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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (JANUARY 15TH 1929 TO APRIL 4TH 1968) One of the world's best known advocates of non-violent social change strategies, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929 to Reverend and Mrs Martin Luther King Sr in Atlanta, Georgia, King's roots were in the African-American Baptist church. From an early age, King admired black social gospel proponents such as his father who saw the church as an instrument for improving the lives of African Americans. 1948 was a very busy year for King in which he graduated from Morehouse College, Atlanta with a BA in Sociology in June. He was also ordained and became assistant pastor to his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta. By the September of the same year he entered Crozer Theological Seminary, Chester, Pennsylvania and three years later he graduated as Bachelor of Divinity. King met Coretta Scott in Boston in 1952. She went on with the aid of a scholarship to work her way through the New England Conservatory in Boston. On 18th June 1953 King Sr performed the marriage of King and Coretta Scott in Marion Alabama. But it was in Boston that they began their married life together. In May 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education decision paved the way for school desegregation as the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Morehouse College president Benjamin Mays and other proponents of Christian social activism influenced King's decision after his junior year at Morehouse to become a minister and thereby serve society. His continued scepticism, however, shaped his subsequent theological studies at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and at Boston University, where he received a doctorate in systematic theology in 1955. Rejecting offers for academic positions, King decided while completing his Ph. D. to return to the South and accepted the pastorate of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In November 1955 the first child of four Yolanda Denise (Yoki) was born to the Kings. The Montgomery civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to obey the city's rules with regards to segregation on buses and this led to black residents launching a bus boycott. On December 5th 1955 King was elected as president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. This position gained King national recognition as a result of his outstanding oratorical skills. His house was bombed and he was convicted along with other boycott leaders on charges of conspiring to interfere with the bus company's operations. Despite these attempts to suppress the movement, Montgomery buses were desegregated in December, 1956, after the United States Supreme Court declared Alabama's segregation laws unconstitutional. On May 17, three years to the day after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, King participated with other civil rights leaders in a Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington. He delivered his first major national address, calling for black voting rights. The next month, he met with Vice-President Richard Nixon. On September 9, Congress passed the 1957 Civil Rights Act. The Act created the Civil Rights Commission, established the Civil Right Division of the Justice Department, and empowered the federal government to seek court injunctions against obstruction of voting rights. Martin Luther III, the King's second child and first son was born in Montgomery on October 23 1957. Following the success of the Montgomery boycott movement, in 1957 King along with over 60 black ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As SCLC's president, King emphasised the goal of black voting rights. During 1958, he published his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. While King was autographing his newly published book on September 20th 1958 he was stabbed in the chest by Mrs Izola Curry in a Harlem department store. The following year, he toured India, increasing his understanding of Gandhi's non-violent strategies. At the end of 1959, he resigned from Dexter and returned to Atlanta where the SCLC headquarters was located and where he also could assist his father as pastor of Ebenezer. The King's third child , Dexter Scott, was born on January 30th 1961. In March of the same year the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), along with SNCC and SCLC, announced a new campaign - the Freedom Rides. One bus is burned and stoned in Anniston, Albama on May 14. In November as a result largely of the Freedom Rides, the Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation on buses, trains and supportive facilities. Bernice Albertine, the fourth child of Dr. and Mrs. King, was born on March 28th 1963. On December 10th of the same year King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. He is the 12th American, 3rd black and at age 35, the youngest person to win the coveted prize. King led a demonstration in Memphis on March 28th 1968. When the march turned violent King left Memphis distressed over the violence. He returned on April 3 in the hopes of leading a peaceful march. He told a crowd at the Memphis Masonic Temple, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land." The following day, April 4, King was shot in the neck on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. He later died at St. Joseph's Hospital. Rioting in Washington's black section was the worst seen in the capital's history. The President declared April 7th a national day of mourning for King. Thousands of people attended King's funeral on April 9 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Millions more watched on television. King's tragic murder represented a low point in American history and with his death the world lost one of its most inspiring and humane leaders. Sources http://www.mlk-online.net/ |
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