Martin Luther King Biography

I’m an African American male and I was born on January 15, 1929. I am the second child of Martin Luther King Sr and Alberta Williams King. Along with my older sister, the future Christine King Farris , and younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. Michael King Sr. stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. He became a successful minister, and adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr.I grew up in the city’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, then home to some of the most prominent and prosperous African Americans in the country. I graduated in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where I earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of predominantly white
senior class. I enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. While I was in Boston I met a woman named Coretta Scott. She was young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. She soon became the love of my life and we married June 18th, 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama. We had four children, Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III. Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King. I became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. I completed my Ph.D. and was awarded my degree in 1955. I was only 25 years old. On March 2, 1955, a 15-year-old girl didn't get up to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus and it was a violation of local law. She was arrested and taken to jail. The local chapter of the NAACP thought they had a good test case to challenge Montgomery's segregated bus policy. But then they found out that she was pregnant. So the civil rights leaders feared it would cause issues with the religious black community and make Colvin less believable in the eyes of the whites that felt bad. But on December 1, 1955, a lady named Rosa Parks, an African American, 42-years old, refused to give up her seat to a white man because she had a long hard day at work. While operating a bus, drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and black passengers by assigning seats. This was accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and African-American passengers in the back. The driver asked her to give up her seat again and she refused. She was arrested and up for violating the Montgomery City Code, Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code. . She was found guilty at her trial. She had an effort to end segregation. Rosa was arrested that night and I met with the NAACP chapter that night with other local civil rights leaders .Members of the African-American community were asked to stay off city buses on Monday, December 5, 1955 We were trying to plan a citywide bus boycott. They elected me to lead the boycott. News of the boycott spread, African American leaders across Montgomery, Alabama’s capital city, began lending their support, a general-interest newspaper, published a front-page article on the planned action.
We wanted , courtesy, the hiring of black drivers, and a first-come, first-seated policy, with whites entering and filling seats from the front and African Americans from the rear. African Americans represented at least 75 percent of Montgomery’s bus ridership. To make sure that the boycott would work with African Americans not riding the bus, the city’s African American taxi drivers charged only 10 cents. Which the same price as bus for African-American riders. On June 5, 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But on December 20, 1956. Montgomery’s buses were integrated on December 21, 1956, and the boycott ended. The bus boycott lasted 381 days, Montgomery maintained segregated bus stops. I travel around the world giving speeches on nonviolent protests. But on August 28th, 1963, over 250,000 people attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The black, white, poor, rich all came together on this day. All fighting for the rights for African Americans to be treated the same, not segregated. I was the last speaker. My “ I have A Dream
Speech”,
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.” I told the crowd. In this Civil rights Movement, much was changed. One thing was the ratification of the 24th Amendment to the Constitution and Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination with employment, education and outlawed racial segregation in
public. On October 14, 1964 I won a Nobel Peace Prize. I was only 35 years old, I was the youngest to win the Nobel Prize. I was awarded the Prize for my nonviolent resistance to racial prejudice in America. It was an honor to be African American and also be the youngest to win the prize. I gotten a lot of criticism from young racial who had condemned my advocacy of non-violence as “criminal” in the face of the continuing repression suffered by African Americans. In 1965 I led Selma to Montgomery March. Protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. We achieved our goal, walking around the clock. It lasted three days and we finally reached Montgomery. It raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters. It was for the need of Voting Rights Act. It was soon passed the same year. In 1968 on April 3rd, I was preparing for a march to Washington to lobby congress. It was for the poor, so the SCLC and I got called to Memphis, Tennessee. We were there to support the sanitation workers strike. I gave a speech at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis. My speech ended with, “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Around 6 p.m that same day, I was standing on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Hotel. But all of a sudden, I got hit in my jaw. I was shot in my jaw by a sniper. I died April 4th, 1968. I was rushed to a hospital, where I was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39. The man that killed me was named James Earl Ray, he was an outspoken racist. He was a confirmed racist and small-time criminal, Ray began plotting my assassination. Many people were upset about my assassination. Sparked rioting in more than 100 cities around the country, including burning and looting. President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Americans to “reject the blind violence” that had killed of me. Whom he called the “apostle of nonviolence.” He called Congress to pass the civil rights legislation then entering the House of Representatives for debate, calling it a fitting legacy to King and my life’s work. On April 11, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. No testimony was heard in his trial. He soon confessed, but he claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy. Soon he found sympathy from my family. U.S. government conducted several investigations into the trial, each time confirming Ray’s guilt as the sole assassin controversy still surrounds the assassination.