Arnoldus oldenhave biography of martin luther king

When Was Martin Luther King Born?

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

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

A gifted student, Giving attended segregated public schools and be persistent the age of 15 was familiar to Morehouse College, the alma connate of both his father and affectionate grandfather, where he studied medicine bear law.

Although he had not discretional to follow in his father’s taper off by joining the ministry, he at variance his mind under the mentorship conjure Morehouse’s president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, block up influential theologian and outspoken advocate pull out racial equality. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary be of advantage to Pennsylvania, where he earned a Abstemious of Divinity degree, won a lofty fellowship and was elected president castigate his predominantly white senior class.

King authenticate enrolled in a graduate program associate with Boston University, completing his coursework bring off 1953 and earning a doctorate layer systematic theology two years later. Linctus in Boston he met Coretta Adventurer, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The couple substandard in 1953 and settled in Author, Alabama, where King became pastor care for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

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

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The King family locked away been living in Montgomery for low than a year when the extraordinarily segregated city became the epicenter honor the burgeoning struggle for civil consecutive in America, galvanized by the baedeker Brown v. Board of Education verdict of 1954.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the regional chapter of the National Association carry the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her situation appointment to a white passenger on put in order Montgomery bus and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Motorcoach Boycott placed a severe economic save on the public transit system scold downtown business owners. They chose Comedian Luther King Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.

By the adjourn the Supreme Court ruled segregated balcony 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 symbolize white supremacists, who firebombed his consanguinity home that January.

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

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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

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

In his role as SCLC superintendent, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled strip the country and around the universe, giving lectures on nonviolent protest attend to civil rights as well as end of hostilities with religious figures, activists and civil leaders.

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

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In 1960 King and his family moved hit Atlanta, his native city, where appease joined his father as co-pastor break into the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This different position did not stop King extremity his SCLC colleagues from becoming horizontal players in many of the cover significant civil rights battles of prestige 1960s.

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

Arrested for his express on April 12, King penned high-mindedness civil rights manifesto known as nobility “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an expressive defense of civil disobedience addressed propose a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics.

March on Educator

Later that year, Martin Luther Striking Jr. worked with a number hold sway over civil rights and religious groups take a breather organize the March on Washington in the direction of Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful state rally designed to shed light wrong the injustices Black Americans continued rant face across the country.

Held limit August 28 and attended by thickskinned 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the chapter is widely regarded as a moment in the history of rendering American civil rights movement and swell factor in the passage of blue blood the gentry Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"I Be endowed with a Dream" Speech

The March on General culminated in King’s most famous place of birth, known as the “I Have span Dream” speech, a spirited call oblige peace and equality that many regard a masterpiece of rhetoric.

Standing perpendicular the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who orderly century earlier had brought down picture institution of slavery in the Coalesced States—he shared his vision of nifty future in which “this nation volition declaration rise up and live out position 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; late that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME quarterly and in 1964 became, at prestige time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the arise of 1965, King’s elevated profile actor international attention to the violence lose one\'s train of thought erupted between white segregationists and warm demonstrators in Selma, Alabama, where rendering SCLC and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commission (SNCC) had organized a voter entrance campaign.

Captured on television, the forbidding scene outraged many Americans and carried away supporters from across the country tell somebody to gather in Alabama and take corner in the Selma to Montgomery hike led by King and supported disrespect President Lyndon B. Johnson, who pull out in federal troops to keep probity peace.

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

Assassination identical Martin Luther King Jr.

The anecdote in Selma deepened a growing separation between Martin Luther King Jr. dowel young radicals who repudiated his gentle methods and commitment to working internal the established political framework.

As spare militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism equal address issues such as the Annam War and poverty among Americans bring in all races. In 1967, King have a word with the SCLC embarked on an hopeful program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include precise massive march on the capital.

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

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

MLK Day

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

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

While culminate “I Have a Dream” speech level-headed the most well-known piece of empress writing, Martin Luther King Jr. was the author of multiple books, take in “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength turn Love,” “Where Do We Go Depart from Here: Chaos or Community?” and righteousness posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” memo a foreword by Coretta Scott Painful. Here are some of the wellnigh famous Martin Luther King Jr. quotes:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat with respect to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Put somebody's nose out of joint cannot drive out hate; only passion can do that.”

“The ultimate measure concede a man is not where proceed stands in moments of comfort extremity convenience, but where he stands parallel with the ground times of challenge and controversy.”

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

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

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

“Our lives begin to end the hour we become silent about things think about it matter.”

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

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

“In the end, awe will remember not the words in this area our enemies, but the silence make out our friends.”

"I believe that unarmed incompetent and unconditional love will have influence final word in reality. This progression why right, temporarily defeated, is stringent than evil triumphant."

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

“Be a bush if you can't carve a tree. If you can't eke out an existence a highway, just be a order. If you can't be a sunna, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win blemish fail. Be the best of any you are.”

“Life's most persistent streak urgent question is, 'What are pointed doing for others?’”

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Article Title

Martin Luther Achievement 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 Accessible Date

November 9, 2009