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Martin Luther King Jr. was a curate , humanitarian and leader in the American civic rights movement of the sixties . In numerous speeches , borderland and letters , he fought for racial and economic justice and was lauded for his nonviolent approaching to polite disobedience . Assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39 , King made an incredible impact on the country ’s racial , ethnical and intellectual landscape .
Martin Luther King’s early life
King was born on Jan. 15 , 1929 , to the Rev. Michael King and Alberta Williams King in Atlanta , Georgia . His birth name was Michael King Jr. The King family had cryptical roots in the Atlanta Black community of interests and the African - American Baptist Church . Both his grandad and father assist in succession at Ebenezer Baptist Church ( down the street from King ’s childhood home ) , and established it as a major fold in Baptist forget me drug . They were also both leaders in the Atlanta branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) . Michael King Sr . modify his name and his son ’s name to Martin Luther in 1934 to honor the sixteenth - C German spiritual reformer .
King attend segregate schoolhouse and graduated from high school at years 15 , and in 1948 he pick up his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1948 . He then went on to earn a Bachelor of Divinity point from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and a doctorate in school of thought of Systematic Theology from Boston University . While in Boston , King meet euphony student Coretta Scott . The two finally married and had two daughters and two Logos .
King mull an academic life history but ultimately followed his father and grandpa to the dais . In 1954 , he accepted the placement of pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery , Alabama .
The civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. waves to supporters on Aug. 28, 1963 on the Mall in Washington D.C. (Washington Monument in background) during the “March on Washington."
Martin Luther King’s ministry and civil rights leadership
In Montgomery , King stepped up as a prominent loss leader in the polite right field movement .
In 1955 , when Rosa Parks refused to give up her buns on the jalopy to a white world and was arrested , local loss leader imprint an organization to protest Parks ' taking into custody and chose King to head up the chemical group . In this part , he became the primary spokesperson for what would become the 382 - sidereal day Montgomery Bus Boycott . During the boycott , King was abused and arrested , and his firm was bombed , but he remain a loyalist and committed leader .
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A portrait of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957.
King ’s activism , leadership and ministry drew heavily on his Christian rule as well as the nonviolent teachings ofMahatma Gandhi . King skillfully draw upon a wide range of a function of theological and philosophic influences to mobilize Black church and communities and to attract for lily-white backup . He turned from an untouchable sight of God to a more supportive , assure concept , describing God as " a life world that has been validate in the experience of routine life . "
After the Supreme Court outlawed bus separatism , King help expand the civil right cause throughout the South . He was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and moved back to Atlanta to be closer to the organization ’s headquarters and to become co - minister with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church . He also traveled and spoke widely , spreading the message of nonviolent protestation ; wrote five book ; prepare voting drives ; led passive protestation and border district ; and was arrested more than 20 times .
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embraces his wife Coretta and children, Marty and Yoki after he is freed from jail under a $2,000 appeal bond at the airport in Chamblee, Georgia.
Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail’
In 1963 , King led a nonviolent protest in highly segregated Birmingham , Alabama . The campaign was meet with brutality from the police , who attack demonstrators with dogs and hosepipe . King was arrested and , in a cadre , drafted his famous " Letter from Birmingham City Jail , " which became a pronunciamento for civil rights and polite disobedience . The letter combined melodic theme from the Bible , the Constitution and other respected texts .
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March on Washington and ‘I Have a Dream’ speech
On Aug. 28 , 1963 , about 250,000 people marched in Washington , D.C. , in the largest manifestation of its kind in the city . At the Lincoln Memorial , King deliver the inspirational and oft - quote " I Have a Dream " speech . The speech ’s most illustrious phrases admit :
" I have a dreaming that one day this Carry Nation will rise up , live out the true meaning of its creed : ' We hold these truths to be self - evident , that all piece are created equal …
" I have a dream that my four small children will one day survive in a nation where they will not be evaluate by the color of their cutis but by the content of their character . "
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking before crowd of 25,000 Selma To Montgomery, Alabama civil rights marchers, in front of Montgomery, Alabama state capital building. On 9 April 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama.
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The address inspired the res publica and solidified King ’s position as a national civil rights leader . After the march , King and other leader foregather with President John F. Kennedy to discuss equal right and an end to segregation .
Two mean solar day after the speech , the FBI write a memoranda detailing their suspicions that King was a communist . While FBI surveillance failed to find communist ties , the federal agency did find grounds that King was having adulterous affairs . FBI Domestic Intelligence Chief William Sullivan decided to use this selective information against King , and wrote an anon. letter to him in 1964 urge King to vote down himself , Yale historianBeverly Gagereported inThe New York Timesin 2014 , after she find an unredacted version of the missive .
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial stands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
" There is only one thing left for you to do . You know what it is , " the varsity letter said .
However , King distrust that the letter came from the FBI , as it was no secret that its music director , J. Edgar Hoover , wanted to discredit King .
Martin Luther King’s Nobel Peace Prize
Martin Luther King’s later work and assassination
In addition to his work on racial issue , King became an activist for economic justice and a critic of the Vietnam War . He formed an organization called the Poor People ’s military campaign , which was unpopular among some Black activists who wanted to take more radical approaching to social alteration , such as those advocate by the Black Power campaigns .
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On April 3 , 1968 , in Memphis , Tenn. , King delivered a poignant delivery , intoning , " I ’ve been to the mountaintop [ and ] I ’ve seen the promise land . I may not get there with you . But I want you to know tonight , that we , as a citizenry , will get to the foretell country . "
The next day , while stand on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel , King was assassinate . whitened supremacist James Earl Ray was convicted of the crime , though the identity of King ’s murderer was the subject of some contention .
Martin Luther King’s legacy and memorial
King had a unplumbed impact on the United States . The March on Washington was influential in the passing of the landmark Civil Rights Act , which basically made separatism illegal . The Voting Rights Act was croak as the upshot of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March .
In 1968 , Coretta Scott King founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change . She also led the sweat to make King ’s birthday a national vacation , first keep in 1986 .
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On Aug. 28 , 2011 — the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington — a commemoration to King was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington , D.C. The memorial consists of a 30 - foot - tall ( 9 meters ) statue of King carve into the " Stone of Hope " breaking through two boulders comprise the " Mountain of Despair . "
Additional resources
This clause was originally issue on Jan. 16 , 2014 . It was updated on Jan. 15 , 2021 by Live Science reference editor program Kimberly Hickok and on Jan. 13 , 2023 by Live Science editor in chief Laura Geggel .
