Hate is too great a burden to bear.”, “Be a bush if you can't be a tree. According to Garrow, Martin Luther King, Jr. was present in a hotel room when his friend and fellow pastor Logan Kearse — who died in 1991 — raped a … Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 1 Amos 5:24 (rendered precisely in The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible) 2 Isaiah 40:4-5 (King James Version of the Holy Bible). The family lived on Auburn Avenue, otherwise known as “Sweet Auburn,” the bustling “Black Wall Street,” home to some of the country’s largest and most prosperous Black businesses and Black churches in the years before the civil rights movement. The center seeks to advance King's philosophies of justice and nonviolence through its educational programs, exhibitions, and tours. He graduated from Morehouse in 1948. He was a leader of the American civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was instrumental in the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the March on Washington. In 1960 King and his family moved to Atlanta, his native city, where he joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. The Ronnie Lott Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research & Education Institute, and Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor, Stanford University. King knew that storms pass and that joy comes in ...read more, On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the entire nation pauses in remembrance of a civil rights hero. In 1967, King and the SCLC embarked on an ambitious program known as the Poor People’s Campaign, which was to include a massive march on the capital. Named for her late aunt, Yolanda is the daughter of Martin Luther King III and was 10 years old as of 2019. He advocated for peaceful approaches to some of society’s biggest problems. The holiday honoring King is often celebrated as the MLK Day of Service, a reflection of his legacy of addressing social problems through collective action. Did you know? The events in Selma deepened a growing rift between Martin Luther King, Jr. and young radicals who repudiated his nonviolent methods and commitment to working within the established political framework. The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the helm of this influential organization until his death. His parents were college-educated, and King’s father had succeeded his father-in-law as pastor of the prestigious Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are you Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the chest with a knife. In 1934, however, his father, a pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, traveled to Germany and became inspired by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin ...read more, On January 15, the United States celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 50 years on from his assassination in 1968. Every so often, they’d stop to hassle Black residents, using racial slurs to ...read more, The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. See more ideas about martin luther king, martin luther king day, mlk jr. Updates? Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., graduated from Morehouse College (B.A., 1948), Crozer Theological Seminary (B.D., 1951), and Boston University (Ph.D., 1955). King rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive March on Washington (1963), to achieve civil rights. 10 Facts About Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. skipped two grades in high school, 9th and 11th, and entered college (Morehouse College) at the age of 15 in 1944. Martin Luther King Jr., plus couramment appelé Martin Luther King, né à Atlanta, en Géorgie, le 15 janvier 1929, et mort assassiné le 4 avril 1968 à Memphis, dans le Tennessee, est un pasteur, baptiste et militant non-violent afro-américain pour le mouvement des droits civiques des noirs américains aux États-Unis, fervent militant pour la paix et contre la pauvreté. That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote—first awarded by the 15th Amendment—to all African Americans. His honeymoon was spent at a funeral parlor. The Montgomery Bus Boycott placed a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. Later that year, Martin Luther King, Jr. worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a peaceful political rally designed to shed light on the injustices Black Americans continued to face across the country. Along with his older sister Christine and younger brother Alfred Daniel Williams, he grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to some of the most prominent and prosperous African Americans in the country. HistoryNet - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Spartacus Educational - Biography of Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King, Jr., influenced people around the world. Before beginning college, however, King spent the summer on a tobacco farm in Connecticut; it was his first extended stay away from home and his first substantial experience of race relations outside the segregated South. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). “Negroes and whites go [to] the same church,” he noted in a letter to his parents. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther-King-Jr, The History Learning Site - Biography of Martin Luther King. Dr. King's Nieces and Nephews . Martin Luther King, Jr. Hill Together Day I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. The intention behind the holiday is to commemorate this great man’s life, and recommit to his call to fight for justice everywhere. In the United States he is memorialized on the third Monday of January every year—Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, which was first observed as a federal holiday in 1986. He was the son of Alberta Christine (Williams), a schoolteacher, and Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. While King would have spoken out against ...read more. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher. His death sparked riots across the country. He earned a bachelor of divinity degree in 1951. READ MORE: 7 Things You May Not Know About MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech. He never forgot the time when, at about age six, one of his white playmates announced that his parents would no longer allow him to play with King, because the children were now attending segregated schools. Jan 22, 2021 - Information and learning activities for Martin Luther King Day; primarily for preschoolers through early elementary at home or in the classroom. Emboldened by the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest. He was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where King had traveled to support a sanitation workers’ strike. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Baptist minister and social rights activist in the United States in the 1950s and ’60s. READ MORE: For Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Protest Never Meant ‘Wait and See’. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of his predominantly white senior class. King spent the next three years at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he became acquainted with Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence as well as with the thought of contemporary Protestant theologians. Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and social activist who led the U.S. civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his death in 1968. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. But when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down on the balcony of a Memphis hotel on April 4 of that year, it seemed like the death knell for ...read more, Had Martin Luther King, Jr. not been killed as he stood on the Lorraine Motel’s second-floor balcony on that spring evening in 1968, it’s almost certain that the Baptist preacher would have remained a powerful voice against injustice. Dr. King has seven nieces and nephews. Don't lose sight of the dream. Martin Luther King Obama Wall Art - 8x10 Dream Photo Poster - Unique Home Decor or Gift - MLK, Black History Month, African American, Civil Rights, Pride, Teacher, Classroom - … Update: The Martin Luther KIng, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University has audio of the entire address here. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a well-known civil rights activist who had a great deal of influence on American society in the 1950s and 1960s. The March on Washington culminated in King’s most famous address, known as the “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for peace and equality that many consider a masterpiece of rhetoric. Observed on the third Monday of January, Martin Luther King Day was first celebrated in 1986. The same year Coretta Scott King founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center of Non-Violent Social Change in Atlanta as a memorial to her husband. ", “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”, “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”, "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. I Have a Dream Song. Dr. King was very clever. ", “I have decided to stick with love. King then enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing his coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. Many will spend Monday as a day ...read more, Emmett Till. Two of his friends did not show up to play ball with him and Martin decided to go looking for them. King’s mentor at Morehouse was the college president, Benjamin Mays, a social gospel activist whose rich oratory and progressive ideas had left an indelible imprint on King’s father. His final words were to ask for a beautiful song to be played the evening of his death Upset because he had learned of her fatal heart attack while attending a parade without his parents’ permission, the 12-year-old King attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window. The King family had been living in Montgomery for less than a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. Martin Luther King Song! Martin Luther King, Jr., was standing on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when he was shot by James Earl Ray. Interesting Facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. King was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986. They chose Martin Luther King, Jr. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman. A gifted student, King attended segregated public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mater of both his father and maternal grandfather, where he studied medicine and law. Yolanda King died in 2007, but the other three are still alive as of December 2019. This secure upbringing, however, did not prevent King from experiencing the prejudices then common in the South. In 1944, at age 15, King entered Morehouse College in Atlanta under a special wartime program intended to boost enrollment by admitting promising high-school students like King. At least, that’s the point of the federal holiday that takes place on the third Monday of each January. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial—a monument to the president who a century earlier had brought down the institution of slavery in the United States—he shared his vision of a future in which “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'”. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. While in Boston he met Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do … Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. Medgar Evers. His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do … All Rights Reserved. King was imprisoned nearly 30 times. Committed to fighting racial inequality, Mays accused the African American community of complacency in the face of oppression, and he prodded the Black church into social action by criticizing its emphasis on the hereafter instead of the here and now; it was a call to service that was not lost on the teenage King. READ MORE: Why Martin Luther King’s Family Believes James Earl Ray Was Not His Killer. James Earl Ray, an escaped convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. His most famous work is his “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in 1963, in which he spoke of his dream of a United States that is void of segregation and racism. He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the King family, before his death in 1998. Harry and Harriette Moore. This new position did not stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key players in many of the most significant civil rights battles of the 1960s. An hour later, King died at St. Joseph’s hospital. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second child of Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher. The Kiboomers! The civil rights leader was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929. In his role as SCLC president, Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled across the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as well as meeting with religious figures, activists and political leaders. The couple wed in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. His father was the minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta—the same church where Martin Luther King, Jr., would eventually minister. Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He organized a number of marches and protests and was a key figure in the American civil rights movement. The civil rights movement had lost more than its fair share of heroes by 1968. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The Civil War had officially abolished slavery, but it didn’t end discrimination against ...read more, It was a stormy night and the weather was bad but the turnout was not. Dearest to King in these early years was his maternal grandmother, whose death in 1941 left him shaken and unstable. At the Atlanta premier of the movie Gone with the Wind, Martin sang with his church choir. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. The speech and march cemented King’s reputation at home and abroad; later that year he was named “Man of the Year” by TIME magazine and in 1964 became, at the time, the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Must-Reads. Arrested for his involvement on April 12, King penned the civil rights manifesto known as the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” an eloquent defense of civil disobedience addressed to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics. Luther King was originally christened Michael King Jr. (his father’s birth name). When he went to one of the boys' house, their mother met him at the front door and told him in a rude tone tha… Martin Luther King, Jr., original name Michael King, Jr., (born January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.—died April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee), Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”The speech that remains Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous oration — one of the most famous orations in American history, if not world history — is that well-known for a good reason, Calloway-Thomas says. Why MLK's Right-Hand Man, Bayard Rustin, Was Nearly Written Out of History, For Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Protest Never Meant ‘Wait and See’, 7 Things You May Not Know About MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Why Martin Luther King’s Family Believes James Earl Ray Was Not His Killer. If you can't be a sun, be a star. Martin Luther King had his first experience of segregation at just six years old, when he was told he … King’s birth name was Michael, not Martin. As more militant Black leaders such as Stokely Carmichael rose to prominence, King broadened the scope of his activism to address issues such as the Vietnam War and poverty among Americans of all races. While his “I Have a Dream” speech is the most well-known piece of his writing, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the author of multiple books, include “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” “Why We Can’t Wait,” “Strength to Love,” “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” and the posthumously published “Trumpet of Conscience” with a foreword by Coretta Scott King. Learn about the life and career of Martin Luther King, Jr. Renowned for his oratorical skills, King was elected president of Crozer’s student body, which was composed almost exclusively of white students. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since ...read more, Every night in November 1968, National Guardsmen circled the streets in Wilmington, Delaware, armed with loaded rifles and ready to put down racial violence in the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.