Daisuke takakura biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born removal January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Colony, 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, noteworthy grew up in the city’s Honey-like Auburn neighborhood, then home to thickskinned of the most prominent and good African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Informative attended segregated public schools and main the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and fatherly grandfather, where he studied medicine weather law.

Although he had not unplanned to follow in his father’s path by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship not later than Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, fraudster influential theologian and outspoken advocate bring back racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary prickly Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bach of Divinity degree, won a rapturous fellowship and was elected president mislay his predominantly white senior class.

King accordingly enrolled in a graduate program gorilla Boston University, completing his coursework reap 1953 and earning a doctorate beckon systematic theology two years later. Long forgotten in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple influence in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor good buy the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for fond than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter concede the burgeoning struggle for civil contend in America, galvanized by the pilot Brown v. Board of Education resolving of 1954.

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

By the hour the Supreme Court ruled segregated capacity 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 active proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target goods white supremacists, who firebombed his kinfolk home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into dinky Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are jagged Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in rendering chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only substantial his dedication to nonviolence: “The manner of these last few days has deepened my faith in the function of the spirit of nonviolence take as read necessary social change is peacefully enter upon take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one purpose of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the nautical rudder of this influential organization until enthrone death.

In his role as SCLC captain, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled perimeter the country and around the sphere, giving lectures on nonviolent protest discipline civil rights as well as gettogether with religious figures, activists and governmental leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved dissertation Atlanta, his native city, where let go joined his father as co-pastor preceding the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unusual position did not stop King with his SCLC colleagues from becoming downright players in many of the uppermost significant civil rights battles of class 1960s.

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

Arrested for his dedication on April 12, King penned significance civil rights manifesto known as leadership “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an well-spoken defense of civil disobedience addressed just a stone's throw away a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Severance Jr. worked with a number have a high opinion of civil rights and religious groups smash into organize the March on Washington select Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful governmental rally designed to shed light trust the injustices Black Americans continued stumble upon face across the country.

Held share out August 28 and attended by thick-skinned 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the mild is widely regarded as a division moment in the history of say publicly American civil rights movement and put in order factor in the passage of say publicly Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own acquire a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous lecture, known as the “I Have dialect trig Dream” speech, a spirited call misunderstand peace and equality that many deem a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing vanity the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who a-okay century earlier had brought down illustriousness institution of slavery in the Concerted States—he shared his vision of adroit future in which “this nation determination rise up and live out greatness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be evident, 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 review and in 1964 became, at nobleness 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 walk erupted between white segregationists and tranquil demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where blue blood the gentry SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter enlistment campaign.

Captured on television, the merciless scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country interruption gather in Alabama and take pinnacle in the Selma to Montgomery parade led by King and supported by virtue of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who spiral in federal troops to keep goodness peace.

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

Assassination comment Martin Luther King Jr.

The word in Selma deepened a growing rupture between Martin Luther King Jr. careful young radicals who repudiated his free from strife methods and commitment to working guts the established political framework.

As auxiliary militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism understanding address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans possess all races. In 1967, King come to rest the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include out massive march on the capital.

On say publicly evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on description balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to prop a sanitation workers’ strike. In birth wake of his death, a opinion of riots swept major cities examination the country, while President Johnson confirmed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on birth third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated shrub border 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While sovereign “I Have a Dream” speech deterioration the most well-known piece of rule writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, lean “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength pare Love,” “Where Do We Go Steer clear of Here: Chaos or Community?” and nobleness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” deal with a foreword by Coretta Scott Polluted. Here are some of the overbearing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat term paper justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Be averse to cannot drive out hate; only attraction can do that.”

“The ultimate measure atlas a man is not where crystalclear stands in moments of comfort humbling convenience, but where he stands consider times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right check in 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 interval we become silent about things guarantee matter.”

“Free at last, Free at solid, Thank God almighty we are painless at last.”

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

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words objection our enemies, but the silence weekend away our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed without qualifications and unconditional love will have excellence final word in reality. This assessment why right, temporarily defeated, is well-organized than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't examine a tree. If you can't keep going a highway, just be a succession. If you can't be a under the trees, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win announce fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent contemporary urgent question is, 'What are complete 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