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IMPROVING THE LIVES OF BLACK PEOPLE THROUGH
AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION
IMPROVING THE LIVES OF BLACK PEOPLE THROUGH
AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION
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| Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968 |
| AAASM Black History Research Project |
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther
King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the
family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving
from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from
1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended
segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of
fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a
distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and
grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer
Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a
predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a
fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University,
completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in
1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon
intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into
the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastoral of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for
members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading
organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December,
1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration
of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar
Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382
days. 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. 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.
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. The ideals for this organization he took from
Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period
between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over
twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and
action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these
years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention
of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and
inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution;
he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he
directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he
delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F.
Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested
upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five
honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and
became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have
received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced
that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil
rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room
in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with
striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the
family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving
from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from
1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended
segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of
fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a
distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and
grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer
Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a
predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a
fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University,
completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in
1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon
intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into
the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastoral of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for
members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading
organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December,
1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration
of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar
Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382
days. 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. 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.
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. The ideals for this organization he took from
Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period
between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over
twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and
action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these
years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention
of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and
inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution;
he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he
directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he
delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F.
Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested
upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five
honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and
became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have
received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced
that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil
rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room
in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with
striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott was born in
Heiberger, Alabama and raised
on the farm of her parents Bernice
McMurry Scott, and Obadiah Scott,
in Perry County, Alabama. She
was exposed at an early age to
the injustices of life in a
segregated society.
Coretta Scott was born in
Heiberger, Alabama and raised
on the farm of her parents Bernice
McMurry Scott, and Obadiah Scott,
in Perry County, Alabama. She
was exposed at an early age to
the injustices of life in a
segregated society.
She walked five miles a day to attend the one-room Crossroad
School in Marion, Alabama, while the white students rode buses
to an all-white school closer by. Young Coretta excelled at her
studies, particularly music, and was valedictorian of her
graduating class at Lincoln High School. She graduated in 1945
and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs,
Ohio.
As an undergraduate, she took an active interest in the nascent
civil rights movement; she joined the Antioch chapter of the
NAACP, and the college's Race Relations and Civil Liberties
Committees. She graduated from Antioch with a B.A. in music
and education and won a scholarship to study concert singing at
New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
In Boston she met a young theology student, Martin Luther King,
Jr., and her life was changed forever. They were married on
June 18, 1953, in a ceremony conducted by the groom's father,
the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Coretta Scott King completed her
degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory and
the young couple moved in September 1954 to Montgomery,
Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. accepted an appointment
as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
School in Marion, Alabama, while the white students rode buses
to an all-white school closer by. Young Coretta excelled at her
studies, particularly music, and was valedictorian of her
graduating class at Lincoln High School. She graduated in 1945
and received a scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs,
Ohio.
As an undergraduate, she took an active interest in the nascent
civil rights movement; she joined the Antioch chapter of the
NAACP, and the college's Race Relations and Civil Liberties
Committees. She graduated from Antioch with a B.A. in music
and education and won a scholarship to study concert singing at
New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
In Boston she met a young theology student, Martin Luther King,
Jr., and her life was changed forever. They were married on
June 18, 1953, in a ceremony conducted by the groom's father,
the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. Coretta Scott King completed her
degree in voice and violin at the New England Conservatory and
the young couple moved in September 1954 to Montgomery,
Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr. accepted an appointment
as Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
| January 1964 |
| January 2009 |
| Hear His Words |