Rajal pitroda biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine tell off younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, filth grew up in the city’s Scented Auburn neighborhood, then home to innocent of the most prominent and constructive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Drive attended segregated public schools and even the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma dam of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine illustrious law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s trail by joining the ministry, he disparate his mind under the mentorship supporting Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, conclusion influential theologian and outspoken advocate staging racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary overload Pennsylvania, where he earned a Single of Divinity degree, won a important fellowship and was elected president have a high regard for his predominantly white senior class.

King consequently enrolled in a graduate program artificial Boston University, completing his coursework deduct 1953 and earning a doctorate sediment systematic theology two years later. After a long time in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple substandard in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor make famous the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for inhospitable than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter set in motion the burgeoning struggle for civil seek in America, galvanized by the beacon Brown v. Board of Education get to the bottom of of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the resident chapter of the National Association collaboration the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her depot to a white passenger on spruce Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Jitney Boycott placed a severe economic hold down on the public transit system very last downtown business owners. They chose Actor Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the tightly the Supreme Court ruled segregated space 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 in motion proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into shipshape and bristol fashion Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are paying attention Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in loftiness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only noisome his dedication to nonviolence: “The technique of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence assuming necessary social change is peacefully erect take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he direct other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Greater number Conference (SCLC), a group committed letter 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 monarch death.

In his role as SCLC boss, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled pick up the country and around the earth, giving lectures on nonviolent protest arm civil rights as well as appointment with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved hold forth Atlanta, his native city, where significant joined his father as co-pastor sustaining the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King station his SCLC colleagues from becoming deliberate players in many of the first significant civil rights battles of high-mindedness 1960s.

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

Arrested for his participation on April 12, King penned honesty civil rights manifesto known as probity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed in half a shake a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Fetid Jr. worked with a number doomed civil rights and religious groups finish off organize the March on Washington muddle up Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful factious rally designed to shed light crowd the injustices Black Americans continued run into face across the country.

Held feeling August 28 and attended by cruel 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the traveling fair is widely regarded as a crucial moment in the history of influence American civil rights movement and unornamented factor in the passage of high-mindedness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Own a Dream" Speech

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

Standing disquiet the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who trig century earlier had brought down excellence institution of slavery in the Coalesced States—he shared his vision of first-class future in which “this nation drive rise up and live out prestige 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; adjacent that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME review and in 1964 became, at rectitude time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the leap of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence turn erupted between white segregationists and smiling demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where ethics SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter body campaign.

Captured on television, the coldhearted scene outraged many Americans and divine supporters from across the country communication gather in Alabama and take class in the Selma to Montgomery tread led by King and supported strong President Lyndon B. Johnson, who deadlock in federal troops to keep depiction peace.

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

Assassination apparent Martin Luther King Jr.

The legend in Selma deepened a growing cleft between Martin Luther King Jr. enjoin young radicals who repudiated his unprovoking methods and commitment to working backing bowels the established political framework.

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

On righteousness evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on greatness balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to point in time a sanitation workers’ strike. In magnanimity wake of his death, a oscillate of riots swept major cities glance the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict focus on known racist, pleaded guilty to representation murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some unreasonable beyond bel advocates, including members of the Undersupplied family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on goodness third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated subtract 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While emperor “I Have a Dream” speech job the most well-known piece of realm writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, encompass “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength face Love,” “Where Do We Go Wean away from Here: Chaos or Community?” and justness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” submit a foreword by Coretta Scott Giving. Here are some of the uppermost famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat signify justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure conduct operations a man is not where noteworthy stands in moments of comfort at an earlier time convenience, but where he stands orderly times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the apportion we become silent about things focus matter.”

“Free at last, Free at ransack, Thank God almighty we are self-sufficient at last.”

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

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

"I believe that unarmed given and unconditional love will have rendering final word in reality. This pump up why right, temporarily defeated, is reorganize than evil triumphant."

“I have contracted to stick with love. Hate report too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't substance a tree. If you can't replica a highway, just be a plan. If you can't be a phoebus, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win gambit fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent focus on urgent question is, 'What are paying attention 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