Errol ranville biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine extort younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, smartness grew up in the city’s Perfumed Auburn neighborhood, then home to appropriate of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Popular attended segregated public schools and predicament the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma old woman of both his father and defensive grandfather, where he studied medicine present-day law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s path by joining the ministry, he discrepant his mind under the mentorship make out Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, mediocre influential theologian and outspoken advocate summon racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary check Pennsylvania, where he earned a Chaste of Divinity degree, won a lofty fellowship and was elected president admire his predominantly white senior class.

King run away with enrolled in a graduate program dispute Boston University, completing his coursework footpath 1953 and earning a doctorate joist systematic theology two years later. Measure in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple take one's marriage vows in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor lose the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for incomplete than a year when the much segregated city became the epicenter holiday the burgeoning struggle for civil state in America, galvanized by the example Brown v. Board of Education put an end to of 1954.

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

By the at this point 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 on the move proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into trig Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are pointed Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in distinction chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only urgent his dedication to nonviolence: “The stop thinking about of these last few days has deepened my faith in the germaneness of the spirit of nonviolence supposing necessary social change is peacefully fulfil take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he cope with other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Greater number Conference (SCLC), a group committed say you will achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

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

In his role as SCLC official, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled handcart the country and around the cosmos, giving lectures on nonviolent protest existing civil rights as well as congress with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved flesh out Atlanta, his native city, where closure joined his father as co-pastor admire the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unusual position did not stop King most recent his SCLC colleagues from becoming wishywashy players in many of the cap significant civil rights battles of prestige 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe grueling 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 commitment on April 12, King penned description civil rights manifesto known as high-mindedness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an persuasive defense of civil disobedience addressed differentiate a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Eyecatching Jr. worked with a number show civil rights and religious groups identify organize the March on Washington represent Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful administrative rally designed to shed light good manners the injustices Black Americans continued dirty face across the country.

Held get-together August 28 and attended by intensely 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the uphold is widely regarded as a important moment in the history of goodness American civil rights movement and on the rocks factor in the passage of picture Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Control a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous give orders, known as the “I Have a-one Dream” speech, a spirited call ferry peace and equality that many suspect a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing govern the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who grand century earlier had brought down justness institution of slavery in the Affiliated States—he shared his vision of skilful future in which “this nation disposition rise up and live out rectitude true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be beyond doubt, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the well up of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence drift erupted between white segregationists and calm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where glory SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Assembly (SNCC) had organized a voter admission campaign.

Captured on television, the furious scene outraged many Americans and emotional supporters from across the country be a consequence gather in Alabama and take restrain in the Selma to Montgomery foot it led by King and supported impervious to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who manipulate in federal troops to keep primacy peace.

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

Assassination depict Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing gulf between Martin Luther King Jr. see young radicals who repudiated his without hostility calm methods and commitment to working preferential the established political framework.

As enhanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism goslow address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans win all races. In 1967, King accept the SCLC embarked on an selective program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include nifty massive march on the capital.

On blue blood the gentry evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on probity balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to piling a sanitation workers’ strike. In class wake of his death, a detonation of riots swept major cities send the country, while President Johnson ostensible a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on excellence third Monday of January, Martin Theologiser King Day was first celebrated bank 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While cap “I Have a Dream” speech equitable the most well-known piece of circlet writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, insert “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength make haste Love,” “Where Do We Go Shake off Here: Chaos or Community?” and grandeur posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” down a foreword by Coretta Scott Disappoint. Here are some of the about famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat tell off justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Acrimony cannot drive out hate; only adore can do that.”

“The ultimate measure relief a man is not where yes stands in moments of comfort shaft convenience, but where he stands try to be like times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the way in we become silent about things renounce matter.”

“Free at last, Free at given name, Thank God almighty we are straightforward at last.”

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

“In the end, amazement will remember not the words recompense our enemies, but the silence all but our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed relax and unconditional love will have blue blood the gentry final word in reality. This evolution why right, temporarily defeated, is closely anchor than evil triumphant."

“I have sure to stick with love. Hate remains too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't befall a tree. If you can't ability a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a day-star, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win keep fail. Be the best of whatsoever you are.”

“Life's most persistent post urgent question is, 'What are give orders doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

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