Biography of Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Jan. 15, 1929–April 4, 1968) was the charismatic leader of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He directed the year-long Montgomery bus boycott, which attracted scrutiny by a wary, divided nation, but his leadership and the resultant Supreme Court ruling against bus segregation brought him fame. He formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to coordinate nonviolent protests and delivered over than 2,500 speeches addressing racial injustice, but his life was cut short by an assassin in 1968. Fast Facts: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Known For: Leader of the U.S. civil rights movementAlso Known As: Michael Lewis King Jr.Born: Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GeorgiaParents: Michael King Sr., Alberta WilliamsDied: April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TennesseeEducation: Crozer Theological Seminary, Boston UniversityPublished Works: Stride Toward Freedom, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?Awards and Honors: Nobel Peace PrizeSpouse: Coretta ScottChildren: Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, BerniceNotable Quote: 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. Early Life Martin Luther King Jr. was born Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Michael King Sr., pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Alberta Williams, a Spelman College graduate and former schoolteacher. King lived with his parents, a sister, and a brother in the Victorian home of his maternal grandparents. Martin—named Michael Lewis until he was 5—thrived in a middle-class family, playing football and baseball, delivering newspapers, and doing odd jobs. Their father was involved in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and had led a successful campaign for equal wages for white and black Atlanta teachers. When Martins grandfather died in 1931, Martins father became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, serving for 44 years. After attending the World Baptist Alliance in Berlin in 1934, King Sr. changed his and his sons name from Michael King to Martin Luther King, after the Protestant reformist. King Sr. was inspired by Martin Luthers courage of confronting institutionalized evil. College King entered Morehouse College at 15. He was uncertain about following in the footsteps of the familys clergymen, questioning religions relevance in addressing segregation and poverty among his people. King rebelled against a life of service to God, playing pool, drinking beer, and underachieving his first two years at Morehouse. King studied sociology and considered law school while reading voraciously. He was fascinated by Henry David Thoreaus essay On Civil Disobedience and its idea of noncooperation with an unjust system. King decided that social activism was his calling and religion the best means to that end. He was ordained as a minister in February 1948, the year he graduated with a sociology degree at age 19. Seminary In September 1948, King entered the predominately white Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania. He read works by great theologians but despaired that no philosophy was complete within itself. Then, hearing a lecture about Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, he became captivated by his concept of passive resistance. King concluded that the Christian doctrine of love, operating through nonviolence, could be a powerful weapon for his people. In 1951, King graduated at the top of his class with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. In September of that year, he enrolled in doctoral studies at Boston Universitys School of Theology. Marriage While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, a singer studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. Coretta hesitated about dating a minister but was persuaded when King said she had all the qualities he desired in a wife. The couple married on June 18, 1953. Kings father performed the ceremony at Corettas family home in Marion, Alabama. They returned to Boston to complete their degrees. King was invited to preach in Montgomery, Alabama, at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, which had a history of civil rights activism. The pastor was retiring. King captivated the congregation and became the pastor in April 1954. Coretta was committed to her husbands work but was conflicted about her role. King wanted her to stay home with their four children: Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice. Montgomery Bus Boycott When King arrived in Montgomery to join the Dexter Avenue church, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local NAACP chapter, had been arrested for refusing to relinquish her bus seat to a white man. Parks Dec. 1, 1955, arrest presented the perfect opportunity to make a case for desegregating the transit system. E.D. Nixon, former head of the local NAACP chapter, and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a close friend of King, contacted King and other clergymen to plan a citywide bus boycott. The group drafted demands and stipulated that no African-American would ride the buses on Dec 5. That day, nearly 20,000 black citizens refused bus rides. Because blacks comprised 90 percent of the passengers, most buses were empty. When the boycott ended 381 days later, Montgomerys transit system was nearly bankrupt. Then on Dec. 20, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that enforcing segregation on public transit was unconstitutional. Buoyed by success, the movements leaders met in January 1957 in Atlanta and formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to coordinate nonviolent protests through black churches. King was elected president and held the post until his death. In early 1958, Kings first book, Stride Toward Freedom, was published. While signing books in Harlem, New York, King was stabbed by a mentally ill black woman. As he recovered, he visited Indias Gandhi Peace Foundation in February 1959 to refine his protest strategies. Birmingham In April 1963, King and the SCLC joined Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) in a nonviolent campaign to end segregation and force Birmingham, Alabama, businesses to hire blacks. Fire hoses and vicious dogs were unleashed on the protesters by â€Å"Bull† Connors policemen. King was thrown into jail, where he wrote Letter From a Birmingham Jail, affirming his peaceful philosophy. The brutal images galvanized the nation. Money poured in to support the protesters; white sympathizers joined demonstrations. By summer, thousands of public facilities nationwide were integrated, and companies began to hire blacks. The resulting political climate pushed passage of civil rights legislation. On June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy drafted the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson after Kennedys assassination. March on Washington Then came the March on Washington, D.C.,  on Aug. 28, 1963. Nearly 250,000 Americans listened to speeches by civil rights activists, but most had come for King. The Kennedy administration, fearing violence, edited a speech by John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and invited white organizations to participate, causing some blacks to denigrate the event. Malcolm X labeled it the â€Å"farce in Washington. Crowds far exceeded expectations. Speaker after speaker addressed them. The heat grew oppressive, but then King stood up. His speech started slowly, but King stopped reading from notes, either by inspiration or gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouting, â€Å"Tell em about the dream, Martin!† He had had a dream, he declared, â€Å"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.† It was the most memorable speech of his life. Nobel Prize King, now known worldwide, was designated Time magazines â€Å"Man of the Year† in 1963. He won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, donating his $54,123 prize to advancing civil rights. Not everyone was thrilled by Kings success. Since the bus boycott, King had been under scrutiny by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoping to prove King was under communist influence, Hoover filed a request with Attorney General Robert Kennedy to put him under surveillance, including break-ins at homes and offices and wiretaps. Poverty In the summer of 1964, Kings nonviolent concept was challenged by deadly riots in the North. King believed their origins were segregation and poverty and shifted his focus to poverty, but he couldnt garner support. He organized a campaign against poverty in 1966 and moved his family into Chicagos black ghetto, but he found that strategies successful in the south didnt work in Chicago. Blacks turned from Kings peaceful course to the radical concepts of Malcolm X. King refused to yield, addressing what he considered the harmful philosophy of Black Power in his last book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? King sought to clarify the link between poverty and discrimination and to address Americas increased involvement in Vietnam, which he considered unjustifiable and discriminatory toward the poor. Kings last major effort, the Poor Peoples Campaign, was organized with other civil rights groups to bring impoverished people to live in tent camps on the National Mall starting April 29, 1968. Last Days Earlier that spring, King had gone to Memphis, Tennessee, to join a march supporting a strike by black sanitation workers. After the march began, riots broke out; 60 people were injured and one person was killed, ending the march. On April 3, King gave what became his last speech. He wanted a long life, he said, and had been warned of danger in Memphis but said death didnt matter because hed been to the mountaintop and seen the promised land. On April 4, 1968, King stepped onto the balcony of Memphis Lorraine Motel. A rifle bullet tore into his face. He died at St. Josephs Hospital less than an hour later. Kings death brought widespread grief to a violence-weary nation. Riots exploded across the country. Legacy Kings body was brought home to Atlanta to lie at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he had co-pastored with his father for many years. At Kings April 9, 1968, funeral, great words honored the slain leader, but the most apropos eulogy was delivered by King himself, via a recording of his last sermon at Ebenezer: If any of you are around when I meet my day, I dont want a long funeral...Id like someone to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others...And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. King had achieved much in the short span of 11 years. With accumulated travel topping 6 million miles, King could have gone to the moon and back 13 times. Instead, he traveled the world, making over 2,500 speeches, writing five books, leading eight major nonviolent efforts for social change, and being arrested over 20 times. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan created a national holiday to celebrate the man who did so much for the United States. Sources Abernathy, Ralph David. And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography. Paperback, Unabridged edition, Chicago Review Press, April 1, 2010. Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63. America in the King Years, Reprint edition, Simon Schuster, November 15, 1989. Garrow, David. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Paperback, Reprint edition, William Morrow Paperbacks, January 6, 2004. ï » ¿Hansen, Drew. Mahalia Jackson and Kings Improvisation.† The New York Times, Aug. 27, 2013. McGrew, Jannell. â€Å"The Montgomery Bus Boycott: They Changed the World. X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. Alex Haley, Attallah Shabazz, Paperback, Reissue edition, Ballantine Books, November 1992.