The revolutionary life and career of Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
was a Baptist minister and an influential civil rights leader
and activist in the United States. He was born in Atlanta,
Georgia, and played a key role in the African American civil
rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. King is best
known for his advocacy of nonviolent resistance and civil
disobedience, especially with his famous "I Have a Dream"
speech, delivered during the 1963 March on Washington for
Jobs and Freedom. After one year, 1964, Martin became the
youngest man who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
From childhood, King came from a comfortable middle-class family steeped in the tradition of the Southern
Black ministry.While his father (Martin Luther King Sr.) was a Baptist preacher, his mother (Alberta Williams
King) was a talented musician and organist. Both of them are college-educated and instilled in him a strong sense of
faith, moral values, and the importance of service to others. This secure upbringing, however, did not prevent King
from experiencing the prejudices and discrimination then common in the 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.
He attended Morehouse College after he skipped ninth and twelfth grades and graduated a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Sociology in 1948. He later earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary and a
Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston University in 1951 and 1955 respectively.
While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, a native Alabamian
who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music.
They were married in 1953 and had four children. King had been
pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery,
Alabama, slightly more than a year when the city’s small group of
civil rights advocates decided to contest racial segregation on that
city’s public bus system following the incident on December 1,
1955, in which Rosa Parks, an Africa n American woman, had
refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger and as a
consequence was arrested for violating the city’s segregation law.
Activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to
boycott the transit system and chose King as their leader. He had the advantage of being a young, well-trained man
who was too new in town to have made enemies; he was generally respected, and it was thought that his family
connections and professional standing would enable him to find another pastorate should the boycott fail.
Recognizing the need for a mass movement to capitalize on the successful Montgomery action, King set about
organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, which gave him a base of operation
throughout the South, as well as a national platform from which to promote civil rights activism. In February 1959
he and his party were warmly received by India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and others; as the result of a
brief discussion with followers of Gandhi about the Gandhian concepts of peaceful noncompliance (satyagraha),
King became increasingly convinced that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed
people in their struggle for freedom. King led numerous marches, sit-ins, and peaceful demonstrations to challenge
racial segregation and discrimination.
One of King's most iconic moments came during the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Standing in
front of the Lincoln Memorial, he delivered his famous "I Have a
Dream" speech, calling for racial equality and an end to discrimination.
The speech is considered a defining moment in American history
King's efforts and the broader civil rights movement played a
significant role in advancing civil rights legislation in the United States.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were
key achievements that outlawed racial segregation and protected voting
rights for African Americans. In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance and his
commitment to racial equality. He was the youngest recipient of the
prize at that time.
Tragically, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. King was shot
at 6:01 pm while he was standing on the motel’s second-floor balcony. His assassination sparked widespread
outrage and led to an outpouring of grief and protests across the nation. After King's death, Coretta Scott King
followed in her husband's footsteps to become an activist fighting for civil rights and social justice. During the year
Martin Luther King was assassinated, Mrs. King established the King Center to preserve his legacy and promote
nonviolence in struggle and tolerance worldwide. His stature as a major historical figure was confirmed by the
successful campaign to establish a national holiday in his honour in the United States and by the building of a King
memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C., near the Lincoln Memorial, the site of his famous “I Have a
Dream” speech in 1963. Many states and municipalities have enacted King holidays, authorized public statues and
paintings of him, and named streets, schools, and other entities for him.