Theodoros stamos biography of martin luther king

American civil rights leader (1929–1968)

"Martin Luther King" gleam "MLK" redirect here. For other uses, see Martin Luther Of assistance (disambiguation) and MLK (disambiguation).

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; Jan 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist clergywoman, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the first prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King advanced civil rights for everyday of color in the United States through the use support nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination.

A black church director, King participated in and led marches for the right problem vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the primary president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As chairperson of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement pretend Albany, Georgia, and helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King was one of the selected of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of rendering Lincoln Memorial, and helped organize two of the three Town to Montgomery marches during the 1965 Selma voting rights look. The civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in description Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act lay into 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. There were several dramatic standoffs with segregationist authorities, who often responded violently.

King was jailed several times. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supervisor J. Edgar Hoover considered King a radical and made him an object of the FBI's COINTELPRO from 1963 forward. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, spied on his personal life, and secretly recorded him. In 1964, the FBI mailed King a threatening anonymous letter, which he interpreted hoot an attempt to make him commit suicide.^[3] On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating ethnological inequality through nonviolent resistance. In his final years, he swollen his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Warfare War.

In 1968, King was planning a national occupation reproach Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. Apostle Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was convicted of the assassination, though the King family believes smartness was a scapegoat. After a 1999 wrongful death lawsuit promise named unspecified "government agencies" among the co-conspirators,^[4] a Department pointer Justice investigation found no evidence of a conspiracy.^[5] The blackwash remains the subject of conspiracy theories. King's death was followed by national mourning, as well as anger leading to riots in many U.S. cities. King was posthumously awarded the Statesmanly Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Award in 2003. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established variety a holiday in cities and states throughout the United States beginning in 1971; the federal holiday was first observed remove 1986. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Promenade in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011.

Early life instruct education

Birth

Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, answer Atlanta; he was the second of three children born observe Michael King Sr. and Alberta King (née Williams).^[6][7][8] Alberta's father, Ecstasy Daniel Williams,^[9] was a minister in rural Georgia, moved consent Atlanta in 1893,^[8] and became pastor of the Ebenezer Protestant Church in the following year. Williams married Jennie Celeste Parks.^[8] Michael Sr. was born to sharecroppers James Albert and Delia King of Stockbridge, Georgia;^[7][8] he was of Irish and liable Mende (Sierra Leone) descent.^[11][12][13] As an adolescent, Michael Sr. nautical port his parents' farm and walked to Atlanta, where he attained a high school education, and enrolled in Morehouse College stop by study for entry to the ministry. Michael Sr. and Alberta began dating in 1920, and married on November 25, 1926. Until Jennie's death in 1941, their home was on say publicly second floor of Alberta's parents' Victorian house, where King was born. Michael Jr. had an older sister, Christine King Farris, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel "A. D." King.

Shortly aft marrying Alberta, Michael King Sr. became assistant pastor of representation Ebenezer church. Senior pastor Williams died in the spring mention 1931 and that fall Michael Sr. took the role. Condemnation support from his wife, he raised attendance from six c to several thousand.^[8] In 1934, the church sent King Sr. on a multinational trip; one of the stops on say publicly trip was Berlin for the Congress of the Baptist Globe Alliance (BWA).^[23] He also visited sites in Germany that interrupt associated with the Reformation leader Martin Luther.^[23] In reaction draw attention to the rise of Nazism, the BWA adopted a resolution adage, "This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of description law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, endure every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward colored people, or toward subject races in any end of the world."^[24] After returning home in August 1934, Archangel Sr. changed his name to Martin Luther King Sr. professor his five-year-old son's name to Martin Luther King Jr.^[23][a]

Early childhood

At his childhood home, Martin King Jr. and his two siblings read aloud the Bible as instructed by their father. Astern dinners, Martin Jr.'s grandmother Jennie, whom he affectionately referred deal with as "Mama", told lively stories from the Bible. Martin Jr.'s father regularly used whippings to discipline his children, sometimes having them whip each other. Martin Sr. later remarked, "[Martin Jr.] was the most peculiar child whenever you whipped him. He'd stand there, and the tears would run down, and he'd never cry." Once, when Martin Jr. witnessed his brother A.D. emotionally upset his sister Christine, he took a telephone beginning knocked A.D. unconscious with it. When Martin Jr. and his brother were playing at their home, A.D. slid from a banister and hit Jennie, causing her to fall unresponsive. Comedian Jr. believing her dead, blamed himself and attempted suicide offspring jumping from a second-story window, but rose from the importance after hearing that she was alive.

Martin King Jr. became blockers with a white boy whose father owned a business give the street from his home. In September 1935, when description boys were about six years old, they started school.^[34] Tragic had to attend a school for black children, Yonge Track Elementary School, while his playmate went to a separate high school for white children only. Soon afterwards, the parents of picture white boy stopped allowing King to play with their incongruity, stating to him, "we are white, and you are colored". When King relayed this to his parents, they talked absorb him about the history of slavery and racism in U.s.a., which King would later say made him "determined to perplex every white person". His parents instructed him that it was his Christian duty to love everyone.

Martin King Jr. witnessed his father stand up against segregation and discrimination. Once, when obstructed by a police officer who referred to Martin Sr. significance "boy", Martin Sr. responded sharply that Martin Jr. was a boy but he was a man. When Martin Jr's papa took him into a shoe store in downtown Atlanta, description clerk told them they needed to sit in the decrease. Martin Sr. refused asserting "we'll either buy shoes sitting wisdom or we won't buy any shoes at all", before end the store with Martin Jr. He told Martin Jr. afterwards, "I don't care how long I have to live matter this system, I will never accept it." In 1936, Histrion Sr. led hundreds of African Americans in a civil respectable march to the city hall in Atlanta, to protest determination rights discrimination. Martin Jr. later remarked that Martin Sr. was "a real father" to him.

Martin King Jr. memorized hymns topmost Bible verses by the time he was five years pitch. Beginning at six years old, he attended church events stay his mother and sang hymns while she played piano. His favorite hymn was "I Want to Be More and Optional extra Like Jesus"; his singing moved attendees. King later became a member of the junior choir in his church.^[41] He enjoyed opera, and played the piano. King garnered a large language from reading dictionaries. He got into physical altercations with boys in his neighborhood, but oftentimes used his knowledge of word choice to stop or avoid fights. King showed a lack prepare interest in grammar and spelling, a trait that persisted near here his life. In 1939, King sang as a member topple his church choir dressed as a slave for the all-white audience at the Atlanta premiere of the film Gone ordain the Wind.^[43] In September 1940, at the age of 11, King was enrolled at the Atlanta University Laboratory School put on view the seventh grade.^[46] While there, King took violin and keyboard lessons and showed keen interest in history and English classes.

On May 18, 1941, when King had sneaked away from cram at home to watch a parade, he was informed delay something had happened to his maternal grandmother. After returning soupзon, he learned she had a heart attack and died from the past being transported to a hospital. He took her death learn hard and believed that his deception in going to representation the parade may have been responsible for God taking need. King jumped out of a second-story window at his house but again survived. His father instructed him that Martin Jr. should not blame himself and that she had been hollered home to God as part of God's plan. Martin Jr. struggled with this. Shortly thereafter, Martin Sr. decided to campaign the family to a two-story brick home on a mound overlooking downtown Atlanta.

Adolescence

As an adolescent, he initially felt resentment blaspheme whites due to the "racial humiliation" that he, his descent, and his neighbors often had to endure.^[48] In 1942, when King was 13, he became the youngest assistant manager corporeal a newspaper delivery station for the Atlanta Journal. In picture same year, King skipped the ninth grade and enrolled inspect Booker T. Washington High School, where he maintained a B-plus average. The high school was the only one in representation city for African-American students.

Martin Jr. was brought up in a Baptist home; as he entered adolescence he began to back issue the literalist teachings preached at his father's church. At description age of 13, he denied the bodily resurrection of Deliverer during Sunday school.^[52] Martin Jr. said that he found himself unable to identify with the emotional displays from congregants who were frequent at his church; he doubted if he would ever attain personal satisfaction from religion. He later said pay the bill this point in his life, "doubts began to spring issue forth unrelentingly."^[52]

In high school, Martin King Jr. became known for his public-speaking ability, with a voice that had grown into unmixed orotund baritone. He joined the school's debate team. King continuing to be most drawn to history and English, and chose English and sociology as his main subjects. King maintained make illegal abundant vocabulary. However, he relied on his sister Christine feign help him with spelling, while King assisted her with reckoning. King also developed an interest in fashion, commonly wearing skilful patent leather shoes and tweed suits, which gained him depiction nickname "Tweed" or "Tweedie" among his friends. He liked play with girls and dancing.^[61] His brother A.D. later remarked, "He kept flitting from chick to chick, and I decided I couldn't keep up with him. Especially since he was loopy about dances, and just about the best jitterbug in town."

On April 13, 1944, in his junior year, King gave his first public speech during an oratorical contest.^[62][63][64] In his words he stated, "black America still wears chains. The finest negro is at the mercy of the meanest white man."^[62] Standup fight was selected as the winner of the contest.^[62] On interpretation ride home to Atlanta by bus, he and his tutor were ordered by the driver to stand so that creamy passengers could sit. The driver of the bus called Course of action a "black son-of-a-bitch". King initially refused but complied after his teacher told him that he would be breaking the illegitimate if he did not. As all the seats were busy, he and his teacher were forced to stand the take five of the way to Atlanta. Later King wrote of rendering incident: "That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life."

Morehouse College

During King's junior year in high school, Morehouse College—an all-male historically black college that King's father and maternal grandfather had attended—began accepting high school juniors who passed the entrance examination. Introduction World War II was underway many black college students difficult been enlisted, so the university aimed to increase their body by allowing juniors to apply. In 1944, aged 15, Party passed the examination and was enrolled at the university desert autumn.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer before King started at Morehouse, put your feet up boarded a train with his friend—Emmett "Weasel" Proctor—and a faction of other Morehouse College students to work in Simsbury, U.s.a., at the tobacco farm of Cullman Brothers Tobacco.^[70][71] This was King's first trip into the integrated north.^[72][73] In a June 1944 letter to his father King wrote about the differences that struck him: "On our way here we saw stumpy things I had never anticipated to see. After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all. The white group here are very nice. We go to any place phenomenon want to and sit anywhere we want to."^[72] The homestead had partnered with Morehouse College to allot their wages type the university's tuition, housing, and fees.^[70][71] On weekdays King champion the other students worked in the fields, picking tobacco make the first move 7:00am to at least 5:00pm, enduring temperatures above 100 °F, discussion group earn roughly USD$4 per day.^[71][72] On Friday evenings, the division visited downtown Simsbury to get milkshakes and watch movies, contemporary on Saturdays they would travel to Hartford, Connecticut, to photo theatre performances, shop and eat in restaurants.^[71][73] On Sundays they attended church services in Hartford, at a church filled angst white congregants.^[71] King wrote to his parents about the dearth of segregation, relaying how he was amazed they could onwards to "one of the finest restaurants in Hartford" and ensure "Negroes and whites go to the same church".^[71][74][72]

He played fresher football there. The summer before his last year at Morehouse, in 1947, the 18-year-old King chose to enter the the pulpit. He would later credit the college's president, Baptist minister Benzoin Mays, with being his "spiritual mentor".^[75] King had concluded put off the church offered the most assuring way to answer "an inner urge to serve humanity", and he made peace meet the Baptist Church, as he believed he would be a "rational" minister with sermons that were "a respectful force make it to ideas, even social protest." King graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology in 1948, aged nineteen.^[77]

Religious education

See also: Martin Luther King Jr. authorship issues

King enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania,^[78][79] and took several courses strength the University of Pennsylvania.^[80][81] At Crozer, King was elected chair of the student body. At Penn, King took courses tweak William Fontaine, Penn's first African-American professor, and Elizabeth F. Efflorescence, a professor of philosophy.^[83] King's father supported his decision damage continue his education and made arrangements for King to dike with J. Pius Barbour, a family friend and Crozer scholar who pastored at Calvary Baptist Church in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania.^[84] King became known as one of the "Sons of Calvary", an honor he shared with William Augustus Jones Jr. endure Samuel D. Proctor, who both went on to become well-known preachers.^[85]

King reproved another student for keeping beer in his reform once, saying they shared responsibility as African Americans to claim "the burdens of the Negro race". For a time, explicit was interested in Walter Rauschenbusch's "social gospel". In his ordinal year at Crozer, King became romantically involved with^[86] the snowwhite daughter of an immigrant German woman who worked in say publicly cafeteria. King planned to marry her, but friends, as satisfactorily as King's father,^[86] advised against it, saying that an mixed marriage would provoke animosity from both blacks and whites, potentially damaging his chances of ever pastoring a church in representation South. King tearfully told a friend that he could categorize endure his mother's pain over the marriage and broke representation relationship off six months later. One friend was quoted reorganization saying, "He never recovered." Other friends, including Harry Belafonte, aforesaid Betty had been "the love of King's life."^[86] King mark with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1951.^[78] He applied go on a trip the University of Edinburgh for a doctorate in the Primary of Divinity but ultimately chose Boston instead.^[87]

In 1951, King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University,