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. Martin Luther King Jr. was targeted by the FBI for being “the most dangerous Negro of the future in … READ MORE: Why Martin Luther King’s Family Believes James Earl Ray Was Not His Killer. He graduated from Morehouse in 1948. 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 Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was the minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta—the same church where Martin Luther King, Jr., would eventually minister. The center seeks to advance King's philosophies of justice and nonviolence through its educational programs, exhibitions, and tours. He was instrumental in the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the March on Washington. He advocated for peaceful approaches to some of society’s biggest problems. 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. 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). 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. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. He was the average of three brothers born of the marriage of Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”, “Be a bush if you can't be a tree. I Have a Dream Song. The Ronnie Lott Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research & Education Institute, and Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor, Stanford University. There are over 730 streets in the United States named after Martin Luther King, Jr. 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. He earned a bachelor of divinity degree in 1951. Corrections? Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929. 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. Dr. King has one grandchild: Yolanda Renee King. 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. Dr. King's Grandchildren. Interesting Facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. King was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. HistoryNet - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Spartacus Educational - Biography of Martin Luther King. James Earl Ray, an escaped convict and known racist, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Baptist minister and social rights activist in the United States in the 1950s and ’60s. Yolanda King died in 2007, but the other three are still alive as of December 2019. He skipped two years of school and went to university when he was 15. 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. Held on August 28 and attended by some 200,000 to 300,000 participants, the event is widely regarded as a watershed moment in the history of the American civil rights movement and a factor in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 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. King survived, and the attempted assassination only reinforced his dedication to nonviolence: “The experience of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevance of the spirit of nonviolence, if necessary social change is peacefully to take place.”, READ MORE: Why MLK's Right-Hand Man, Bayard Rustin, Was Nearly Written Out of History. 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. 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. 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. After years of campaigning by activists, members of Congress and Coretta Scott King, among others, in 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a U.S. federal holiday in honor of King. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a national day of mourning. The civil rights movement had lost more than its fair share of heroes by 1968. The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King. He later recanted his confession and gained some unlikely advocates, including members of the King family, before his death in 1998. Martin Luther King, Jr., grew up as the middle child of Michael (later Martin Luther) King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King. Martin Luther King was a sexual predator, newly-released FBI evidence suggests Martin Luther King was a sexual predator, newly … 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.'”. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”, “The time is always right to do what is right.”, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. READ MORE: For Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Protest Never Meant ‘Wait and See’. 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). He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Martin Luther King had his first experience of segregation at just six years old, when he was told he … Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders … King had also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January. 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. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. 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. 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. People had gathered to hear Martin Luther King, Jr., who was back in Memphis to offer inspiration for an ongoing struggle that had celebrated recent victories. 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. Medgar Evers. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Martin Luther King, Jr. - Historical significance and legacy: In the years after his death, King remained the most widely known African American leader of his era. Luther King was originally christened Michael King Jr. (his father’s birth name). By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. 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. The intention behind the holiday is to commemorate this great man’s life, and recommit to his call to fight for justice everywhere. The civil rights leader was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929. 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. The MLK tapes: Secret FBI recordings accuse Martin Luther King Jr of watching and laughing as a pastor raped a woman, having 40 extramarital affairs - and they are under lock in a … He was the son of Alberta Christine (Williams), a schoolteacher, and Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. 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.