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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 nonviolent resistance. King concluded that the Christian doctrine of love, operating through nonviolence, could be a powerful weapon for his people.
In , 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 University's School of Theology.
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While King knew early on that she had all the qualities he desired in a wife, initially, Coretta was hesitant about dating a minister. The couple married on June 18, King's father performed the ceremony at Coretta's 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 Coretta, meanwhile, was committed to her husband's work but was conflicted about her role. King wanted her to stay home with their four children: Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice. Explaining her feelings on the issue, Coretta told Jeanne Theoharis in a article in The Guardian , a British newspaper:.
And to a degree, King seemed to agree with his wife, saying he fully considered her a partner in the struggle for civil rights as well as on all other issues with which he was involved. Indeed, in his autobiography, he stated:. Yet, Coretta felt strongly that her role, and the role of women in general in the civil rights movement, had long been "marginalized" and overlooked, according to The Guardian.
As early as , Corretta wrote in an article published in the British women's magazine New Lady:. 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.
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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. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which created a national holiday on the third Monday in January to remember Dr. King on his birthday. His legacy for nonviolent action and civil disobedience still lives on.
Top Skip to main content. January 15, - April 4, Enlarge. Leery of accumulating wealth as a high-profile figure, Martin Jr. However, he was known to splurge on good suits and fine dining, while contrasting his serious public image with a lively sense of humor among friends and family. Due to his relationships with alleged Communists, King became a target of FBI surveillance and, from late until his death, a campaign to discredit the civil rights activist.
Edgar Hoover , which urged King to kill himself if he wanted to prevent news of his dalliances from going public. In , historian David Garrow wrote of explosive new allegations against King following his review of recently released FBI documents. Among the discoveries was a memo suggesting that King had encouraged the rape of a parishioner in a hotel room as well as evidence that he might have fathered a daughter with a mistress.
The original surveillance tapes regarding these allegations are under judicial seal until From late through , King expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. He was met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young Black power leaders. To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War.
He sought to broaden his base by forming a multiracial coalition to address the economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people. By , the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on King. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress of civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from other African American leaders.
In the spring of , a labor strike by Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade. Longevity has its place.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. In September , King survived an attempt on his life when a woman with mental illness stabbed him in the chest as he signed copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in a New York City department store. King died at age The shocking assassination sparked riots and demonstrations in more than cities across the country.
The shooter was James Earl Ray , a malcontent drifter and former convict.
He initially escaped authorities but was apprehended after a two-month international manhunt. In , Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Another complicating factor is the confession of tavern owner Loyd Jowers, who said he contracted a different hit man to kill King.
In June , more than two years after Ray died, the U. Years after his death, he is the most widely known Black leader of his era. His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington D. Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible, and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.
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Malcolm X. Ethel Kennedy. Huey P. Dred Scott. Benjamin Banneker. Marcus Garvey. Madam C. Legacy Quotes. Date: May 17, Six years before he told the world of his dream, King stood at the same Lincoln Memorial steps as the final speaker of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.
Date: December 10, Speaking at the University of Oslo in Norway, King pondered why he was receiving the Nobel Prize when the battle for racial justice was far from over, before acknowledging that it was in recognition of the power of nonviolent resistance. Date: March 25, At the end of the bitterly fought Selma-to-Montgomery march, King addressed a crowd of 25, supporters from the Alabama State Capitol.
How long? A national hero and a civil-rights figure of growing importance, King summoned together a number of black leaders in and laid the groundwork for the organization now known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference SCLC. King was elected its president, and he soon began helping other communities organize their own protests against discrimination.
After finishing his first book and making a trip to India, King returned to the United States in to become co-pastor, with his father, of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Three years later, King's nonviolent tactics were put to their most severe test in Birmingham, during a mass protest for fair hiring practices and the desegregation of department-store facilities.
Police brutality used against the marchers dramatized the plight of blacks to the nation at large, with enormous impact. King was arrested, but his voice was not silenced: He wrote "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" to refute his critics. Later that year King was a principal speaker at the historic March on Washington, where he delivered one of the most passionate addresses of his career.
Time magazine designated him as its Person of the Year for A few months later he was named recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. When he returned from Norway, where he had gone to accept the award , King took on new challenges. In Selma, Ala. King next brought his crusade to Chicago, where he launched programs to rehabilitate the slums and provide housing.
In the North, however, King soon discovered that young and angry blacks cared little for his preaching and even less for his pleas for peaceful protest. Their disenchantment was one of the reasons he rallied behind a new cause: the war in Vietnam. Although he was trying to create a new coalition based on equal support for peace and civil rights, it caused an immediate rift.
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But from the vantage point of history, King's timing was superb. Students, professors, intellectuals, clergymen and reformers rushed into the movement. Then, King turned his attention to the domestic issue that he felt was directly related to the Vietnam struggle: poverty. He called for a guaranteed family income, he threatened national boycotts, and he spoke of disrupting entire cities by nonviolent "camp-ins.
Biography of martin luther king: Martin Luther King, Jr., was a visionary leader and advocate for equality who spearheaded the civil rights movement in America through nonviolent protests, inspiring lasting change and leaving an enduring legacy.
King interrupted these plans to lend his support to the Memphis sanitation men's strike. He wanted to discourage violence, and he wanted to focus national attention on the plight of the poor, unorganized workers of the city. The men were bargaining for basic union representation and long-overdue raises. But he never got back to his poverty plans.
While standing outside with Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, King was shot in the neck by a rifle bullet. His death caused a wave of violence in major cities across the country. However, King's legacy has lived on. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. Today it stands next to his beloved Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.