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In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision, and he was ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church in February Later that year, King earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and began attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, was elected student body president, and was valedictorian of his class in He also earned a fellowship for graduate study.
He became romantically involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the relationship.
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Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change. After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, King enrolled at Boston University. He completed his doctorate and earned his degree in at age A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University determined that King was guilty of plagiarism in , though it also recommended against the revocation of his degree.
As explained in his autobiography , King previously felt that the peaceful teachings of Jesus applied mainly to individual relationships, not large-scale confrontations. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking. Led by his religious convictions and philosophy of nonviolence, King became one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement.
He was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and played key roles in several major demonstrations that transformed society. The effort began on December 1, , when year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after work. As more passengers boarded, several white men were left standing, so the bus driver demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats.
Three other Black passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated. The driver asked her again to give up her seat, and again, she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. On the night Parks was arrested, E. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained, and had solid family connections and professional standing.
He was also new to the community and had few enemies, so organizers felt he would have strong credibility with the Black community. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began December 5, , and for more than a year, the local Black community walked to work, coordinated ride sharing, and faced harassment, violence, and intimidation. In addition to the boycott, members of the Black community took legal action against the city ordinance that outlined the segregated transit system.
They argued it was unconstitutional based on the U. Board of Education After the legal defeats and large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law that mandated segregated public transportation. The boycott ended on December 20, Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts.
In January , King, Ralph Abernathy , and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of Black churches. The SCLC helped conduct nonviolent protests to promote civil rights reform. The SCLC felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process.
King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues. By , King was gaining national exposure. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church but also continued his civil rights efforts. His next activist campaign was the student-led Greensboro Sit-In movement.
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The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. King encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests. By August , the sit-ins had successfully ended segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities. On October 19, , King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied.
When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested. Soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the presidential campaign when candidate John F. Kennedy expressed his concern over the harsh treatment Martin received for the traffic ticket, and political pressure was quickly set in motion.
King was soon released. In the spring of , King organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama.
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With entire families in attendance, city police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. Historians and observers have noted that King did not support gender equality in the civil rights movement. Parks' December 1, , arrest presented the perfect opportunity to make a case for desegregating the transit system. 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 Black person would ride the buses on December 5. That day, nearly 20, Black citizens refused bus rides. When the boycott ended days later, Montgomery's transit system was nearly bankrupt. Additionally, on November 23, in the case of Gayle v. Browder , the U.
Supreme Court ruled that "Racially segregated transportation systems enforced by the government violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," according to Oyez, an online archive of U. The court also cited the landmark case of Brown v.
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Board of Education of Topeka , where it had ruled in that "segregation of public education based solely on race violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," according to Oyez. On December 20, , the Montgomery Improvement Association voted to end the boycott. Buoyed by success, the movement's leaders met in January in Atlanta and formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to coordinate nonviolent protests through Black churches.
King was elected president and held the post until his death. In early , King's first book, "Stride Toward Freedom," which detailed the Montgomery bus boycott, was published. While signing books in Harlem, New York, King was stabbed by a Black woman with a mental health condition. As he recovered, he visited India's Gandhi Peace Foundation in February to refine his protest strategies.
In the book, greatly influenced by Gandhi's movement and teachings, he laid six principles, explaining that nonviolence:. Is not a method for cowards; it does resist : King noted that "Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight. Does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding : Even in conducting a boycott, for example, the purpose is "to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent" and the goal is one of "redemption and reconciliation," King said.
Is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil: "It is evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil," King wrote. The fight is not one of Black people versus White people, but to achieve "but a victory for justice and the forces of light," King wrote.
Is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, to accept blows from the opponent without striking back: Again citing Gandhi, King wrote: "The nonviolent resister is willing to accept violence if necessary, but never to inflict it. He does not seek to dodge jail. Avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit: Saying that you win through love not hate, King wrote: "The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he also refuses to hate him.
Is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice: The nonviolent person "can accept suffering without retaliation" because the resister knows that "love" and "justice" will win in the end. Fred Shuttlesworth of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in a nonviolent campaign to end segregation and force Birmingham, Alabama, businesses to hire Black people.
King was thrown into jail. King spent eight days in the Birmingham jail as a result of this arrest but used the time to write "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," affirming his peaceful philosophy. The brutal images galvanized the nation.
Biography of martin luther king: Martin Luther King, Jr. (born January 15, , Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.—died April 4, , Memphis, Tennessee) was a Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mids until his death by assassination in
Money poured in to support the protesters; White allies joined demonstrations. By summer, thousands of public facilities nationwide were integrated, and companies began to hire Black people. The resulting political climate pushed the passage of civil rights legislation. On June 11, , President John F. The law prohibited racial discrimination in public, ensured the "constitutional right to vote," and outlawed discrimination in places of employment.
Then came the March on Washington, D. Both of martin luther king jr father and grandfather were pastors in an african american baptist church. Civil Rights Movement. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King. February 27, PM By brieanna.
January 15, PM By Azera. September 28, PM By someone. It does in British-English. October 07, AM By Tejvan. August 28, PM By dhoni. Thank you for all of your help this helped me build and essay. September: King moves to Montgomery, Ala. Bus boycott launches in Montgomery, Ala. King is named first president one month later. In this typical year of demonstrations, King travels , miles and makes speeches.
Garfield High School becomes the first Seattle high school with a more than 50 percent nonwhite student body. While King is promoting his book in a Harlem book store, an African American woman stabs him. He had a lifelong admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi, and credited Gandhi's passive resistance techniques for his civil-rights successes.
The sit-in protest movement begins in February at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N. C: Groups of black and white people ride buses through the South to challenge segregation. King makes his only visit to Seattle. He visits numerous places, including two morning assemblies at Garfield High School. Kennedy to urge support for civil rights.
Blacks become the majority at Garfield High, 51 percent of the student population - a first for Seattle. The school district average is 5. Two killed, many injured in riots as James Meredith is enrolled as the first black at the University of Mississippi. Police arrest King and other ministers demonstrating in Birmingham, Ala.
About 1, people march from the Central Area to downtown Seattle, demanding greater job opportunities for blacks in department stores. The Bon Marche promises 30 new jobs for blacks. About people rally at Seattle City Hall to protest delays in passing an open-housing law. In response, the city forms a member Human Rights Commission but only two blacks are included, prompting a sit-in at City Hall and Seattle's first civil-rights arrests.
At the Lincoln Memorial, King delivers the famous "I have a dream" speech. The event is highlighted by King's "I have a dream" speech. The Seattle School District implements a voluntary racial transfer program, mainly aimed at busing black students to mostly white schools. Voters defeat it by a 2-to-1 ratio. It will be four more years before an open-housing ordinance becomes law.
Three civil-rights workers are murdered in Mississippi. King's book "Why We Can't Wait" is published.