Martin luther king jr biography sparknotes 1984

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929–April 4, 1968) is considered one of history’s greatest speakers and social activists. He is known for his nonviolent philosophy. His leadership helped end segregation during the American civil rights movement.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was born, his parents, Michael and Alberta, gave him a different name from the one we know today. They called him Michael. But Michael Sr. later changed his name and his son’s to Martin Luther, after the famous religious leader. The middle-class family was very religious. Both Martin’s father and grandfather were pastors in Atlanta, Georgia. The King children grew up in a loving home but experienced racism from an early age.

Separate Is Never Equal

King attended segregated public schools in Georgia. He skipped the ninth and eleventh grades and graduated from high school at 15. It was around that time that he joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization. King’s father led the NAACP’s Atlanta chapter.

In 1948, King graduated from Morehouse College, in Atlanta. He went on to study religion at Crozer Theological Seminary, in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1951, he graduated with honors and was class valedictorian. Soon after, he enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Boston University (B.U.), in Massachusetts. He met music student Coretta Scott in Boston. The couple married in 1953 and later had two sons and two daughters.

In 1954, while completing his degree, King moved to Montgomery, Alabama. He became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Soon after, on December 1, 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give her seat to white passengers on a Montgomery city bus. In response, the NAACP chose King to lead a citywide bus boycott. For 381 days, members of the Black community walked or carpooled to work. Many of them were attacked.

The NAACP filed a lawsuit against the city of Montgomery

December 19, 1897 to November 11, 1984

In a speech expressing his views on “the true mission of the Church,” Martin Luther King, Sr., told his fellow clergymen that they must not forget the words of God: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.... In this we find we are to do something about the brokenhearted, poor, unemployed, the captive, the blind, and the bruised” (King, Sr., 17 October 1940). Martin Luther King, Jr., credited his father with influencing his decision to join the ministry, saying: “He set forth a noble example that I didn’t [mind] following” (Papers 1:363).

King, Sr., was born Michael King on 19 December 1897, in Stockbridge, Georgia. The eldest son of James and Delia King, King, Sr., attended school from three to five months a year at the Stockbridge Colored School. “We had no books, no materials to write with, and no blackboard,” he wrote, “But I loved going” (King, Sr., 37).

King experienced a number of brutal incidents while growing up in the rural South, including witnessing the lynching of a black man. On another occasion he had to subdue his drunken father who was assaulting his mother. His mother took the children to Floyd Chapel Baptist Church to “ease the harsh tone of farm life” according to King (King, Sr., 26). Michael grew to respect the few black preachers who were willing to speak out against racial injustices, despite the risk of violent white retaliation. He gradually developed an interest in preaching, initially practicing eulogies on the family’s chickens. By the end of 1917, he had decided to become a minister.

In the spring of 1918, King left Stockbridge to join his sister, Woodie, in Atlanta. The following year, Woodie King boarded at the home of A. D. Williams, minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church. King seized the opportunity to introduce himself to the minister’s daughter, Alberta Williams. Her pa

American Baptist preacher (1899–1984)

Martin Luther King Sr. (born Michael King; December 19, 1899 – November 11, 1984) was an African-American Baptist pastor, missionary, and an early figure in the civil rights movement. He was the father and namesake of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He was the senior pastor of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church from 1931 to 1975.

Biography

Martin Luther King was born Michael King in Stockbridge, Georgia, the son of Delia (née Linsey; 1875–1924) and James Albert King (1864–1933).

King was a member of the Floyd Chapel Baptist Church and decided to become a preacher after being inspired by ministers who were prepared to stand up for racial equality. He was boarding with Reverend A. D. Williams, then pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. After King started courting Williams' daughter, Alberta, her family encouraged him to finish his education and to become a preacher. King completed his high school education at Bryant Preparatory School, and began to preach in several black churches in Atlanta.

In 1925, he began to study theology at the Morehouse College, while working daytime as a mechanic's helper and railroad firefighter. He obtained a Bachelor of Theology in 1931.

Ministry

In 1927, he became assistant pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta, then senior pastor in 1931. With the country in the midst of the Great Depression, church finances were struggling, but King organized membership and fundraising drives that restored these to health. By 1934, King had become a widely respected leader of the local church. That year, he also changed his name, and that of his eldest son, from Michael King to Martin Luther King after a period of gradual transition on his own part.

He was inspired during a trip to Germany for that year's meeting of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). While visiting sites associated with reform

BIRTH AND FAMILY

THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

THE CREATION OF SCLC

THE ALBANY MOVEMENT: 1961–1962

THE BIRMINGHAM PROTEST: 1963

THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON: 1963

THE SELMA-TO-MONTGOMERY MARCH

THE CHICAGO MOVEMENT: 1965–1966

THE POOR PEOPLE’s CAMPAIGN: 1968

NATIONAL HOLIDAY: 1983

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Of political leaders, statesmen, and great figures with national and international influence during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is in a class by himself. Before the twentieth century faded into history and time, King, because of his commitment to humanitarian principles and values, had elevated himself into a universal political icon admired and beloved by millions. Before his death, he was a living legend. The international community, in awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963, recognized the global significance of his work and life. Twenty years later, in 1983, the U.S. government honored him for this same commitment with a national holiday. Beyond these international and national awards, many states, counties, and cities have named streets, highways, parks, buildings, bridges, centers, fellowships, prizes, and endowed academic chairs in his honor. Cultural institutions and individuals have created plays, songs, poems, pageants, bronze busts, and statues as tributes to him. There have been theater movies, television movies and programs, radio programs and presentations, public school presentations, and countless readings of his speeches, as well as grand orations and speeches about him and his influence. Since his death, every U.S. president has issued presidential proclamations on his birthday to honor him on behalf of the nation. Words of honor and praise have been continuous. In point of fact, they have never stopped.

Beyond the words and visual images, there have been the printed thoughts. Doctoral dissertations, senior and master’s theses, books, book chapters, scholarly journal