Martin Luther King Jr.
|
---|
|
|
|
In office
January 10, 1957 ? April 4, 1968
|
Preceded by
| Position established
|
---|
Succeeded by
| Ralph Abernathy
|
---|
|
|
Born
| Michael King Jr.
(
1929-01-15
)
January 15, 1929
Atlanta
,
Georgia
, U.S.
|
---|
Died
| April 4, 1968
(1968-04-04)
(aged 39)
Memphis, Tennessee
, U.S.
|
---|
Cause of death
| Assassination
by
sniper
|
---|
Political party
| Republican
[1]
|
---|
Spouse(s)
| |
---|
Children
| Yolanda
Martin
Dexter
Bernice
|
---|
Parents
| Martin Luther King Sr.
Alberta Williams King
|
---|
Relatives
| Christine King Farris
(sister)
Alfred Daniel Williams King
(brother)
Alveda King
(niece)
|
---|
Education
| Morehouse College
(
BA
)
Crozer Theological Seminary
(
BDiv
)
Boston University
(
PhD
)
|
---|
Occupation
| Minister
,
activist
|
---|
Known for
| Civil Rights Movement
,
Peace movement
|
---|
Awards
| Nobel Peace Prize
(1964)
Presidential Medal of Freedom
(1977, posthumous)
Congressional Gold Medal
(2004, posthumous)
|
---|
Religion
| Baptists
|
---|
Monuments
| Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
|
---|
Signature
| |
---|
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(born
Michael King, Jr.
; January 15, 1929 ? April 4, 1968)
[2]
was an
American
pastor
,
activist
,
humanitarian
, and leader in the
Civil Rights Movement
. He was best known for improving
civil rights
by using
nonviolent
civil disobedience
, based on his
Christian
beliefs. Because he was both a
Ph.D.
and a pastor, King was sometimes called the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. (abbreviation: the Rev. Dr. King), or just Dr King.
[a]
He is also known by his initials
MLK
. He was the pastor of the
Ebenezer Baptist Church
in
Atlanta
,
Georgia
.
Martin Luther King jr worked hard to make people understand that not only black people but that all
races
should always be treated equally to
white people
. He gave speeches to encourage
African Americans
to
protest
without using
violence
.
Led by Dr. King and others, many African Americans used nonviolent, peaceful strategies to fight for their civil rights. These strategies included
sit-ins
,
boycotts
, and protest marches. Often, they were attacked by white police officers or people who did not want African Americans to have more rights. However, no matter how badly they were attacked, Dr. King and his followers never fought back.
King also helped to organize the 1963
March on Washington
, where he delivered his "
I Have a Dream
" speech. The next year, he won the
Nobel Peace Prize
.
King fought for equal rights from the start of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott
in 1955 until
he was murdered
by
James Earl Ray
in April 1968.
Family: The members of his family include
Dexter
(d. 2024).
[3]
Michael King, Jr. was born at 501 Auburn Avenue in
Atlanta
,
Georgia
, on January 15, 1929.
[4]
Although the name "Michael" appeared on his
birth certificate
, his name was later changed to Martin Luther in honor of
German
reformer
Martin Luther
.
[5]
As King was growing up, everything in Georgia was
segregated
, 70 years after the
Confederacy
was defeated and blacks were later separated away from white people. This meant that black and white people were not allowed to go to the same schools, use the same public bathrooms, eat at the same restaurants, drink at the same water fountains, or even go to the same
hospitals
. Everything was separated. However, the white hospitals, schools, and other places were usually much better than the places where black people were allowed to go.
[6]
At age 6, King first went through
discrimination
(being treated worse than a white person because he was black). He was sent to an all-black school, and a white friend was sent to an all-white school.
[2]
Once, when he was 14, King won a contest with a speech about
civil rights
. When he was going back home on a bus, he was forced to give up his seat and stand for the bus ride so a white person could sit down.
[2]
At the time, white people were seen as more important than black people. If a white person wanted a seat, that person could take the seat from any African American.
[6]
King later said having to give up his seat made him "the angriest I've ever been in my life."
[7]
King went to segregated schools in Georgia, and finished
high school
at age 15.
[5]
He went on to
Morehouse College
in Georgia, where his father and grandfather had gone.
[5]
After graduating from
college
in 1948, King decided he was not exactly the type of person to join the
Baptist Church
. He was not sure what kind of
career
he wanted. He thought about being a
doctor
or a
lawyer
. He decided not to do either, and joined the Baptist Church.
[8]
King went to a
seminary
in
Pennsylvania
to become a pastor. While studying there, King learned about the non-violent methods used by
Mahatma Gandhi
against the
British Empire
in
India
. King was convinced that these non-violent methods would help the civil rights movement.
[9]
Finally, in 1955, King earned a
Ph.D.
from
Boston University
's School of
Theology
.
[2]
King first started his civil rights
activism
in 1955. At that time, he led a protest against the way black people were
segregated
on buses.
[10]
They had to sit at the back of the bus, separate from white people.
[6]
He told his supporters, and the people who were against equal rights, that people should only use peaceful ways to solve the problem.
[11]
King was chosen as president of the
Montgomery
Improvement Association (MIA), which was created during the boycott.
Rosa Parks
later said: "Dr. King was chosen in part because he was relatively new to the community and so [he] did not have any
enemies
."
[12]
King ended up becoming an important leader of the boycott, becoming famous around the country, and making many enemies.
[13]
King was
arrested
for starting a boycott. He was
fined
$500, plus $500 more in
court
costs.
[14]
His house was fire-
bombed
. Others involved with MIA were also threatened.
[10]
However, by December 1956, segregation had been ended on Montgomery's buses. People could sit anywhere they wanted on the buses.
[15]
After the bus boycott, King and
Ralph Abernathy
started the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC).
[10]
The group decided that they would only use non-violence. Its
motto
was "Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed."
[16]
The SCLC chose King as its president.
[10]
In 1963, King helped plan the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
. This was the largest protest for human rights in United States history.
[17]
On August 28, 1963, about 250,000 people marched from the
Washington Monument
to the
Lincoln Memorial
.
[17]
[18]
Then they listened to civil rights leaders speak. King was the last speaker. His speech, called "
I Have a Dream
," became one of history's most famous civil rights speeches.
[19]
King talked about his dream that one day, white and black people would be equal.
That same year, the United States government passed the
Civil Rights Act
. This
law
made many kinds of
discrimination
against black people
illegal
.
[20]
The March on Washington made it clear to the United States government that they needed to take action on civil rights, and it helped get the Civil Rights Act passed.
[21]
In 1964, King was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize
.
[5]
When presenting him with the award, the Chairman of the Nobel Committee said:
Today, now that mankind [has] the
atom bomb
, the time has come to lay our weapons and
armaments
aside and listen to the message Martin Luther King has given us[:] "The choice is either nonviolence or nonexistence"....
[King] is the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races.
[9]
King and many others then started working on the problem of racism in
voting
. At the time, many of the
Southern
states had laws which made it very hard or impossible for African-Americans to vote. For example, they would make African Americans pay extra taxes, pass reading tests, or pass tests about the
Constitution
. White people did not have to do these things.
[22]
In 1963 and 1964, civil rights groups in
Selma, Alabama
had been trying to sign African-American people up to vote, but they had not been able to. At the time, 99% of the people signed up to vote in Selma were white.
[23]
However, the government workers who signed up voters were all white. They refused to sign up African-Americans.
[22]
In January 1965, these civil rights groups asked King and the SCLC to help them. Together, they started working on voting rights.
[2]
However, the next month, an African-American man named
Jimmie Lee Jackson
was shot by a
police officer
during a peaceful march. Jackson died.
[24]
pp. 121?123
Many African-American people were very angry.
The SCLC decided to organize a march from Selma to Montgomery.
[25]
By walking 54
miles
(87
kilometers
) to the state
capital
, activists hoped to show how badly African-Americans wanted to vote. They also wanted to show that they would not let racism or violence stop them from getting equal rights.
[23]
The first march was on March 7, 1965. Police officers, and people they had chosen to help them, attacked the marchers with
clubs
and
tear gas
. They threatened to throw the marchers off the
Edmund Pettus Bridge
. Seventeen marchers had to go to the
hospital
, and 50 others were also
injured
.
[26]
This day came to be called
Bloody Sunday
. Pictures and
film
of the marchers being beaten were shown around the world, in
newspapers
and on
television
.
[27]
Seeing these things made more people support the civil rights activists. People came from all over the United States to march with the activists. One of them,
James Reeb
, was attacked by white people for supporting civil rights. He died on March 11, 1965.
[28]
Finally, President
Lyndon B. Johnson
decided to send soldiers from the
United States Army
and the Alabama
National Guard
to protect the marchers.
[24]
From March 21 to March 25, the marchers walked along the "
Jefferson Davis
Highway" from Selma to Montgomery.
[24]
Led by King and other leaders, 25,000 people who entered Montgomery on March 25.
[24]
He gave a speech called "How Long? Not Long" at the Alabama State
Capitol
. He told the marchers that it would not be long before they had equal rights, "because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward
justice
."
[29]
On August 6, 1965, the United States passed the
Voting Rights Act
. This law made it illegal to stop somebody from voting because of their race.
[30]
After this, King continued to fight
poverty
and the
Vietnam War
.
[2]
King had made
enemies
by working for civil rights and becoming such a powerful leader. The
Ku Klux Klan
did what they could to hurt King's
reputation
, especially in the South. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
watched King closely. They
wiretapped
his phones, his home, and the phones and homes of his friends.
[31]
On April 4, 1968, King was in
Memphis, Tennessee
. He planned to lead a protest march to support garbage workers who were on
strike
. At 6:01 pm, he was shot while he was standing on the
balcony
of his
motel
room.
[32]
pp. 284?285
The
bullet
entered through his right
cheek
and travelled down his
neck
. It cut open the biggest
veins
and
arteries
in King's neck before stopping in his shoulder.
[33]
King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital. His
heart had stopped
. Doctors there cut open his
chest
and tried to make his
heart
start pumping again.
[33]
However, they were unable to save King's life as he died at 7:06 p.m.
[32]
pp. 284?285
King's death led to riots in many cities.
[34]
In March 1969,
James Earl Ray
was
found guilty
of killing King. He was
sentenced
to 99 years in
prison
.
[35]
Ray died in 1998.
[36]
Just days after King's death, Congress passed the
Civil Rights Act of 1968
.
[37]
Title VIII of the Act, usually called the
Fair Housing Act
, made it illegal to discriminate in housing because of a person's race, religion, or
home country
. (For example, this made it illegal for a
realtor
to refuse to let a black family buy a house in a white neighborhood.) This law was seen as a tribute to King's last few years of work fighting housing discrimination in the United States.
[37]
“
|
[After I die,] I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others.
... I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry... to clothe those who were naked... to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
[38]
? Martin Luther King, Jr., February 4, 1968
|
”
|
|
After his death, King was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
.
[39]
King and his wife were also awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal
.
[40]
In 1986, the United States government created a national
holiday
in King's honor. It is called
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
. It is celebrated on the third
Monday
in
January
.
[2]
This is around the time of King's birthday. Many people fought for the holiday to be created, including singer
Stevie Wonder
.
In 2003, the United States Congress passed a law allowing the beginning words of King's "I Have a Dream" speech to be carved into the Lincoln Memorial.
[41]
King County
in the state of
Washington
, is named after King.
[42]
Originally, the county was named after
William R. King
, an American
politician
who owned
slaves
.
[42]
In 2005, the King County government decided the county would now be named after Martin Luther King, Jr. Two years later, they changed their official
logo
to include a picture of King.
[42]
More than 900 streets in the United States have also been named after King. These streets exist in 40 different states;
Washington, D.C.
,
Puerto Rico
. and many others
[43]
In 2011, a
memorial
statue
of King was put up on the
National Mall
in Washington, D.C.
There are also memorials for King around the world. These include:
[44]
- ↑
In the United States, a person who has any kind of
Ph.D.
is called a "doctor." This is not the same as being a
medical doctor
.
- ↑
"Martin Luther King was a Republican: Listen as Pastor Mark Burns Explain Why Blacks Vote Democrat"
.
YouTube
.
- ↑
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
Kirk, John A. (2016).
"Did Martin Luther King Achieve His Life's Dream?"
.
BBC Online
. British Broadcasting Company, Inc. Archived from
the original
on March 12, 2016
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/5BxOLE/soennen-til-martin-luther-king-dexter-king-er-doed
. Retrieved 2024-01-22
- ↑
"Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site--Atlanta: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary"
.
www.nps.gov
. Retrieved
2021-04-05
.
- ↑
5.0
5.1
5.2
5.3
"Martin Luther King, Jr. ? Biography"
.
The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize
. The Nobel Foundation. 2014
. Retrieved
February 17,
2016
.
- ↑
6.0
6.1
6.2
Novkov, Julie (July 23, 2007).
"Segregation (Jim Crow)"
.
Encyclopedia of Alabama
. Auburn University, The University of Alabama, and Alabama State Department of Education
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Fleming, Alice (2008).
Martin Luther King Jr.: A Dream of Hope
. Sterling. p. 9.
ISBN
978-1-4027-4439-6
.
- ↑
King Jr., Martin Luther; Carson, Clayborne; Holloran, Peter; Luker, Ralph; Russell, Penny A. (1992).
The papers of Martin Luther King, Jr
. University of California Press. p. 8.
ISBN
0-520-07950-7
.
- ↑
9.0
9.1
Gunnar Jahn (December 10, 1964).
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964 ? Presentation Speech
(Speech). Oslo, Norway
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
10.0
10.1
10.2
10.3
"Our History"
.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
. Archived from
the original
on February 6, 2015
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Martin Luther King, Jr. (December 5, 1955).
Address to the First Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting
(Speech). Montgomery, Alabama. Archived from
the original
on August 1, 2016
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Parks, Rosa
(2002). "Introduction". In Clayborne Carson; Kris Shepard (eds.).
A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
. Grand Central Publishing. p.
2
.
ISBN
978-0446678094
.
- ↑
Fletcher, Michael A. (August 31, 2013).
"Ralph Abernathy's widow says march anniversary overlooks her husband's role"
.
The
Washington Post
. Washington, D.C
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
"BBC On this Day: 1956: King convicted for bus boycott"
.
BBC Online
.
British Broadcasting Corporation, Inc.
22 March 1956
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Wright, H. R.
The Birth of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
(1991). Charro Book Co., Inc. p.123.
ISBN
0-9629468-0-X
- ↑
Sagert, Kelly Boyer (2007).
The 1970s
. Greenwood Publishing Group. p.
24
.
ISBN
978-0313339196
.
- ↑
17.0
17.1
"Official Program for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom"
.
Bayard Rustin Papers: John F. Kennedy Library
. National Archives and Records Administration. August 28, 1963
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
Hansen, D, D. (2003).
The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation
. New York, NY: Harper Collins. p. 177. ASIN B008TFYU54
- ↑
Moore, Lucinda (August 2003).
"Dream Assignment"
.
Smithsonian Magazine Online
.
Smithsonian Institution
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
"Transcript of Civil Rights Act (1964)"
.
Avalon Project, Yale Law School
.
United States Congress
. July 2, 1964
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Bartlett, Bruce (August 9, 2013).
"The 1963 March on Washington Changed Politics Forever"
.
The Fiscal Times
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
22.0
22.1
Pildes RH 2000 (2000).
"Democracy, Anti-Democracy, and the Canon"
.
Constitutional Commentary
.
17
.
doi
:
10.2139/ssrn.224731
.
hdl
:
11299/168068
.
SSRN
224731
. Retrieved
February 2,
2016
.
{{
cite journal
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ↑
23.0
23.1
Shahn, Ben (March 19, 1965).
"The Central Points"
.
TIME Online
. TIME, Inc. Archived from
the original
on November 5, 2012
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
24.0
24.1
24.2
24.3
Davis, Townsend (1998).
Weary Feet, Rested Souls
. W.W. Norton.
ISBN
978-0393318197
.
- ↑
Kryn, Randall (1989). "James L. Bevel: The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement". In David J. Garrow (ed.).
We Shall Overcome: The Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s
. Carlson Publishers.
ISBN
978-0926019027
.
- ↑
Reed, Roy (March 6, 1966).
"
'Bloody Sunday' Was Year Ago"
.
The
New York Times
. New York, New York. p. 76
. Retrieved
March 9,
2015
.
- ↑
Sheila Jackson Hardy; Stephen Hardy (August 11, 2008).
Extraordinary People of the Civil Rights Movement
. Paw Prints. p. 264.
ISBN
978-1-4395-2357-5
.
- ↑
"Reeb, James (1927-1965)"
.
King Institute Encyclopedia
.
Stanford University
. Archived from
the original
on January 30, 2016
. Retrieved
February 17,
2016
.
- ↑
Leeman, Richard W. (1996).
African-American Orators: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook
. Greenwood Publishing. p. 220.
ISBN
0-313-29014-8
.
- ↑
"History of Federal Voting Rights Laws: The Voting Rights Act of 1965"
.
Civil Rights Division
.
United States Department of Justice
. August 8, 2015
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
Christensen, Jen (December 29, 2008).
"FBI tracked King's every move - CNN.com"
.
CNN Online
. Cable News Network, Turner Broadcasting, Inc
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
32.0
32.1
Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives (1979).
Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representaatives: Findings in the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
(Report). United States Government Printing Office.
- ↑
33.0
33.1
J.T. Francisco, M.D. (April 11, 1968).
Autopsy Report: Martin Luther King, Jr
(PDF)
(Report). Tennessee Department of Public Health, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. pp. 1?2
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Risen, Clay (2009).
A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination
. John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN
978-0-470-17710-5
.
- ↑
"1969: Martin Luther King's killer gets life"
.
On This Day 1950?2005: 10 March
. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Gelder, Lawrence (April 24, 1998).
"James Earl Ray, 70, Killer of Dr. King, Dies in Nashville"
.
New York Times
. New York, New York
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
37.0
37.1
"The History of Fair Housing"
. United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Archived from
the original
on March 27, 2012
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
Martin Luther King, Jr. (February 4, 1968).
The Drum Major Instinct
(Speech). Atlanta, Georgia. Archived from
the original
on February 11, 2018
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ↑
Carter, Jimmy (July 11, 1977).
"Presidential Medal of Freedom Remarks on Presenting the Medal to Dr. Jonas E. Salk and to Martin Luther King, Jr"
. The American Presidency Project.
Archived
from the original on January 4, 2013
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
"Congressional Gold Medal Recipients (1776 to Present)"
. Office of the Clerk: U.S. House of Representatives
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Ramanathan, Lavanya (January 26, 2012).
"Lincoln Memorial: The 'I Have a Dream' Etching"
.
Washington Post Online
. Archived from
the original
on March 5, 2016
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
42.0
42.1
42.2
"Martin Luther King Logo: New logo is an image of civil rights leader"
.
King County, Washington
. May 24, 2011. Archived from
the original
on September 25, 2008
. Retrieved
February 28,
2016
.
- ↑
"UT Professor Studies How Streets Are Named for Martin Luther King Jr"
.
Office of Communications and Marketing
. University of Tennessee at Knoxville. January 18, 2013. Archived from
the original
on April 12, 2016
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
- ↑
Wax, Emily (August 23, 2011).
"Martin Luther King Jr. sites across the globe"
.
The Washington Post
. Lifestyle: Full Coverage: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
. Retrieved
February 29,
2016
.
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