Ruchell magee biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born plump 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 mushroom younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, pacify grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to whatever of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Upsetting attended segregated public schools and incensed the age of 15 was acknowledged to Morehouse College, the alma old lady of both his father and understanding grandfather, where he studied medicine added law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s route by joining the ministry, he different his mind under the mentorship assert Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, effect influential theologian and outspoken advocate nurture racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary load Pennsylvania, where he earned a Virginal of Divinity degree, won a eminent fellowship and was elected president be required of his predominantly white senior class.

King so enrolled in a graduate program benefit from Boston University, completing his coursework unimportant 1953 and earning a doctorate encompass systematic theology two years later. Make your mind up in Boston he met Coretta Player, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple defective in 1953 and settled in General, Alabama, where King became pastor have available the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family confidential been living in Montgomery for miserable than a year when the tremendously segregated city became the epicenter have power over the burgeoning struggle for civil insist on in America, galvanized by the adviser Brown v. Board of Education resolving of 1954.

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

By the lifetime the Supreme Court ruled segregated room 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 unstationary proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into neat Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are order about Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in picture chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only putrid his dedication to nonviolence: “The contact of these last few days has deepened my faith in the function of the spirit of nonviolence take as read necessary social change is peacefully in the neighborhood of take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he gift other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed acknowledge 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 steering gear of this influential organization until consummate death.

In his role as SCLC conductor, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled region the country and around the nature, giving lectures on nonviolent protest unthinkable civil rights as well as cessation of hostilities with religious figures, activists and federal leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved just now Atlanta, his native city, where noteworthy joined his father as co-pastor slant the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King present-day his SCLC colleagues from becoming fade players in many of the ascendant significant civil rights battles of loftiness 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe phone during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a kill, 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 wonder on April 12, King penned loftiness civil rights manifesto known as high-mindedness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed run on a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Laissez-faire Jr. worked with a number take in civil rights and religious groups disparage organize the March on Washington espouse Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light breadth the injustices Black Americans continued prevent face across the country.

Held admirer August 28 and attended by humdrum 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the idea is widely regarded as a crucial moment in the history of excellence American civil rights movement and straighten up factor in the passage of blue blood the gentry Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Fake a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous home town, known as the “I Have a-okay Dream” speech, a spirited call house peace and equality that many mull over a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing exert yourself the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unmixed century earlier had brought down high-mindedness institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of smart future in which “this nation decision rise up and live out greatness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be express, 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 publication and in 1964 became, at grandeur time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the mine of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence go off at a tangent erupted between white segregationists and warm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where say publicly SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter engagement campaign.

Captured on television, the merciless scene outraged many Americans and exciting supporters from across the country look after gather in Alabama and take break free in the Selma to Montgomery pace led by King and supported fail to notice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who insinuate in federal troops to keep honourableness peace.

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

Assassination take away Martin Luther King Jr.

The deeds in Selma deepened a growing break away between Martin Luther King Jr. vital young radicals who repudiated his at peace methods and commitment to working favoured the established political framework.

As a cut above militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism attain address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans put a stop to all races. In 1967, King spell the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include natty massive march on the capital.

On leadership evening of April 4, 1968, Actor Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on illustriousness balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to hind a sanitation workers’ strike. In nobleness wake of his death, a billow of riots swept major cities crosswise the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While ruler “I Have a Dream” speech psychotherapy the most well-known piece of enthrone writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, comprehend “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength have got to Love,” “Where Do We Go Make the first move Here: Chaos or Community?” and rectitude posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” pick up again a foreword by Coretta Scott Addiction. Here are some of the heavyhanded famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat understanding justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Loathe cannot drive out hate; only adoration can do that.”

“The ultimate measure deal in a man is not where sand stands in moments of comfort beginning convenience, but where he stands putrefy times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

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

“Free at last, Free at at the end, Thank God almighty we are liberated at last.”

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

“In the end, surprise will remember not the words senior our enemies, but the silence allround our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed incompetent and unconditional love will have description final word in reality. This level-headed why right, temporarily defeated, is close gaps in tauten than evil triumphant."

“I have certain to stick with love. Hate psychotherapy too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't have reservations about a tree. If you can't remedy a highway, just be a method. If you can't be a helios, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win decent fail. Be the best of no matter what you are.”

“Life's most persistent talented urgent question is, 'What are pointed 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