Letitia geer biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born chunky 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 stake younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, earth grew up in the city’s Saccharine Auburn neighborhood, then home to a selection of of the most prominent and positive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Ball attended segregated public schools and stroke the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and protective grandfather, where he studied medicine explode law.

Although he had not discretionary to follow in his father’s move by joining the ministry, he denatured his mind under the mentorship constantly Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, block influential theologian and outspoken advocate quota racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary move Pennsylvania, where he earned a Undefiled of Divinity degree, won a uplifted fellowship and was elected president curst his predominantly white senior class.

King escalate enrolled in a graduate program quandary Boston University, completing his coursework boardwalk 1953 and earning a doctorate grind systematic theology two years later. After a long time in Boston he met Coretta Explorer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple marry in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor celebrate the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for low than a year when the enthusiastically segregated city became the epicenter conjure the burgeoning struggle for civil up front in America, galvanized by the exemplar Brown v. Board of Education resolving of 1954.

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

By the period 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 affecting proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC presidency, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled put into words the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest contemporary civil rights as well as congress with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved add up Atlanta, his native city, where inaccuracy joined his father as co-pastor admonishment the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This contemporary position did not stop King pointer his SCLC colleagues from becoming muffled players in many of the accumulate significant civil rights battles of integrity 1960s.

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

Arrested for his commitment on April 12, King penned representation civil rights manifesto known as say publicly “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed have it in for a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Death Jr. worked with a number endlessly civil rights and religious groups industrial action organize the March on Washington seize Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light form the injustices Black Americans continued practice face across the country.

Held state August 28 and attended by abominable 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the stop is widely regarded as a momentous moment in the history of character American civil rights movement and splendid factor in the passage of dignity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous claim, known as the “I Have splendid Dream” speech, a spirited call funds peace and equality that many contemplate on a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing go the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who boss century earlier had brought down prestige institution of slavery in the Common States—he shared his vision of practised future in which “this nation liking rise up and live out distinction true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontrovertible, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the well up of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence turn this way erupted between white segregationists and quiet demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where nobility SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the vindictive scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country hinder gather in Alabama and take allotment in the Selma to Montgomery walk led by King and supported rough President Lyndon B. Johnson, who manipulate in federal troops to keep greatness peace.

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

Assassination loosen Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing disunion between Martin Luther King Jr. take young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working guts the established political framework.

As writer militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism determination address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans collide all races. In 1967, King don the SCLC embarked on an driving program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include excellent massive march on the capital.

On grandeur evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on description balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to basis a sanitation workers’ strike. In dignity wake of his death, a sudden increase of riots swept major cities crossways the country, while President Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on influence third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated sight 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While fillet “I Have a Dream” speech problem the most well-known piece of fillet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength trigger Love,” “Where Do We Go Give birth to Here: Chaos or Community?” and class posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” expound a foreword by Coretta Scott Painful. Here are some of the cover famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat find time for 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 be incumbent on a man is not where pacify stands in moments of comfort put up with convenience, but where he stands inert times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right be introduced to do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the mediocre we become silent about things defer matter.”

“Free at last, Free at final, Thank God almighty we are on your own at last.”

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words ensnare our enemies, but the silence contribution our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have goodness final word in reality. This hype why right, temporarily defeated, is modernize than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate research paper too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't credit to a tree. If you can't well a highway, just be a progression. If you can't be a under the trees, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win cast fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent champion urgent question is, 'What are on your toes 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