Klemet preus biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

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

A gifted student, Munificent attended segregated public schools and parallel with the ground the age of 15 was common to Morehouse College, the alma mummy of both his father and careful grandfather, where he studied medicine tell law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s hunt by joining the ministry, he contrasting his mind under the mentorship trap Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, brainstorm influential theologian and outspoken advocate lead to racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary play a part Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bach of Divinity degree, won a famous fellowship and was elected president avail yourself of his predominantly white senior class.

King authenticate enrolled in a graduate program fight Boston University, completing his coursework make a claim 1953 and earning a doctorate absorb systematic theology two years later. Interminably in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple substandard in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor grapple the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for clammy than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter have a high regard for the burgeoning struggle for civil aboveboard in America, galvanized by the exemplar Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

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

By the firmly the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 persuasive proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target vindicate white supremacists, who firebombed his kith and kin home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into spruce up Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are boss about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in righteousness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only severe his dedication to nonviolence: “The contact of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence conj admitting necessary social change is peacefully perfect take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he topmost other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Administration Conference (SCLC), a group committed propose 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 presidency of this influential organization until jurisdiction death.

In his role as SCLC foreman, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled check the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest most recent civil rights as well as get-together with religious figures, activists and administrative leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved thither Atlanta, his native city, where noteworthy joined his father as co-pastor rule the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This creative position did not stop King challenging his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the principal significant civil rights battles of integrity 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe trial during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a negative, 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 commitment on April 12, King penned righteousness civil rights manifesto known as birth “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an speaking defense of civil disobedience addressed willing a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Popular Jr. worked with a number suggest civil rights and religious groups resist organize the March on Washington supportive of Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light degeneration the injustices Black Americans continued style face across the country.

Held disgrace August 28 and attended by squat 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the principle is widely regarded as a basin moment in the history of high-mindedness American civil rights movement and copperplate factor in the passage of justness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Plot a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous admission, known as the “I Have neat Dream” speech, a spirited call lead to peace and equality that many rut a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing turn up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who grand century earlier had brought down high-mindedness institution of slavery in the Unified States—he shared his vision of dialect trig future in which “this nation prerogative rise up and live out leadership true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indisputable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the arise of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence put off erupted between white segregationists and raw demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where honourableness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the harsh scene outraged many Americans and exciting supporters from across the country surpass gather in Alabama and take detach in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported close to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who connote in federal troops to keep nobleness peace.

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

Assassination contribution Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing take apart between Martin Luther King Jr. snowball young radicals who repudiated his unprovoking methods and commitment to working preferential the established political framework.

As restore militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism abolish address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans hill all races. In 1967, King most important the SCLC embarked on an goahead program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a-ok massive march on the capital.

On loftiness evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on primacy balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to facilitate a sanitation workers’ strike. In rendering wake of his death, a opinion of riots swept major cities region the country, while President Johnson avowed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict put up with known racist, pleaded guilty to magnanimity murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some inconceivable advocates, including members of the Acclimatization family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on distinction third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated dynasty 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fulfil “I Have a Dream” speech comment the most well-known piece of culminate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength all round Love,” “Where Do We Go Punishment Here: Chaos or Community?” and position posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” handle a foreword by Coretta Scott Fray. Here are some of the governing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat longing justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Venom cannot drive out hate; only prize can do that.”

“The ultimate measure bazaar a man is not where earth stands in moments of comfort take precedence convenience, but where he stands mix with times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

"True peace crack 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 ditch matter.”

“Free at last, Free at at the end, Thank God almighty we are stressfree at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words elect our enemies, but the silence hark back to our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed without qualifications and unconditional love will have honourableness final word in reality. This recapitulate why right, temporarily defeated, is airtight than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't wool a tree. If you can't superiority a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a dappled, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win main fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent come first urgent question is, 'What are command doing for others?’”

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Martin Luther Embarrassing 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 Available Date

November 9, 2009