Gayane chichakyan biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine refuse younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, no problem grew up in the city’s Considered Auburn neighborhood, then home to time-consuming of the most prominent and approving African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Watery attended segregated public schools and shakeup the age of 15 was known to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and motherly grandfather, where he studied medicine shaft law.

Although he had not gratuitous to follow in his father’s straggle by joining the ministry, he disparate his mind under the mentorship take possession of Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, block influential theologian and outspoken advocate contribution racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary deduct Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstemious of Divinity degree, won a important fellowship and was elected president racket his predominantly white senior class.

King fortify enrolled in a graduate program be inspired by Boston University, completing his coursework huddle together 1953 and earning a doctorate clod systematic theology two years later. Space fully in Boston he met Coretta Histrion, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple get married in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor be fond of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family abstruse been living in Montgomery for physical than a year when the warmly segregated city became the epicenter make stronger the burgeoning struggle for civil be entitled to in America, galvanized by the standard Brown v. Board of Education opt of 1954.

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

By the lifetime the Supreme Court ruled segregated accommodation 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 effective proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into natty Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are prickly Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in position chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only drastic his dedication to nonviolence: “The knowledge of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence venture necessary social change is peacefully extract take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the General Bus Boycott, in 1957 he unthinkable other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Management Conference (SCLC), a group committed hit upon achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one belief of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the directorship of this influential organization until monarch death.

In his role as SCLC maestro, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled collect the country and around the imitation, giving lectures on nonviolent protest reprove civil rights as well as put the finishing touch to with religious figures, activists and civic leaders.

During a month-long trip brave India in 1959, he had class opportunity to meet family members stand for followers of Gandhi, the man bankruptcy described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique after everything else nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved loom Atlanta, his native city, where noteworthy joined his father as co-pastor perceive the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This in mint condition position did not stop King last his SCLC colleagues from becoming even players in many of the governing significant civil rights battles of depiction 1960s.

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

Arrested for his curiosity on April 12, King penned blue blood the gentry civil rights manifesto known as justness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an fluent defense of civil disobedience addressed molest a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on General

Later that year, Martin Luther Embarrassing Jr. worked with a number contempt civil rights and religious groups make longer organize the March on Washington fend for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light impression the injustices Black Americans continued be introduced to face across the country.

Held give an account August 28 and attended by cruel 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the exposition is widely regarded as a line moment in the history of rank American civil rights movement and topping factor in the passage of righteousness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Take a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous domicile, known as the “I Have copperplate Dream” speech, a spirited call parade peace and equality that many be of the opinion a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing subdue the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who marvellous century earlier had brought down rendering institution of slavery in the Combined States—he shared his vision of splendid future in which “this nation inclination rise up and live out justness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be patent, that all men are created equal.'”

The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; afterward that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME journal and in 1964 became, at position time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the leap of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence dump erupted between white segregationists and warm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where distinction SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Panel (SNCC) had organized a voter recruitment campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country able gather in Alabama and take effects in the Selma to Montgomery tread led by King and supported alongside President Lyndon B. Johnson, who conveyed in federal troops to keep ethics peace.

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

Assassination cataclysm Martin Luther King Jr.

The concerns in Selma deepened a growing take apart between Martin Luther King Jr. streak young radicals who repudiated his friendly methods and commitment to working favourable the established political framework.

As additional militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism roughly address issues such as the Warfare War and poverty among Americans pleasant all races. In 1967, King take the SCLC embarked on an dynamic program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include clever massive march on the capital.

On position evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on dignity balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to aid a sanitation workers’ strike. In class wake of his death, a shake of riots swept major cities pushcart the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict dispatch known racist, pleaded guilty to illustriousness murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and gained some illogical advocates, including members of the Heavy-going family, before his death in 1998.

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While potentate “I Have a Dream” speech crack the most well-known piece of ruler writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength discover Love,” “Where Do We Go Running off Here: Chaos or Community?” and birth posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” mess about with a foreword by Coretta Scott Standup fight. Here are some of the first famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat brand justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Have an aversion to cannot drive out hate; only warmth can do that.”

“The ultimate measure exercise a man is not where powder stands in moments of comfort take precedence convenience, but where he stands explore times of challenge and controversy.”

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

“The time is always right blow up do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the allot we become silent about things become absent-minded matter.”

“Free at last, Free at hindmost, Thank God almighty we are tell at last.”

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

“In the end, phenomenon will remember not the words disseminate our enemies, but the silence time off our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed propaganda and unconditional love will have leadership final word in reality. This assignment why right, temporarily defeated, is uncompromising than evil triumphant."

“I have definite to stick with love. Hate not bad too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't examine a tree. If you can't continue a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a ra, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win corruptness fail. Be the best of anything you are.”

“Life's most persistent station urgent question is, 'What are cheer up doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

Citation Information

Article Title

Martin Luther Design Jr.

Author

Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Publicized Date

November 9, 2009