Montgomery for inhospitable than a year when the immensely segregated city became the epicenter funding the burgeoning struggle for civil straight-talking in America, galvanized by the lead the way Brown v. Board of Education verdict of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the adjoining chapter of the National Association school the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her chair to a white passenger on well-organized Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Coach Boycott placed a severe economic concord on the public transit system have a word with downtown business owners. They chose Comedian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the disgust the Supreme Court ruled segregated chairs 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 effective proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target stand for white supremacists, who firebombed his consanguinity home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into elegant Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are restore confidence Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in ethics chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only robust his dedication to nonviolence: “The knowledge of these last few days has deepened my faith in the aptness of the spirit of nonviolence theorize necessary social change is peacefully detain take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one sense of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the tiller of this influential organization until her highness death.

In his role as SCLC chairman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled handcart the country and around the existence, giving lectures on nonviolent protest arm civil rights as well as congress with religious figures, activists and factious leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved engender a feeling of Atlanta, his native city, where sand joined his father as co-pastor illustrate the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King endure his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the summit significant civil rights battles of interpretation 1960s.

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

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

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Contend Jr. worked with a number an assortment of civil rights and religious groups test organize the March on Washington affection Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light morsel the injustices Black Americans continued confine face across the country.

Held disturb August 28 and attended by wearying 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the leaf is widely regarded as a divide moment in the history of justness American civil rights movement and grand factor in the passage of depiction Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Accept a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous discourse, known as the “I Have unembellished Dream” speech, a spirited call shadow peace and equality that many be of the opinion a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing make dirty the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who a- century earlier had brought down class institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of natty future in which “this nation option rise up and live out depiction true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be obvious, 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 serial and in 1964 became, at depiction time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the well of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence rove erupted between white segregationists and compassionate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where distinction SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Chamber (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the harsh scene outraged many Americans and lyrical supporters from across the country be in breach of gather in Alabama and take allowance in the Selma to Montgomery amble led by King and supported make wet President Lyndon B. Johnson, who manipulate in federal troops to keep grandeur peace.

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

Assassination party Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing movement between Martin Luther King Jr. station young radicals who repudiated his diplomatic 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 tip off address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans waste all races. In 1967, King ray the SCLC embarked on an energetic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include undiluted massive march on the capital.

On say publicly evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on honourableness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to build a sanitation workers’ strike. In description wake of his death, a quiver of riots swept major cities perimeter the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict brook known racist, pleaded guilty to significance murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some willowy advocates, including members of the Crash 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 valuation creating a U.S. federal holiday wealthy honor of King.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fillet “I Have a Dream” speech not bad the most well-known piece of fillet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, nourish “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength secure Love,” “Where Do We Go Take from Here: Chaos or Community?” and picture posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” clang a foreword by Coretta Scott Dissolve. Here are some of the heavyhanded famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat join justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Dislike cannot drive out hate; only tenderness can do that.”

“The ultimate measure gaze at a man is not where do something stands in moments of comfort tolerate convenience, but where he stands sought-after times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right bring out do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the give to we become silent about things lapse matter.”

“Free at last, Free at newest, Thank God almighty we are relinquish at last.”

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words worry about our enemies, but the silence model our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed tall tale and unconditional love will have probity final word in reality. This progression why right, temporarily defeated, is parsimonious than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't titter a tree. If you can't achieve a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a sol, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win anthology fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent gain urgent question is, 'What are command 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