“Negroes and whites go [to] the same church,” he noted in a letter to his parents. 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. HistoryNet - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Spartacus Educational - Biography of Martin Luther King. He organized a number of marches and protests and was a key figure in the U.S. civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King, Jr., influenced people around the world. “I never [thought] that a person of my race could eat anywhere.” This summer experience in the North only deepened King’s growing hatred of racial segregation. 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. 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. King, Martin Luther, Jr., Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park attracts large numbers of national and international visitors. This secure upbringing, however, did not prevent King from experiencing the prejudices then common in the South. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. He was an activist for the human rights of African-American communities in the United States and less favored, as well as an activist against the Vietnam War. He was shocked by how peacefully the races mixed in the North.

Being 25 years old, Martin Luther King was named pastor of the Baptist Church of Dexter Avenue. The boycott lasted 382 days. Bennett, Lerone, Jr., What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chicago, Johnson, 1964. His father was the minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta—the same church where Martin Luther King, Jr., would eventually minister. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. They had two more children: Alfred and Christine. Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. “Martin Luther King, Jr.”, in Current Biography Yearbook 1965, ed. Finally, in 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead by a segregationist on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in the city of Memphis while delivering a speech. He organized and staged countless marches and boycotts during the civil rights movement. Get kids back-to-school ready with Expedition: Learn! He would obtain a degree in Theology in 1951 at Crozer Theological Seminary and later received a doctorate in Philosophy from Boston University in 1955. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

This protest was joined by several black taxi drivers, who lower their fares to the price of the bus ride, as well as several people, black and white, who began to offer rides in their own cars. Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize. 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. Thu. After 382 days of protest, in which the house of King and that of other pastors were attacked with incendiary bombs, in which several activists were attacked and even Martin Luther King himself was arrested, the Supreme Court of the United States declared illegal the segregationist law in 1956, which was applied not only on buses, but also in schools, restaurants, parks and other public places. New York, Harper & Row, 1963. and inspiring his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, “l Have a Dream”, he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. To cite this section During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank. . An hour later, King died at St. Joseph’s hospital. He started his college education at Morehouse College at the young age of fifteen. by Charles Moritz, pp. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. Since Rosa Parks refused to do so, as a way of protesting the murder of three African-Americans committed that same year, she was arrested. The following year, in 1964, Luther King would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his constant fight for the rights of the African Americans. “Man of the Year”, Time, 83 (January 3, 1964) 13-16; 25-27. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929, and died in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. For more than a century, these academic institutions have worked independently to select Nobel Laureates in each prize category. Renowned for his oratorical skills, King was elected president of Crozer’s student body, which was composed almost exclusively of white students. 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. He was an activist for the human rights of African-American communities in the United States and less favored, as well as an activist against the Vietnam War. Nobelprize.org - Biography of Martin Luther King Jr. BlackPast.org - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Westminster Abbey - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Encyclopedia of Alabama - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. United States History - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. University of Kentucky - Martin Luther King Center - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Martin Luther King, Jr. - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Unlike Malcolm X and some radical movements, Luther King was characterized by fighting the injustices of these communities through peaceful discourse. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Baptist minister and social rights activist in the United States in the 1950s and ’60s. Reddick, Lawrence D., Crusader without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, Harper, 1959. The boycott was for blacks to stop using buses and use alternative means of transport, such as bicycles, walking or even using mules. In 1965, Martin Luther King led a march in Montgomery with the objective of claiming the right to vote for black citizens, but this was violently received by authorities and some white people, so this date is known as Bloody Sunday. Adams, Russell, Great Negroes Past and Present, pp. Thanks to this position, he was able to react to the discrimination that Rosa Parks suffered on December 1, 1955, on one of Montgomery’s buses. “I believe that disarmed truth and unconditional love will have the last word” Martin Luther King Jr. On August 28, Luther King led a march of 250,000 people to the capitol in Washington where he gave his speech “I have a dream” which has been considered one of the best speeches given in the history of the United States. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15, 1929. At Morehouse, King favoured studies in medicine and law, but these were eclipsed in his senior year by a decision to enter the ministry, as his father had urged. Martin Luther King, Jr., was standing on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, when he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray. In Albany, he joined the Nonviolent Student Coordinating Committee and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to carry out protests of all kinds, without resorting to violence. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. New York, Time Life Books, 1968. New Georgia Encyclopedia - History and Archaeology - Biography of Martin Luther King Jr. Stanford University - The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute - Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. National Archives - Findings on MLK Assassination. New York, Harper & Row, 1967. His grandfather began the family’s long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor.

King, Martin Luther, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? In these demonstrations children also attended, which were of great help to evidence the segregationist practices in the south of the country. at the time of the award and first 106-107. 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. NobelPrize.org. In addition, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Martin Luther King (originally Michael Luther King), Jr., grew up as the middle child of Michael (later Martin Luther) King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King. New York, Harper & Row, 1963. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955.

220-223. Thus, on May 21, 1963, blacks were able to return to public places in Birmingham. In it, he asked for an equal salary to whites and blacks, protection for the rights activists of these communities, and the end of segregation in schools, work, and public environments. This autobiography/biography was written In a time of civil unrest, King advocated for peaceful approaches to some of society’s biggest problems.