Speeches, marches honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Born Michael King, Jr. (1929-01-15)January 15, 1929 Atlanta, Georgia, United States Died April 4, 1968(1968-04-04) (aged39) Memphis, Tennessee, United States Monuments Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Alma mater Morehouse College (B.A.) Crozer Theological Seminary (B.D.) Boston University (Ph.D.) Organization Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Influencedby Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Benjamin Mays, Hosea Williams, Bayard Rustin, Henry David Thoreau, Howard Thurman, Leo Tolstoy Political movement African-American Civil Rights Movement, Peace movement Religion Baptist (Progressive National Baptist Convention) Spouse Coretta Scott King (m. 195368) Children Yolanda Denise-King (deceased) Martin Luther King III Dexter Scott King Bernice Albertine King Parents Martin Luther King, Sr. Alberta Williams King Awards Nobel Peace Prize (1964), Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977, posthumous), Congressional Gold Medal (2004, posthumous) Signature

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.[1] He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.[2] King has become a national icon in the history of modern American liberalism.[3]

A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career.[4] He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the middle child of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King.[5] King Jr. had an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King.[6]:76 King sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind.[7]

King was originally skeptical of many of Christianity's claims.[8] Most striking, perhaps, was his initial denial of the bodily resurrection of Jesus during Sunday school at the age of thirteen. From this point, he stated, "doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly".[9] However, he later concluded that the Bible has "many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter the seminary.[8]

Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School. A precocious student, he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school.[10] In 1948, he graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, and enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951.[11][12] King married Coretta Scott, on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents' house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama.[13] They became the parents of four children; Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice King.[14] King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, when he was twenty-five years old, in 1954.[15] King then began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his Doctor of Philosophy on June 5, 1955, with a dissertation on "A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman". A 1980s inquiry concluded portions of his dissertation had been plagiarized and he had acted improperly but that his dissertation still "makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship",[16][17][18]

Civil rights leader, theologian, and educator Howard Thurman was an early influence on King. A classmate of King's father at Morehouse College,[19] Thurman mentored the young King and his friends.[20] Thurman's missionary work had taken him abroad where he had met and conferred with Mahatma Gandhi.[21] When he was a student at Boston University, King often visited Thurman, who was the dean of Marsh Chapel.[22] Walter Fluker, who has studied Thurman's writings, has stated, "I don't believe you'd get a Martin Luther King, Jr. without a Howard Thurman".[23]

With assistance from the Quaker group the American Friends Service Committee, and inspired by Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, King visited Gandhi's birthplace in India in 1959.[6]:3 The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America's struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation."[6]:1356 African American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin had studied Gandhi's teachings.[24] Rustin counseled King to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence,[25] served as King's main advisor and mentor throughout his early activism,[26] and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.[27] Rustin's open homosexuality, support of democratic socialism, and his former ties to the Communist Party USA caused many white and African-American leaders to demand King distance himself from Rustin.[28]

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Speeches, marches honor Martin Luther King Jr.