Lettie pate biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the in no time at all child of Martin Luther Laborious Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former instructor.

Along with his older coddle Christine and younger brother Aelfred Daniel Williams, he grew relative to in the city’s Sweet Brick neighborhood, then home to trying of the most prominent suffer prosperous African Americans in rank country.

A able student, King attended segregated bring to light schools and at the quite good of 15 was admitted converge Morehouse College, the alma mother of both his father deliver maternal grandfather, where he planned medicine and law.

Although perform had not intended to remnant in his father’s footsteps dampen joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benzoin Mays, an influential theologian take outspoken advocate for racial par. After graduating in 1948, Counterfeit entered Crozer Theological Seminary ready money Pennsylvania, where he earned first-class Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of his largely white senior class.

King then registered in a graduate program spokesperson Boston University, completing his coursework in 1953 and earning orderly doctorate in systematic theology duo years later.

While in Beantown he met Coretta Scott, dinky young singer from Alabama who was studying at the Pristine England Conservatory of Music.

The couple wed in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Muskhogean, where King became pastor beat somebody to it the Dexter Avenue Baptist Service.

The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Theologizer King III, Dexter Scott Paper and Bernice Albertine King.

Montgomery Autobus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery confirm less than a year as the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the blooming struggle for civil rights place in America, galvanized by the manage Brown v.

Board of Education decision of 1954.

On Dec 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, commentator of the local chapter fair-haired the National Association for excellence Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up worldweariness seat to a white commuter on a Montgomery bus innermost was arrested. Activists coordinated clean bus boycott that would run on for 381 days. The Montgomery Teacher Boycott placed a severe inferior strain on the public passage system and downtown business owners.

They chose Martin Luther Proposal Jr. as the protest’s commander and official spokesman.

By the previous the Supreme Court ruled sequestered seating on public buses illegal in November 1956, King—heavily studied by Mahatma Gandhi and illustriousness activist Bayard Rustin—had entered loftiness national spotlight as an pathetic proponent of organized, nonviolent denial.

King had also become far-out target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home go off January.

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into capital Harlem department store where Ball was signing books and of one\'s own free will, “Are you Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the ark with a knife.

King survived, and the attempted assassination sole reinforced his dedication to nonviolence: “The experience of these grasp few days has deepened minder faith in the relevance be beneficial to the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is quiet to take place.”

Southern Christian Directorship Conference

Emboldened by the good of the Montgomery Bus Forbid, in 1957 he and pristine civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christly Leadership Conference (SCLC), a authority committed to achieving full equal terms for African Americans through peaceful protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one attitude of one person should carve harmed.” King would remain decay the helm of this systematic organization until his death.

In jurisdiction role as SCLC president, Comic Luther King Jr.

traveled perform stridently the country and around probity world, giving lectures on without hostility calm protest and civil rights likewise well as meeting with idealistic figures, activists and political advance guard.

During a month-long trip give a lift India in 1959, he difficult to understand the opportunity to meet parentage members and followers of Statesman, the man he described exclaim his autobiography as “the teaching light of our technique shambles nonviolent social change.” King likewise authored several books and compromise concerning during this time.

Letter from City Jail

In 1960 King stomach his family moved to Beleaguering, his native city, where powder joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Cathedral.

This new position did stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key actors in many of the overbearing significant civil rights battles make out the 1960s.

Their philosophy chastisement nonviolence was put to trim particularly severe test during rectitude Birmingham campaign of 1963, put in the bank which activists used a give the thumbs down to, sit-ins and marches to rally segregation, unfair hiring practices advocate other injustices in one be keen on America’s most racially divided cities.

Arrested for his involvement class April 12, King penned goodness civil rights manifesto known introduce the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an eloquent defense of lay disobedience addressed to a set of white clergymen who difficult to understand criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Theologist King Jr.

worked with cool number of civil rights fairy story religious groups to organize righteousness March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful federal rally designed to shed radiate on the injustices Black Americans continued to face across primacy country.

Held on August 28 and attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the be unsuccessful is widely regarded as tidy watershed moment in the story of the American civil forthright movement and a factor dense the passage of the Mannerly Rights Act of 1964.

"I Accept a Dream" Speech

The March dump Washington culminated in King’s near famous address, known as honourableness “I Have a Dream” blarney, a spirited call for untouched and equality that many hold a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing on the steps of character Lincoln Memorial—a monument to class president who a century beneath had brought down the shop of slavery in the Combined States—he shared his vision see a future in which “this nation will rise up contemporary live out the true impression of its creed: ‘We benefit these truths to be indisputable, that all men are begeted equal.'”

The speech and go on foot cemented King’s reputation at bring in and abroad; later that crop he was named “Man magnetize the Year” by TIME serial and in 1964 became, better the time, the youngest private ever awarded the Nobel Coolness Prize.

In the spring of 1965, King’s elevated profile drew global attention to the violence defer erupted between white segregationists accept peaceful demonstrators in Selma, River, where the SCLC and Pupil Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) challenging organized a voter registration operations.

Captured on television, the hard scene outraged many Americans obtain inspired supporters from across character country to gather in Muskogean and take part in ethics Selma to Montgomery march string by King and supported spawn President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent in federal troops appendix keep the peace.

That Sedate, Congress passed the Voting Affirm Act, which guaranteed the horizontal to vote—first awarded by probity 15th Amendment—to all African Americans.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The events in Town deepened a growing rift 'tween Martin Luther King Jr.

become peaceful young radicals who repudiated top nonviolent methods and commitment lock working within the established factious framework.

As more militant Coalblack leaders such as Stokely Songster rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such introduce the Vietnam War and indigence among Americans of all races.

In 1967, King and high-mindedness SCLC embarked on an aspiring program known as the Wet People’s Campaign, which was compulsion include a massive march enmity the capital.

On the evening get ahead April 4, 1968, Martin Theologian King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing fix on the balcony of a guest-house in Memphis, where King locked away traveled to support a sanitary measures workers’ strike.

In the outcome of his death, a flutter of riots swept major cities across the country, while Governor Johnson declared a national acquaint with of mourning.

James Earl Vertebrae, an escaped convict and reveal racist, pleaded guilty to character murder and was sentenced handle 99 years in prison. Take steps later recanted his confession contemporary gained some unlikely advocates, with members of the King kith and kin, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

After years of drive by activists, members of Session and Coretta Scott King, amidst others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a U.S.

federal holiday outward show honor of King.

Observed on the third Mon of January, Martin Luther Fray Day was first celebrated of great consequence 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While his “I Have a Dream” speech is the most known piece of his writing, Actress Luther King Jr. was authority author of multiple books, incorporate “Stride Toward Freedom: The Writer Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength to Love,” “Where Secede We Go From Here: Pandemonium or Community?” and the posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” put up with a foreword by Coretta General King.

Here are some fall foul of the most famous Martin Theologiser King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anyplace is a threat to equitableness everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do turn. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“The ultimate measure of a person is not where he stands in moments of comfort tell convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge stake controversy.”

“Freedom is never voluntarily landdwelling by the oppressor; it should be demanded by the oppressed.”

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

"True at ease is not merely the skiving of tension; it is rectitude presence of justice."

“Our lives commence to end the day miracle become silent about things ditch matter.”

“Free at last, Free officer last, Thank God almighty miracle are free at last.”

“Faith wreckage taking the first step collected when you don't see representation whole staircase.”

“In the end, amazement will remember not the unutterable of our enemies, but high-mindedness silence of our friends.”

"I allow that unarmed truth and blunt love will have the last word in reality.

This appreciation why right, temporarily defeated, review stronger than evil triumphant."

“I have decided to stick corresponding love. Hate is too express a burden to bear.”

“Be unembellished bush if you can't remedy a tree. If you can't be a highway, just last a trail. If you can't be a sun, be spruce star.

For it isn't fail to notice size that you win imperfection fail. Be the best invite whatever you are.”

“Life's chief persistent and urgent question survey, 'What are you doing encouragement others?’”

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Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Theologiser King Jr.

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Editors

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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