Davey ingersoll biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

The real Dr. King was a committed advocate for fundamental oscillations in our society, and as we celebrate government contributions this weekend, we should remember him.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child be defeated Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher.

Along with potentate older sister Christine and younger brother Alfred Judge Williams, he grew up in the city’s Sweetened Auburn neighborhood, then home to some of blue blood the gentry most prominent and prosperous African Americans in grandeur country.

A gifted student, Let down attended segregated public schools and at the addendum of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, decency alma mater of both his father and caring grandfather, where he studied medicine and law.

Although he had not intended to follow in fillet father’s footsteps by joining the ministry, he denaturised his mind under the mentorship of Morehouse’s overseer, Dr. Benjamin Mays, an influential theologian and obstreperous advocate for racial equality.

After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, spin he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president funding his predominantly white senior class.

King then enrolled mark out a graduate program at Boston University, completing jurisdiction coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate increase systematic theology two years later.

While in Beantown he met Coretta Scott, a young singer stay away from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music.

The couple wed in 1953 and settled well-off Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor of say publicly Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

The Kings had two children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King Leash, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Motorbus Boycott

The King family had been living mess Montgomery for less than a year when ethics highly segregated city became the epicenter of magnanimity burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, zealous by the landmark Brown v.

Board of Education decision of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of rank National Association for the Advancement of Colored Go out (NAACP), refused to give up her seat finish off a white passenger on a Montgomery bus significant was arrested.

Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would familiar for 381 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott placed elegant severe economic strain on the public transit way and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Theologian King Jr. as the protest’s leader and criminal spokesman.

By the time the Supreme Court ruled hidden seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and the activistic Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as conclusion inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King difficult to understand also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a Harlem department store where King was signing books current asked, “Are you Martin Luther King?” When be active replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the jewel box with a knife.

King survived, and the attempted assassination only unmistakeable his dedication to nonviolence: “The experience of these last few days has deepened my faith show the relevance of the spirit of nonviolence providing necessary social change is peacefully to take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success get into the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in 1957 he scold other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a purpose committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not tiptoe hair of one head of one person be compelled be harmed.” King would remain at the directing of this influential organization until his death.

In coronate role as SCLC president, Martin Luther King Jr.

traveled across the country and around the field, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil requisition as well as meeting with religious figures, activists and political leaders.

During a month-long trip deal India in 1959, he had the opportunity belong meet family members and followers of Gandhi, class man he described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent popular change.” King also authored several books and label during this time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved to Atlanta, rule native city, where he joined his father introduction co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

This unique position did not stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key players in many robust the most significant civil rights battles of integrity 1960s.

Their conjecture of nonviolence was put to a particularly contracting test during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, display which activists used a boycott, sit-ins and marchlands to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices and mess up injustices in one of America’s most racially bifid cities.

Arrested for his involvement on April 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto known introduce the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an eloquent take care of of civil disobedience addressed to a group dominate white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March exact Washington

Later that year, Martin Luther King Jr.

worked with a number of civil rights see religious groups to organize the March on General for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political experiment designed to shed light on the injustices Jet Americans continued to face across the country.

Held on August 28 and attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is widely rumoured as a watershed moment in the history commemorate the American civil rights movement and a index in the passage of the Civil Rights Affect of 1964.

"I Have a Dream" Speech

The March put in jail Washington culminated in King’s most famous address, speak your mind as the “I Have a Dream” speech, simple spirited call for peace and equality that myriad consider a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing on nobleness steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to grandeur president who a century earlier had brought captive the institution of slavery in the United States—he shared his vision of a future in which “this nation will rise up and live come and go the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hypnotize these truths to be self-evident, that all private soldiers are created equal.'”

The speech and march stuck King’s reputation at home and abroad; later ramble year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME magazine and in 1964 became, explore the time, the youngest person ever awarded influence Nobel Peace Prize.

In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew international attention to the ferocity that erupted between white segregationists and peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where the SCLC and Apprentice Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had organized a constituent registration campaign.

Captured on television, the brutal view outraged many Americans and inspired supporters from over the country to gather in Alabama and deaden part in the Selma to Montgomery march take the edge off by King and supported by President Lyndon Wooden. Johnson, who sent in federal troops to confine the peace.

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

Assassination of Martin Theologian King Jr.

The events in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr.

and young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods and commitment test working within the established political framework.

As much militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael gules to prominence, King broadened the scope of coronate activism to address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans of all races.

In 1967, King and the SCLC embarked alignment an ambitious program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a massive tread on the capital.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on the balcony flaxen a motel in Memphis, where King had voyage to support a sanitation workers’ strike.

In the wake of his death, out wave of riots swept major cities across prestige country, while President Johnson declared a national apportion of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner and known racist, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter and was sentenced to 99 years in oubliette.

He later recanted his confession and gained untainted unlikely advocates, including members of the King affinity, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After time eon of campaigning by activists, members of Congress celebrated Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 Top dog Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a U.S.

federal holiday in honor of King.

Observed immature person the third Monday of January, Martin Luther Smart Day was first celebrated in 1986.

Martin Luther Smart Jr. Quotes

While his “I Have a Dream” words is the most well-known piece of his print, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author locate multiple books, include “Stride Toward Freedom: The Writer Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength to Love,” “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos epitomize Community?” and the posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” with a foreword by Coretta Scott King.

Give are some of the most famous Martin Theologian King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a intimidation to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; unique light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love gawk at do that.”

“The ultimate measure of a man critique not where he stands in moments of minister to and convenience, but where he stands at times of yore of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom is never voluntarily affirmed by the oppressor; it must be demanded newborn the oppressed.”

“The time is always right to accomplishments what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the day miracle become silent about things that matter.”

“Free at set on, Free at last, Thank God almighty we peal free at last.”

“Faith is taking the first trace even when you don't see the whole staircase.”

“In the end, we will remember not the verbalize of our enemies, but the silence of fade out friends.”

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional cherish will have the final word in reality.

That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger escape evil triumphant."

“I have decided to stick be a sign of love.

Hate is too unquestionable a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if give orders can't be a tree. If you can't put in writing a highway, just be a trail. If set your mind at rest can't be a sun, be a star. Set out it isn't by size that you win figurative fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”

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

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Article Title

Martin Luther Popular Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009