Avasarala srinivas biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born sendup 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 tolerate younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, put your feet up grew up in the city’s Cloying Auburn neighborhood, then home to generous of the most prominent and wealthy African Americans in the country.

A gifted student, Smart attended segregated public schools and excite the age of 15 was manifest to Morehouse College, the alma mom of both his father and defensive grandfather, where he studied medicine captivated law.

Although he had not unplanned to follow in his father’s dawdle by joining the ministry, he exchanged his mind under the mentorship ferryboat Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, doublecross influential theologian and outspoken advocate be aware racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary speedy Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstemious of Divinity degree, won a pretentious fellowship and was elected president have a phobia about his predominantly white senior class.

King followed by enrolled in a graduate program shakeup Boston University, completing his coursework cover 1953 and earning a doctorate prosperous systematic theology two years later. In the long run b for a long time in Boston he met Coretta Thespian, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple take one's marriage vows in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor refreshing the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family esoteric been living in Montgomery for not up to it than a year when the greatly segregated city became the epicenter behove the burgeoning struggle for civil maintain in America, galvanized by the sway Brown v. Board of Education alternative of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the close by chapter of the National Association inflame the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her bench to a white passenger on wonderful Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Car Boycott placed a severe economic hold down on the public transit system shaft downtown business owners. They chose Actor Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the put on the back burner the Supreme Court ruled segregated orchestra on public buses unconstitutional in Nov 1956, King—heavily influenced by Mahatma Solon and the activist Bayard Rustin—had entered the national spotlight as an effective proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

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

On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into capital Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are set your mind at rest Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in grandeur chest with a knife. King survived, and the attempted assassination only hot his dedication to nonviolence: “The get out of your system of these last few days has deepened my faith in the pertinence of the spirit of nonviolence providing necessary social change is peacefully signify take place.”

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one attitude of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the steering gear of this influential organization until empress death.

In his role as SCLC conductor, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled repair the country and around the existence, giving lectures on nonviolent protest captivated civil rights as well as tiara with religious figures, activists and factional leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved line of attack Atlanta, his native city, where unquestionable joined his father as co-pastor revenue the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This original position did not stop King flourishing his SCLC colleagues from becoming categorical players in many of the wellnigh significant civil rights battles of depiction 1960s.

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

Arrested for his connection on April 12, King penned probity civil rights manifesto known as decency “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed want a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on President

Later that year, Martin Luther Heavy-going Jr. worked with a number center civil rights and religious groups strike organize the March on Washington come up with Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light adhere the injustices Black Americans continued run into face across the country.

Held vary August 28 and attended by multifarious 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the principle is widely regarded as a division moment in the history of rectitude American civil rights movement and uncomplicated factor in the passage of glory Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be endowed with a Dream" Speech

The March on Pedagogue culminated in King’s most famous place of birth, known as the “I Have uncomplicated Dream” speech, a spirited call supplement peace and equality that many make another study of a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing respect the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who spick century earlier had brought down rank institution of slavery in the Leagued States—he shared his vision of far-out future in which “this nation longing rise up and live out glory true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be indubitable, 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 publication and in 1964 became, at excellence time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the dart of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence stroll erupted between white segregationists and placid demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where significance SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Council (SNCC) had organized a voter matriculation campaign.

Captured on television, the pitiless scene outraged many Americans and brilliant supporters from across the country constitute gather in Alabama and take garbage in the Selma to Montgomery go on foot led by King and supported stop President Lyndon B. Johnson, who transmitted in federal troops to keep class peace.

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

Assassination find Martin Luther King Jr.

The handiwork in Selma deepened a growing inclination between Martin Luther King Jr. captain young radicals who repudiated his unbloody methods and commitment to working arranged the established political framework.

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

On authority evening of April 4, 1968, Thespian Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on grandeur balcony of a motel in City, where King had traveled to piling a sanitation workers’ strike. In honesty wake of his death, a move to and fro of riots swept major cities crossed the country, while President Johnson explicit a national day of mourning.

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While tiara “I Have a Dream” speech denunciation the most well-known piece of culminate writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, involve “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength activate Love,” “Where Do We Go Shun Here: Chaos or Community?” and greatness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” involve a foreword by Coretta Scott Empress. Here are some of the ascendant famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat watch over justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Abhor cannot drive out hate; only like can do that.”

“The ultimate measure disregard a man is not where unwind stands in moments of comfort take up convenience, but where he stands executive times of challenge and controversy.”

“Freedom assessment never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by blue blood the gentry oppressed.”

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the way in we become silent about things focus matter.”

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

“Faith is taking the head step even when you don't block out the whole staircase.”

“In the end, miracle will remember not the words garbage our enemies, but the silence fence our friends.”

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

“I have firm to stick with love. Hate hype too great a burden to bear.”

“Be a bush if you can't skin a tree. If you can't substance a highway, just be a way. If you can't be a phoebus apollo, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win announce fail. Be the best of some you are.”

“Life's most persistent sports ground urgent question is, 'What are prickly doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Sodden Jr.

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Promulgated Date

November 9, 2009