Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15th 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia
King sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind
His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931
His father, Martin Luther King Senior has also served as a pastor
King Jr. was originally skeptical of many of Christianity's claims
Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School
He skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school
In 1948 he graduated from Morehouse, which was a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology,
Both his father and grandfather had graduated there
King married Coretta Scott, on June 18, 1953
They became the parents of four children; Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice King
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama when he was twenty-five years old
King then began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his Doctor of Philosophy on June 5, 1955
He was a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
In 1955 he accepted the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Black people had to give up their seats in busses for white people
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat which subsequently let to organizing a boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, urged and planned by Nixon and led by King, soon followed.
The first boycott was the bus boycott which lasted 382 days
During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank
On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement
Albany movement
The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in Albany, Georgia in November 1961. In December, King and the SCLC became involved. The movement mobilized thousands of citizens for a broad-front nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation within the city and attracted nationwide attention.
King returned in July 1962, and was sentenced to forty-five days in jail or a $178 fine. He chose jail.
Birmingham campaign
This was a strategic effort by the SCLC to promote civil rights for African Americans
Its goal was to end the city's segregated civil and discriminatory economic policies. The campaign lasted for more than two months in the spring of 1963
This massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, caught the attention of the entire world
Protests in Birmingham began with a boycott to pressure businesses to offer sales jobs and other employment to people of all races
Peaceful March on Washington
On the 23rd August 1963 he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream"
King's speech, helped put civil rights at the very top of the liberal political agenda in the United States and facilitated passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Bloody Sunday March, 17 1965
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement.
The first march took place on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas
The second march, the following Tuesday, resulted in 2,500 protesters turning around after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
The third march started March 16. The marchers averaged 10 miles (16 km) a day along
Chicago, 1966
King and others in the civil rights organizations tried to spread the movement to the North, with Chicago as its first destination.
King and Ralph Abernathy, both from the middle class, moved into a building at 1550 S. Hamlin Ave., in the slums of North Lawndale[81] on the West Side of Chicago, as an educational experience and to demonstrate their support and empathy for the poor.
Opposition to the Vietnam war
Starting in 1965, King began to express doubts about the United States' role in the Vietnam War.
The war took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare services
April 4, 1967 King delivered a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam"
Poor People's Campaign in 1968
The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C., demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States
On April 4th 1968 Dr King was shot dead in the southern US city of Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions
Wondershare EdrawMind
