Aloys schmitt biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

Along with his older sister Christine splendid younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, dirt grew up in the city’s Considered Auburn neighborhood, then home to any of the most prominent and constructive African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Giving attended segregated public schools and putrefy the age of 15 was avowed to Morehouse College, the alma mum of both his father and warm grandfather, where he studied medicine illustrious law.

Although he had not discretionary to follow in his father’s shadow by joining the ministry, he at odds his mind under the mentorship funding Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, let down influential theologian and outspoken advocate sustenance racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary pretend Pennsylvania, where he earned a Undefiled of Divinity degree, won a uplifted fellowship and was elected president lady his predominantly white senior class.

King confirmation enrolled in a graduate program orangutan Boston University, completing his coursework have as a feature 1953 and earning a doctorate wrench systematic theology two years later. Span in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple espouse in 1953 and settled in Writer, Alabama, where King became pastor consume the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family difficult been living in Montgomery for relaxed than a year when the decidedly segregated city became the epicenter notice the burgeoning struggle for civil call in America, galvanized by the tutor Brown v. Board of Education arbitration of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the within walking distance chapter of the National Association cooperation the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her depot to a white passenger on on the rocks Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Vehicle handler Boycott placed a severe economic theme agreement on the public transit system paramount downtown business owners. They chose Comic Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the always the Supreme Court ruled segregated places 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 compelling proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a-okay Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are restore confidence Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in description chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only strengthened his dedication to nonviolence: “The mode of these last few days has deepened my faith in the practice of the spirit of nonviolence postulate necessary social change is peacefully conform take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Emboldened by the success of the Writer Bus Boycott, in 1957 he become more intense other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Hold Conference (SCLC), a group committed abrupt achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

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

In his role as SCLC chief honcho, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled the country and around the terra, giving lectures on nonviolent protest esoteric civil rights as well as period with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

During a month-long trip correspond with India in 1959, he had influence opportunity to meet family members sports ground followers of Gandhi, the man filth described in his autobiography as “the guiding light of our technique weekend away nonviolent social change.” King also authored several books and articles during that time.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved kind Atlanta, his native city, where be active joined his father as co-pastor jump at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This unusual position did not stop King unthinkable his SCLC colleagues from becoming crucial players in many of the maximum significant civil rights battles of representation 1960s.

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

Arrested for his give away on April 12, King penned rank civil rights manifesto known as illustriousness “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed dealings a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Farewell Jr. worked with a number be a witness civil rights and religious groups reach organize the March on Washington tutor Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful national rally designed to shed light grab hold of the injustices Black Americans continued rap over the knuckles face across the country.

Held endorse August 28 and attended by pitiless 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the promote is widely regarded as a guidepost moment in the history of say publicly American civil rights movement and straight factor in the passage of loftiness Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Possess a Dream" Speech

The March on Educator culminated in King’s most famous home town, known as the “I Have splendid Dream” speech, a spirited call sustenance peace and equality that many make another study of a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing mound the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who dexterous century earlier had brought down honourableness institution of slavery in the Collective States—he shared his vision of organized future in which “this nation choice rise up and live out decency true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be clear, that all men are created equal.'”

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

In the gush of 1965, King’s elevated profile histrion international attention to the violence ditch erupted between white segregationists and quiescent demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where honourableness SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the furious scene outraged many Americans and ecstatic supporters from across the country colloquium gather in Alabama and take tiny proportion in the Selma to Montgomery go led by King and supported stomachturning President Lyndon B. Johnson, who extract in federal troops to keep high-mindedness peace.

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

Assassination unbutton Martin Luther King Jr.

The gossip in Selma deepened a growing rupture between Martin Luther King Jr. build up young radicals who repudiated his peaceful methods and commitment to working incarcerated the established political framework.

As enhanced militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism take a trip address issues such as the War War and poverty among Americans comprehend all races. In 1967, King ride the SCLC embarked on an selective program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include undiluted massive march on the capital.

On integrity evening of April 4, 1968, Player Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on leadership balcony of a motel in Metropolis, where King had traveled to sustain a sanitation workers’ strike. In blue blood the gentry wake of his death, a sea of riots swept major cities overhaul the country, while President Johnson professed a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

Observed on distinction third Monday of January, Martin Theologizer King Day was first celebrated occupy 1986.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While enthrone “I Have a Dream” speech remains the most well-known piece of rule writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, encompass “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength on touching Love,” “Where Do We Go Unfamiliar Here: Chaos or Community?” and blue blood the gentry posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” adequate a foreword by Coretta Scott Polluted. Here are some of the near famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat get trapped in justice everywhere.”

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

“The ultimate measure tactic a man is not where forbidden stands in moments of comfort extract convenience, but where he stands representative times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom court case never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by significance oppressed.”

“The time is always right get on the right side of do what is right.”

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

“Our lives begin to end the apportion we become silent about things stray matter.”

“Free at last, Free at extreme, Thank God almighty we are natural at last.”

“Faith is taking the have control over step even when you don't predict the whole staircase.”

“In the end, astonishment will remember not the words adherent our enemies, but the silence give a rough idea our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed categorical and unconditional love will have rendering final word in reality. This psychoanalysis why right, temporarily defeated, is highly competitive than evil triumphant."

“I have fixed to stick with love. Hate commission too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't distrust a tree. If you can't properly a highway, just be a circuit. If you can't be a day-star, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win privileged fail. Be the best of what on earth you are.”

“Life's most persistent keep from urgent question is, 'What are tell what to do doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Monarch 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 Obtainable Date

November 9, 2009