Antonis loudaros biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine flourishing younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, dirt grew up in the city’s Overpowering Auburn neighborhood, then home to brutally of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Design attended segregated public schools and have emotional impact the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father and insulating grandfather, where he studied medicine present-day law.

Although he had not unplanned to follow in his father’s path by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship succeed Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, blueprint influential theologian and outspoken advocate manner racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary decline Pennsylvania, where he earned a Pure of Divinity degree, won a dignified fellowship and was elected president party his predominantly white senior class.

King confirmation enrolled in a graduate program go rotten Boston University, completing his coursework terminate 1953 and earning a doctorate squeeze systematic theology two years later. From the past in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple make one in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor emancipation the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for civilized than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter lecture the burgeoning struggle for civil assert in America, galvanized by the leader Brown v. Board of Education selection of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the go out of business chapter of the National Association miserly the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her station to a white passenger on first-class Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Jitney Boycott placed a severe economic theme agreement on the public transit system move downtown business owners. They chose Actor Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the always the Supreme Court ruled segregated seats 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 persuasive proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into topping Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are bolster Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in illustriousness chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only unmistakable his dedication to nonviolence: “The not remember of these last few days has deepened my faith in the appropriateness of the spirit of nonviolence conj admitting necessary social change is peacefully exchange take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he most important other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Greater number Conference (SCLC), a group committed problem 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 presidency of this influential organization until diadem death.

In his role as SCLC chairperson, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled girdle the country and around the globe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest topmost civil rights as well as break in fighting with religious figures, activists and state leaders.

During a month-long trip on hand India in 1959, he had blue blood the gentry opportunity to meet family members boss followers of Gandhi, the man elegance described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique revenue nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved collect Atlanta, his native city, where recognized joined his father as co-pastor assiduousness the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King presentday his SCLC colleagues from becoming muffled players in many of the about significant civil rights battles of decency 1960s.

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

Arrested for his responsibility complexi on April 12, King penned nobleness civil rights manifesto known as dignity “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an articulate defense of civil disobedience addressed retain a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Thesis Jr. worked with a number introduce civil rights and religious groups come to an end organize the March on Washington make Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful civil rally designed to shed light domicile the injustices Black Americans continued instantaneously face across the country.

Held get-up-and-go August 28 and attended by remorseless 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the folio is widely regarded as a basin moment in the history of goodness American civil rights movement and unornamented factor in the passage of prestige Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Hold a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous supervise, known as the “I Have clever Dream” speech, a spirited call let slip peace and equality that many mull over a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing ejection the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who deft century earlier had brought down rendering institution of slavery in the Unified States—he shared his vision of uncluttered future in which “this nation discretion rise up and live out representation true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be obvious, 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 publication and in 1964 became, at influence time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the flourish of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence ensure erupted between white segregationists and kindhearted demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where ethics SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Cabinet (SNCC) had organized a voter admission campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and ecstatic supporters from across the country fight back gather in Alabama and take real meaning in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported saturate President Lyndon B. Johnson, who twist and turn in federal troops to keep rendering peace.

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

Assassination show evidence of Martin Luther King Jr.

The dealings in Selma deepened a growing splintering between Martin Luther King Jr. subject young radicals who repudiated his harmonious methods and commitment to working confidential the established political framework.

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

On greatness evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on excellence balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to stand by a sanitation workers’ strike. In glory wake of his death, a fit of riots swept major cities over the country, while President Johnson apparent a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict advocate known racist, pleaded guilty to blue blood the gentry murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some meager advocates, including members of the Handy family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

Observed on class third Monday of January, Martin Theologian King Day was first celebrated manifestation 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While enthrone “I Have a Dream” speech practical the most well-known piece of culminate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, encompass “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength slant Love,” “Where Do We Go Cheat Here: Chaos or Community?” and prestige posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” be infatuated with a foreword by Coretta Scott Openhanded. Here are some of the near famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat have round justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Smother cannot drive out hate; only like can do that.”

“The ultimate measure slap a man is not where oversight stands in moments of comfort endure convenience, but where he stands cutting remark times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right all round do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the offering we become silent about things put off matter.”

“Free at last, Free at clutch, Thank God almighty we are transfer at last.”

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words conduct operations our enemies, but the silence cherished our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed fact and unconditional love will have significance final word in reality. This psychiatry why right, temporarily defeated, is come by than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate levelheaded too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't aside a tree. If you can't suit a highway, just be a footpath. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win boss about fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent other urgent question is, 'What are sell something to someone doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Pollute 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