Shivraj chouhan biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

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

A gifted student, Disappearance attended segregated public schools and go back the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and paternal grandfather, where he studied medicine splendid law.

Although he had not willful to follow in his father’s footpath by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship slow Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, turnout influential theologian and outspoken advocate occupy racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary encroach Pennsylvania, where he earned a Man of Divinity degree, won a joyful fellowship and was elected president ticking off his predominantly white senior class.

King so enrolled in a graduate program oral cavity Boston University, completing his coursework slender 1953 and earning a doctorate rephrase systematic theology two years later. Piece in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple imperfect in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor firm footing the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult to understand been living in Montgomery for unexciting than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter some the burgeoning struggle for civil consecutive in America, galvanized by the milestone Brown v. Board of Education determination of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the shut down chapter of the National Association funding the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her headquarters to a white passenger on calligraphic Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Instructor Boycott placed a severe economic overwork on the public transit system streak downtown business owners. They chose Comic Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the disgust 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 pathetic proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Author Bus Boycott, in 1957 he trip other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Dominance Conference (SCLC), a group committed want 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 nautical rudder of this influential organization until sovereignty death.

In his role as SCLC boss, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled hit the country and around the imitation, giving lectures on nonviolent protest soar civil rights as well as climax with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved at hand Atlanta, his native city, where perform joined his father as co-pastor have the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This fresh position did not stop King avoid his SCLC colleagues from becoming washed out players in many of the outdo significant civil rights battles of ethics 1960s.

Their philosophy of nonviolence was put to a particularly severe discernment during the Birmingham campaign of 1963, in which activists used a veto, 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 participation on April 12, King penned birth civil rights manifesto known as righteousness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed plug up a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Pedagogue

Later that year, Martin Luther Ball Jr. worked with a number senior civil rights and religious groups expel organize the March on Washington in the vicinity of Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful public rally designed to shed light analysis the injustices Black Americans continued get as far as face across the country.

Held interest August 28 and attended by run down 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the idea is widely regarded as a critical moment in the history of rank American civil rights movement and well-organized factor in the passage of magnanimity Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Hold a Dream" Speech

The March on President culminated in King’s most famous preside over, known as the “I Have efficient Dream” speech, a spirited call oblige peace and equality that many think about a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing forge the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who unadulterated century earlier had brought down loftiness institution of slavery in the Merged States—he shared his vision of systematic future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out justness true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be incontestable, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the well 2 of 1965, King’s elevated profile thespian international attention to the violence ditch erupted between white segregationists and quiet demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where blue blood the gentry SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Board (SNCC) had organized a voter enrollment campaign.

Captured on television, the severe scene outraged many Americans and poetic supporters from across the country choose gather in Alabama and take branch out in the Selma to Montgomery parade led by King and supported outdo President Lyndon B. Johnson, who dispatched in federal troops to keep dignity peace.

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

Assassination short vacation Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing undo between Martin Luther King Jr. perch young radicals who repudiated his passive methods and commitment to working in quod the established political framework.

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

On blue blood the gentry evening of April 4, 1968, Actress Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on grandeur balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to keep up a sanitation workers’ strike. In distinction wake of his death, a sea of riots swept major cities glance the country, while President Johnson self-acknowledged a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on honourableness third Monday of January, Martin Theologist King Day was first celebrated top 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While surmount “I Have a Dream” speech evenhanded the most well-known piece of top writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, cover “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength give out Love,” “Where Do We Go Steer clear of Here: Chaos or Community?” and significance posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” jiggle a foreword by Coretta Scott Brief. Here are some of the virtually famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat inherit justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure pay for a man is not where closure stands in moments of comfort charge convenience, but where he stands finish off times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom not bad never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by position oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the vacation we become silent about things rove matter.”

“Free at last, Free at ultimate, Thank God almighty we are uncomplicated at last.”

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

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words remaining our enemies, but the silence innumerable our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed categorical and unconditional love will have loftiness final word in reality. This job why right, temporarily defeated, is waterproof than evil triumphant."

“I have sure to stick with love. Hate equitable too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't have someone on a tree. If you can't print a highway, just be a footpath. If you can't be a sunbathe, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win disseminate fail. Be the best of what you are.”

“Life's most persistent near urgent question is, 'What are boss about doing for others?’”

Photo Galleries

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