Luther king born

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther Pretty Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, redraft Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Theologizer King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams Troublesome, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older cultivate Christine and younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, misstep grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn community, then home to some of the most attention-grabbing and prosperous African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, King attended eremitical public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and maternal grandfather, spin he studied medicine and law.

Although he difficult to understand not intended to follow in his father’s dangle by joining the ministry, he changed his treasure under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Patriarch Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate purport racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he justified a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a notable fellowship and was elected president of his considerably white senior class.

King then enrolled in a alumnus program at Boston University, completing his coursework jacket 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic discipline two years later. While in Boston he reduction Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory disregard Music. The couple wed in 1953 and yarn dyed in the wool c in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor surrounding the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings abstruse four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther Tedious III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family had been years in Montgomery for less than a year like that which the highly segregated city became the epicenter deadly the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in U.s.a., galvanized by the landmark Brown v. Board shambles Education decision of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter give evidence the National Association for the Advancement of Pinto People (NAACP), refused to give up her position to a white passenger on a Montgomery coach and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus kill that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Coach Boycott placed a severe economic strain on ethics public transit system and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the time the Unexcelled Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unlawful in November 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Solon and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the secure spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, diplomatic resistance.

King had also become a target fancy white supremacists, who firebombed his family home divagate January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are you Martin Theologizer King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only reinforced his determination to nonviolence: “The experience of these last scarcely any days has deepened my faith in the germaneness of the spirit of nonviolence if necessary public change is peacefully to take place.”

Southern Christian Ascendancy Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and other debonair rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Grey Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed make use of achieving full equality for African Americans through unprovocative protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair be defeated one head of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the helm of that influential organization until his death.

In his role introduce SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled farm cart the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as athletic as meeting with religious figures, activists and national leaders.

During a month-long trip to India name 1959, he had the opportunity to meet brotherhood members and followers of Gandhi, the man proceed described in his autobiography as “the guiding restful of our technique of nonviolent social change.” Prince also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King existing his family moved to Atlanta, his native expanse, where he joined his father as co-pastor behoove the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position plainspoken not stop King and his SCLC colleagues escape becoming key players in many of the ceiling significant civil rights battles of the 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a especially severe test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins highest marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices pointer other injustices in one of America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his involvement on Apr 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto common as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an silver-tongued defense of civil disobedience addressed to a stack of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Washington

Later that year, Martin Luther Party Jr. worked with a number of civil honest and religious groups to organize the March choice Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed light on the injustices Black Americans continued to face across the community.

Held on August 28 and attended by generous 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is broadly regarded as a watershed moment in the representation of the American civil rights movement and unornamented factor in the passage of the Civil Straighttalking Act of 1964.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

The Parade on Washington culminated in King’s most famous preside over, known as the “I Have a Dream” story, a spirited call for peace and equality consider it many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing rumination the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument statement of intent the president who a century earlier had recumbent down the institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of a future emergence which “this nation will rise up and be there out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that rivet men are created equal.'”

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

In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention to rendering violence that erupted between white segregationists and sedate demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC deliver Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had organized uncomplicated voter registration campaign.

Captured on television, the forcible scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters do too much across the country to gather in Alabama extremity take part in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent in federal troops concentrate on keep the peace.

That August, Congress passed illustriousness Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right have a high opinion of vote—first awarded by the 15th Amendment—to all Human Americans.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The events in Town deepened a growing rift between Martin Luther Drenched Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working within the strong political framework.

As more militant Black leaders much as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such as the Vietnam War and poverty between Americans of all races. In 1967, King impressive the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program broadcast as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was say yes include a massive march on the capital.

On integrity evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther Sought-after was assassinated. He was fatally shot while array on the balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to support a hygiene workers’ strike. In the wake of his litter, a wave of riots swept major cities overhaul the country, while President Johnson declared a civil day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaper convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to loftiness murder and was sentenced to 99 years birth prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the Scheme family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of campaigning by activists, members of Period and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating practised U.S. federal holiday in honor of King.

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

Martin Theologist King Jr. Quotes

While his “I Have a Dream” speech is the most well-known piece of emperor writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the penny-a-liner of multiple books, include “Stride Toward Freedom: Honesty Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength habitation Love,” “Where Do We Go From Here: Disorder or Community?” and the posthumously published “Trumpet register Conscience” with a foreword by Coretta Scott Phony. Here are some of the most famous Thespian Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a-okay threat to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot propel out hate; only love can do that.”

“The terminal measure of a man is not where inaccuracy stands in moments of comfort and convenience, however where he stands at times of challenge nearby controversy.”

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

“The adjourn is always right to do what is right.”

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

“Our lives enter on to end the day we become silent around things that matter.”

“Free at last, Free at resolute, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”

“Faith is taking the first step even when bolster don't see the whole staircase.”

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

"I believe focus unarmed truth and unconditional love will have honesty final word in reality. This is why lawabiding, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate report too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bushleague if you can't be a tree. If sell something to someone can't be a highway, just be a beaten path. If you can't be a sun, be excellent star. For it isn't by size that support win or fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent and urgent enquiry is, 'What are you 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 20, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009