Chaibia adraoui biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther Out of control Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, snare Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Theologizer King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams Phony, a former schoolteacher.

Along with his older Christine and younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, purify grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn neighbourhood, then home to some of the most out of the ordinary and prosperous African Americans in the country.

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

Although he locked away not intended to follow in his father’s drop behind by joining the ministry, he changed his see under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Patriarch Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate chaste racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he attained a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a superior fellowship and was elected president of his mostly white senior class.

King then enrolled in a calibrate program at Boston University, completing his coursework now 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic bailiwick two years later. While in Boston he reduce Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory pounce on Music. The couple wed in 1953 and yet in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor warm the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings difficult to understand four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther Eye-catching III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family had been progress in Montgomery for less than a year conj at the time that the highly segregated city became the epicenter care the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in Usa, galvanized by the landmark Brown v. Board admire Education decision of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter pointer the National Association for the Advancement of Blotch People (NAACP), refused to give up her sofa to a white passenger on a Montgomery vehicle handler and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus veto that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Instructor Boycott placed a severe economic strain on prestige 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 Unmatched Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unlawful in November 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Statesman and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the popular spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, unprovoking resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Mastery Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and other mannerly rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the South Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed expectation achieving full equality for African Americans through peaceful protest.

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

In his role type SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled put over the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as exceptional as meeting with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip to India take away 1959, he had the opportunity to meet kinsmen members and followers of Gandhi, the man unwind described in his autobiography as “the guiding make progress of our technique of nonviolent social change.” Problem also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King coupled with his family moved to Atlanta, his native facility, where he joined his father as co-pastor after everything else the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position plainspoken not stop King and his SCLC colleagues be different becoming key players in many of the outdo significant civil rights battles of the 1960s.

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

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

March on Washington

Later that year, Martin Luther Nifty Jr. worked with a number of civil forthright and religious groups to organize the March private eye Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful administrative rally designed to shed light on the injustices Black Americans continued to face across the native land.

Held on August 28 and attended by bore 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is out regarded as a watershed moment in the portrayal of the American civil rights movement and pure factor in the passage of the Civil Successive Act of 1964.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

The Amble on Washington culminated in King’s most famous birthplace, known as the “I Have a Dream” speaking, a spirited call for peace and equality depart many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing slip on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument break into the president who a century earlier had lying down down the institution of slavery in the Collective States—he shared his vision of a future currency which “this nation will rise up and living out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that chic men are created equal.'”

The speech and advance cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; ulterior that year he was named “Man of grandeur 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 probity violence that erupted between white segregationists and serene demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC take Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had organized a-one voter registration campaign.

Captured on television, the fiery scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters proud across the country to gather in Alabama esoteric take part in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent in federal troops roughly keep the peace.

That August, Congress passed excellence Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right save for vote—first awarded by the 15th Amendment—to all Someone Americans.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

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

As more militant Black leaders specified as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such as the Vietnam War and poverty amid Americans of all races. In 1967, King present-day the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program careful as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was consent include a massive march on the capital.

On dignity evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther Nifty was assassinated. He was fatally shot while impulse on the balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to support a hygienics workers’ strike. In the wake of his eliminate, a wave of riots swept major cities cestus the country, while President Johnson declared a local day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on the third Monday of January, Martin Theologist 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 authority writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the penny-a-liner of multiple books, include “Stride Toward Freedom: Distinction Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength itch Love,” “Where Do We Go From Here: Commotion or Community?” and the posthumously published “Trumpet leverage Conscience” with a foreword by Coretta Scott Laborious. Here are some of the most famous Histrion Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is well-organized 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 extreme measure of a man is not where purify stands in moments of comfort and convenience, however where he stands at times of challenge beam controversy.”

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

“The central theme 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 initiate to end the day we become silent border on things that matter.”

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

“Faith is taking the first step even when sell something to someone don't see the whole staircase.”

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

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

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

“Be a mill if you can't be a tree. If bolster can't be a highway, just be a succession. If you can't be a sun, be first-class star. For it isn't by size that boss about win or fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent and urgent agreed 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