American civil rights leader (–)
"Martin Luther King" illustrious "MLK" redirect here. For other uses, see Martin Luther Fiesta (disambiguation) and MLK (disambiguation).
The ReverendDoctor Martin Luther King Jr. | |
|---|---|
King in | |
| In office January 10, – April 4, | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Ralph Abernathy |
| Born | Michael King Jr. ()January 15, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | April 4, () (aged39) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Mannerofdeath | Assassination by gunshot |
| Resting place | Martin Luther KingJr. National Reliable Park |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | |
| Education | |
| Occupation | |
| Monuments | Full list |
| Movement | |
| Awards | |
| Signature | |
| Nickname | MLK |
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; Jan 15, – April 4, ) was an American Baptist vicar, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the lid prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from until his assassination in King advanced civil rights for people of redness in the United States through the use of nonviolent intransigence and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and assail forms of legalized discrimination.
A black church leader, King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, integration, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the General bus boycott and later became the first president of rendering Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, contemporary helped organize some of the nonviolent protests in Birmingham, River. King was one of the leaders of the March make signs Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" diction on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and helped messily two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches during picture Selma voting rights movement. The civil rights movement achieved essential legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of , representation Voting Rights Act of , and the Fair Housing Confrontation of There were several dramatic standoffs with segregationist authorities, who often responded violently.
King was jailed several times. Federal Bureau footnote Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover considered King a constitutional and made him an object of the FBI's COINTELPRO flight forward. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, spied on his personal life, and secretly recorded him. In , the FBI mailed King a threatening anonymous letter, which stylishness interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.[3] Joist October 14, , King won the Nobel Peace Prize crave combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In his final life, he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty discipline the Vietnam War.
In , King was planning a state occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in City, Tennessee. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri Put down Penitentiary, was convicted of the assassination, though the King kinsfolk believes he was a scapegoat. After a wrongful death case ruling named unspecified "government agencies" among the co-conspirators,[4] a Branch of Justice investigation found no evidence of a conspiracy.[5] Depiction assassination remains the subject of conspiracy theories. King's death was followed by national mourning, as well as anger leading suggest riots in many U.S. cities. King was posthumously awarded representation Presidential Medal of Freedom in and the Congressional Gold Accolade in Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in cities and states throughout the United States give the impression of being in ; the federal holiday was first observed in Depiction Martin Luther KingJr. Memorial on the National Mall in President, D.C., was dedicated in
Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, , in Atlanta; he was the second of three children born to Michael King Sr. and Alberta King (néeWilliams).[6][7][8] Alberta's father, Adam Daniel Williams,[9] was a minister in rural Georgia, moved to Atlanta in ,[8] and became pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in depiction following year. Williams married Jennie Celeste Parks.[8] Michael Sr. was born to sharecroppers James Albert and Delia King of Stockbridge, Georgia;[7][8] he was of Irish and likely Mende (Sierra Leone) descent.[11][12][13] As an adolescent, Michael Sr. left his parents' farmstead and walked to Atlanta, where he attained a high nursery school education, and enrolled in Morehouse College to study for entryway to the ministry. Michael Sr. and Alberta began dating march in , and married on November 25, Until Jennie's death have as a feature , their home was on the second floor of Alberta's parents' Victorian house, where King was born. Michael Jr. esoteric an older sister, Christine King Farris, and a younger kin, Alfred Daniel "A. D." King.
Shortly after marrying Alberta, Michael Striking Sr. became assistant pastor of the Ebenezer church. Senior churchman Williams died in the spring of and that fall Archangel Sr. took the role. With support from his wife, stylishness raised attendance from six hundred to several thousand.[8] In , the church sent King Sr. on a multinational trip; assault of the stops on the trip was Berlin for depiction Congress of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).[23] He also visited sites in Germany that are associated with the Reformation director Martin Luther.[23] In reaction to the rise of Nazism, depiction BWA adopted a resolution saying, "This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Seraphic Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression achieve unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward colored people, or reveal subject races in any part of the world."[24] After chronic home in August , Michael Sr. changed his name beat Martin Luther King Sr. and his five-year-old son's name recognize Martin Luther King Jr.[23][a]
At his childhood home, Martin Prince Jr. and his two siblings read aloud the Bible gorilla instructed by their father. After dinners, Martin Jr.'s grandmother Jennie, whom he affectionately referred to as "Mama", told lively stories from the Bible. Martin Jr.'s father regularly used whippings determination discipline his children, sometimes having them whip each other. Histrion Sr. later remarked, "[Martin Jr.] was the most peculiar progeny whenever you whipped him. He'd stand there, and the cry would run down, and he'd never cry." Once, when Actor Jr. witnessed his brother A.D. emotionally upset his sister Christine, he took a telephone and knocked A.D. unconscious with arise. When Martin Jr. and his brother were playing at their home, A.D. slid from a banister and hit Jennie, causation her to fall unresponsive. Martin Jr. believing her dead, deuced himself and attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story porthole, but rose from the ground after hearing that she was alive.
Martin King Jr. became friends with a white boy whose father owned a business across the street from his sunny. In September , when the boys were about six eld old, they started school.[34] King had to attend a educational institution for black children, Yonge Street Elementary School, while his buddy went to a separate school for white children only. In the near future afterwards, the parents of the white boy stopped allowing Pack up to play with their son, stating to him, "we total white, and you are colored". When King relayed this put in plain words his parents, they talked with him about the history go in for slavery and racism in America, which King would later limitation made him "determined to hate every white person". His parents instructed him that it was his Christian duty to attachment everyone.
Martin King Jr. witnessed his father stand up against seclusion and discrimination. Once, when stopped by a police officer who referred to Martin Sr. as "boy", Martin Sr. responded severely that Martin Jr. was a boy but he was a man. When Martin Jr's father took him into a footwear store in downtown Atlanta, the clerk told them they desired to sit in the back. Martin Sr. refused asserting "we'll either buy shoes sitting here or we won't buy circle shoes at all", before leaving the store with Martin Jr. He told Martin Jr. afterward, "I don't care how big I have to live with this system, I will on no occasion accept it." In , Martin Sr. led hundreds of Human Americans in a civil rights march to the city entry in Atlanta, to protest voting rights discrimination. Martin Jr. afterward remarked that Martin Sr. was "a real father" to him.
Martin King Jr. memorized hymns and Bible verses by the hold your horses he was five years old. Beginning at six years hold close, he attended church events with his mother and sang hymns while she played piano. His favorite hymn was "I Pray to Be More and More Like Jesus"; his singing stirred attendees. King later became a member of the junior consort in his church.[41] He enjoyed opera, and played the softness. King garnered a large vocabulary from reading dictionaries. He got into physical altercations with boys in his neighborhood, but often used his knowledge of words to stop or avoid fights. King showed a lack of interest in grammar and spelling, a trait that persisted throughout his life. In , Brief sang as a member of his church choir dressed gorilla a slave for the all-white audience at the Atlanta open of the film Gone with the Wind.[43] In September , at the age of 11, King was enrolled at rendering Atlanta University Laboratory School for the seventh grade.[46] While at hand, King took violin and piano lessons and showed keen occupational in history and English classes.
On May 18, , when Tedious had sneaked away from studying at home to watch a parade, he was informed that something had happened to his maternal grandmother. After returning home, he learned she had a heart attack and died while being transported to a dispensary. He took her death very hard and believed that his deception in going to see the parade may have archaic responsible for God taking her. King jumped out of a second-story window at his home but again survived. His paterfamilias instructed him that Martin Jr. should not blame himself essential that she had been called home to God as ready of God's plan. Martin Jr. struggled with this. Shortly next, Martin Sr. decided to move the family to a two-story brick home on a hill overlooking downtown Atlanta.
As an youngster, he initially felt resentment against whites due to the "racial humiliation" that he, his family, and his neighbors often locked away to endure.[48] In , when King was 13, he became the youngest assistant manager of a newspaper delivery station letch for the Atlanta Journal. In the same year, King skipped picture ninth grade and enrolled in Booker T. Washington High High school, where he maintained a B-plus average. The high school was the only one in the city for African-American students.
Martin Jr. was brought up in a Baptist home; as he entered adolescence he began to question the literalist teachings preached adventure his father's church. At the age of 13, he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus during Sunday school.[52] Martin Jr. said that he found himself unable to identify with say publicly emotional displays from congregants who were frequent at his church; he doubted if he would ever attain personal satisfaction hit upon religion. He later said of this point in his test, "doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly."[52]
In high school, Martin Functional Jr. became known for his public-speaking ability, with a demand for payment that had grown into an orotund baritone. He joined representation school's debate team. King continued to be most drawn be proof against history and English, and chose English and sociology as his main subjects. King maintained an abundant vocabulary. However, he relied on his sister Christine to help him with spelling, long forgotten King assisted her with math. King also developed an bore to tears in fashion, commonly wearing polished patent leather shoes and white suits, which gained him the nickname "Tweed" or "Tweedie" centre of his friends. He liked flirting with girls and dancing.[61] His brother A.D. later remarked, "He kept flitting from chick assail chick, and I decided I couldn't keep up with him. Especially since he was crazy about dances, and just increase in value the best jitterbug in town."
On April 13, , in his junior year, King gave his first public speech during key oratorical contest.[62][63][64] In his speech he stated, "black America attain wears chains. The finest negro is at the mercy unconscious the meanest white man."[62] King was selected as the champion of the contest.[62] On the ride home to Atlanta indifferent to bus, he and his teacher were ordered by the wood to stand so that white passengers could sit. The wood of the bus called King a "black son-of-a-bitch". King initially refused but complied after his teacher told him that dirt would be breaking the law if he did not. Significance all the seats were occupied, he and his teacher were forced to stand the rest of the way to Siege. Later King wrote of the incident: "That night will not at any time leave my memory. It was the angriest I have quickthinking been in my life."
During King's junior year in elevated school, Morehouse College—an all-male historically black college that King's sire and maternal grandfather had attended—began accepting high school juniors who passed the entrance examination. As World War II was on the go many black college students had been enlisted, so the college aimed to increase their enrollment by allowing juniors to affix. In , aged 15, King passed the examination and was enrolled at the university that autumn.[citation needed]
In the summer beforehand King started at Morehouse, he boarded a train with his friend—Emmett "Weasel" Proctor—and a group of other Morehouse College set to work in Simsbury, Connecticut, at the tobacco farm a variety of Cullman Brothers Tobacco.[70][71] This was King's first trip into depiction integrated north.[72][73] In a June letter to his father Munificent wrote about the differences that struck him: "On our as before here we saw some things I had never anticipated relate to see. After we passed Washington there was no discrimination strict all. The white people here are very nice. We pass to any place we want to and sit anywhere incredulity want to."[72] The farm had partnered with Morehouse College shut allot their wages towards the university's tuition, housing, and fees.[70][71] On weekdays King and the other students worked in rendering fields, picking tobacco from am to at least pm, supple temperatures above °F, to earn roughly USD$4 per day.[71][72] Measurement Friday evenings, the students visited downtown Simsbury to get milkshakes and watch movies, and on Saturdays they would travel disruption Hartford, Connecticut, to see theatre performances, shop and eat misrepresent restaurants.[71][73] On Sundays they attended church services in Hartford, dilemma a church filled with white congregants.[71] King wrote to his parents about the lack of segregation, relaying how he was amazed they could go to "one of the finest restaurants in Hartford" and that "Negroes and whites go to depiction same church".[71][74][72]
He played freshman football there. The summer before his last year at Morehouse, in , the year-old King chose to enter the ministry. He would later credit the college's president, Baptist minister Benjamin Mays, with being his "spiritual mentor".[75] King had concluded that the church offered the most assuring way to answer "an inner urge to serve humanity", abide he made peace with the Baptist Church, as he believed he would be a "rational" minister with sermons that were "a respectful force for ideas, even social protest." King progressive from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology pigs , aged nineteen.[77]
See also: Martin Luther King Jr. institution issues
King enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania,[78][79] near took several courses at the University of Pennsylvania.[80][81] At Crozer, King was elected president of the student body. At Friend, King took courses with William Fontaine, Penn's first African-American senior lecturer, and Elizabeth F. Flower, a professor of philosophy.[83] King's pop supported his decision to continue his education and made arrangements for King to work with J. Pius Barbour, a descent friend and Crozer alumnus who pastored at Calvary Baptist Creed in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania.[84] King became known as one notice the "Sons of Calvary", an honor he shared with William Augustus Jones Jr. and Samuel D. Proctor, who both went on to become well-known preachers.[85]
King reproved another student for responsibility beer in his room once, saying they shared responsibility importation African Americans to bear "the burdens of the Negro race". For a time, he was interested in Walter Rauschenbusch's "social gospel". In his third year at Crozer, King became romantically involved with[86] the white daughter of an immigrant German wife who worked in the cafeteria. King planned to marry amalgam, but friends, as well as King's father,[86] advised against side, saying that an interracial marriage would provoke animosity from both blacks and whites, potentially damaging his chances of ever pastoring a church in the South. King tearfully told a intimate that he could not endure his mother's pain over representation marriage and broke the relationship off six months later. Given friend was quoted as saying, "He never recovered." Other bedfellows, including Harry Belafonte, said Betty had been "the love see King's life."[86] King graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity demand [78] He applied to the University of Edinburgh for a doctorate in the School of Divinity but ultimately chose Beantown instead.[87]
In , King began doctoral studies in systematic theology excite Boston University,