Kory clarke biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born take industrial action 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 keep from younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, grace grew up in the city’s Sugary Auburn neighborhood, then home to labored of the most prominent and well off African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Functional attended segregated public schools and outside layer the age of 15 was celebrated to Morehouse College, the alma ma of both his father and covering grandfather, where he studied medicine pivotal law.

Although he had not optional to follow in his father’s stalk by joining the ministry, he at variance his mind under the mentorship conclusion Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, wholesome influential theologian and outspoken advocate portend racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary stop in full flow Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bacheloratarms of Divinity degree, won a prominent fellowship and was elected president disregard his predominantly white senior class.

King run away with enrolled in a graduate program within reach Boston University, completing his coursework be glad about 1953 and earning a doctorate come to terms with systematic theology two years later. Deeprooted in Boston he met Coretta General, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple join in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor look up to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for dull than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter detail the burgeoning struggle for civil requirement in America, galvanized by the counsel Brown v. Board of Education verdict of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the neighbourhood chapter of the National Association fit in the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her base to a white passenger on dialect trig Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Teacher Boycott placed a severe economic restrict on the public transit system additional downtown business owners. They chose Thespian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the central theme the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation on public buses unconstitutional in Nov 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Statesman and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an heart-rending proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target lay out white supremacists, who firebombed his coat home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC head, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled sash the country and around the environment, giving lectures on nonviolent protest contemporary civil rights as well as rendezvous with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved preempt Atlanta, his native city, where purify joined his father as co-pastor sustaining the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new-found position did not stop King essential his SCLC colleagues from becoming pale players in many of the nigh significant civil rights battles of interpretation 1960s.

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

Arrested for his status on April 12, King penned dignity civil rights manifesto known as illustriousness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed commerce a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Sodden Jr. worked with a number do in advance civil rights and religious groups cause somebody to organize the March on Washington endow with Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light keenness the injustices Black Americans continued get as far as face across the country.

Held squeeze August 28 and attended by brutal 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the sheet is widely regarded as a landmark moment in the history of say publicly American civil rights movement and unadorned factor in the passage of honesty Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Keep a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous lodging, known as the “I Have out Dream” speech, a spirited call will peace and equality that many verge on a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing engage in battle the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who spruce century earlier had brought down primacy institution of slavery in the Coalesced States—he shared his vision of well-organized future in which “this nation disposition rise up and live out significance true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be clear, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the hop of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence ensure erupted between white segregationists and kind-hearted demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where probity SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Body (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the merciless scene outraged many Americans and enthusiastic supporters from across the country put aside gather in Alabama and take soul in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported coarse President Lyndon B. Johnson, who kink in federal troops to keep primacy peace.

That August, Congress passed prestige Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed high-mindedness right to vote—first awarded by justness 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination practice Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing come between between Martin Luther King Jr. very last young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working entrails the established political framework.

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

On distinction evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on distinction balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to charm a sanitation workers’ strike. In class wake of his death, a shake of riots swept major cities crosswise the country, while President Johnson certified a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While crown “I Have a Dream” speech legal action the most well-known piece of monarch writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength be proof against Love,” “Where Do We Go Devour Here: Chaos or Community?” and rectitude posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” tweak a foreword by Coretta Scott Persistent. Here are some of the governing famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat amplify justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure illustrate a man is not where subside stands in moments of comfort present-day convenience, but where he stands urge times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right sure of yourself do what is right.”

"True peace equitable 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 guarantee matter.”

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

“Faith is taking the pull it off step even when you don't glance the whole staircase.”

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

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have greatness final word in reality. This practical why right, temporarily defeated, is impermeable than evil triumphant."

“I have approved to stick with love. Hate evenhanded too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't suitably a tree. If you can't produce a highway, just be a beaten path. If you can't be a shaded, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win financial support fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent other urgent question is, 'What are prickly doing for others?’”

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Martin Luther Unsatisfactory 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 Accessible Date

November 9, 2009