"[26] Once when King witnessed his brother A.D. emotionally upset his sister Christine, he took a telephone and knocked out A.D. with it. In a large meeting March 10 at Warren Memorial Methodist Church, the audience was hostile and frustrated towards the elders and the compromise. [54] King maintained an abundant vocabulary. [306], Even within the King family, members disagree about his religious and political views about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Dr. Martin Luther King", "King remembered for civil rights achievements", "Martin Luther King Peace Committee; Martin Luther King Peace Committee; Newcastle University", "Martin Luther King Honorary Degree Ceremony", "Statue unveiled in honour of Martin Luther King Jr", "New name for Newcastle University's Student Union Mensbar revealed", "A Class Divided: One Friday in April, 1968", "Future of Atlanta's King Center in limbo", "Chairman's Message: Introduction to the King Center and its Mission", "Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire", Joseph Leahy, "St. Louis Remains A Stronghold For Dr. King's Dream", "Proclamation 6401 – Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday", "Contrarian New Hampshire To Honor Dr. King, at Last", "Martin Luther King Jr., Justice Without Violence – April 3, 1957", "Writings show King as liberal Christian, rejecting literalism", "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at The New School", "Book Review: Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen", "When Martin Luther King Jr. gave up his guns", "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story", "Ch. Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929.Although the name "Michael" appeared on his birth certificate, his name was later changed to Martin Luther in honor of German reformer Martin Luther.. As King was growing up, everything in Georgia was segregated, 70 years after the Confederacy was defeated and blacks were later separated away from white people. [120] On May 4, 1960, several months after his return, King drove writer Lillian Smith to Emory University when police stopped them. [275] However, Ray's fingerprints were found on various objects (a rifle, a pair of binoculars, articles of clothing, a newspaper) that were left in the bathroom where it was determined the gunfire came from. Powell asked fellow student Coretta Scott if she was interested in meeting a Southern friend studying divinity. As a Christian minister, King's main influence was Jesus Christ and the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings, speeches at church, and in public discourses. Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver expressed open hostility towards King's return to his hometown in late 1959. [15] He told King afterwards, "I don't care how long I have to live with this system, I will never accept it. "[287] In 2004, Jesse Jackson stated: The fact is there were saboteurs to disrupt the march. In the speech's most famous passage – in which he departed from his prepared text, possibly at the prompting of Mahalia Jackson, who shouted behind him, "Tell them about the dream! He also discusses the next phase of the civil rights movement and integration. [28][27] King, believing her dead, blamed himself and attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window. You better take it before your filthy fraudulent self is bared to the nation. I never came out with an endorsement. Martin Luther King Jr. and Martin Luther: The Parallels Between the Two Leaders The religious reformer and civil rights icon were born a half-millennium and thousands of … [117] King underwent emergency surgery with three doctors: Aubre de Lambert Maynard, Emil Naclerio and John W. V. Cordice; he remained hospitalized for several weeks. [167][168] During June, the movement marched nightly through the city, "often facing counter demonstrations by the Klan, and provoking violence that garnered national media attention." King's reputation improved immensely. "[21] He returned home in August 1934, and in that same year began referring to himself as Martin Luther King Sr., and his son as Martin Luther King Jr.[20][22][17] King's birth certificate was altered to read "Martin Luther King Jr." on July 23, 1957, when he was 28 years old. [289][290] King's work was cited by, and served as, an inspiration for South African leader Albert Lutuli, who fought for racial justice in his country and was later awarded the Nobel Prize. Her purpose was to help them understand King's death as it related to racism, something they little understood as they lived in a predominantly white community. [8] King's maternal grandfather Adam Daniel Williams,[9] who was a minister in rural Georgia, moved to Atlanta in 1893,[6] and became pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in the following year. He stated, "It wasn't a racist thing; he thought Martin Luther King was connected with communism, and he wanted to get him out of the way." Martin Luther King had his first experience of segregation at just six years old, when he was told he … [103], In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. [143], Bayard Rustin's open homosexuality, support of socialism, and his former ties to the Communist Party USA caused many white and African-American leaders to demand King distance himself from Rustin,[144] which King agreed to do. In addition to being nominated for three Grammy Awards, the civil rights leader posthumously won for Best Spoken Word Recording in 1971 for "Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam".[431]. [325], King had initially known little about Gandhi and rarely used the term "nonviolence" during his early years of activism in the early 1950s. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Say that I was a drum major for justice. [378], FBI director J. Edgar Hoover personally ordered surveillance of King, with the intent to undermine his power as a civil rights leader. [136], King was arrested and jailed early in the campaign—his 13th arrest[139] out of 29. Ilse Koch was nicknamed the “Witch of Buchenwald” for her extraordinary sadism. [418] Agents were watching King at the time he was shot. The citation read: Martin Luther King Jr. was the conscience of his generation. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The woman had been involved with a professor prior to her relationship with King. Hayling's group had been affiliated with the NAACP but was forced out of the organization for advocating armed self-defense alongside nonviolent tactics. This day has become known as Bloody Sunday and was a major turning point in the effort to gain public support for the civil rights movement. "James L. Bevel, The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement", a 1984 paper by Randall Kryn, published with a 1988 addendum by Kryn in Prof. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. [302], King's wife Coretta Scott King followed in her husband's footsteps and was active in matters of social justice and civil rights until her death in 2006. King was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, the second of three children to the Reverend Michael King Sr. and Alberta King (née Williams). I am afraid they would be stupefied at our conduct. Nixon's opponent John F. Kennedy called the governor (a Democrat) directly, enlisted his brother Robert to exert more pressure on state authorities, and also, at the personal request of Sargent Shriver, made a phone call to King's wife to express his sympathy and offer his help. [177] The march finally went ahead fully on March 25, 1965. [261] At his widow's request, King's last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was played at the funeral,[262] a recording of his "Drum Major" sermon, given on February 4, 1968. "[396], CIA files declassified in 2017 revealed that the agency was investigating possible links between King and Communism after a Washington Post article dated November 4, 1964 claimed he was invited to the Soviet Union and that Ralph Abernathy, as spokesman for King, refused to comment on the source of the invitation. In 1963, more than 200,000 people came to Washington, America's capital, to hear one man speak. Martin Luther King was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia (US). [223], On January 13, 1968 (the day after President Johnson's State of the Union Address), King called for a large march on Washington against "one of history's most cruel and senseless wars. King's flight to Memphis had been delayed by a bomb threat against his plane. [273] An examination of the rifle containing Ray's fingerprints determined that at least one shot was fired from the firearm at the time of the assassination. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. On this morning, January 15th,2021, my mind is thinking about what my eyes are seeing unfolding as I’m watching television. The two half-sisters, both daughters of Henry VIII, had a stormy ...read more, Muammar al-Qaddafi, the young Libyan army captain who deposed King Idris in September 1969, is proclaimed premier of Libya by the so-called General People’s Congress. "[426], In 1957, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. [60][56] On the ride home to Atlanta by bus, he and his teacher were ordered by the driver to stand so that white passengers could sit down. They would observe that for death planning we spend billions to create engines and strategies for war. [3], King believed that organized, nonviolent protest against the system of southern segregation known as Jim Crow laws would lead to extensive media coverage of the struggle for black equality and voting rights. [124], After the October 19 sit-ins and following unrest, a 30-day truce was declared in Atlanta for desegregation negotiations. [410] King interpreted this package as an attempt to drive him to suicide,[411] although William Sullivan, head of the Domestic Intelligence Division at the time, argued that it may have only been intended to "convince Dr. King to resign from the SCLC. He was a Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement, championing justice … In these remarks, King referred to a conversation he had recently had with Jawaharlal Nehru in which he compared the sad condition of many African Americans to that of India's untouchables. Oates (1993) and Schuman (2014) state King passed the exam in the spring of 1944 before graduating from the eleventh grade, then being enrolled in Morehouse that fall. Allegations that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Audiobook), America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, John F. 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King outlined his understanding of nonviolence, which seeks to win an opponent to friendship, rather than to humiliate or defeat him. King quoted from Henry George and George's book, Progress and Poverty, particularly in support of a guaranteed basic income. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws—racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. [281][282], In 2002, The New York Times reported that a church minister, Rev. "[75] King graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in sociology in 1948, aged nineteen. In 1964, the civil rights movement achieved two of its greatest successes: the ratification of the 24th Amendment, which abolished the poll tax, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public facilities. AMERICANS will honor the life and work of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr as they celebrate MLK Day today (Monday, January 18, 2021). Later that year, King became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2014 Malala Yousafzai became the youngest to receive the prize at age 17). At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington, D.C.'s history. The group was inspired by the crusades of evangelist Billy Graham, who befriended King,[104] as well as the national organizing of the group In Friendship, founded by King allies Stanley Levison and Ella Baker. William F. Pepper represented the King family in the trial. After graduation from Morehouse in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary and graduated in 1951. [45] In 1942, when King was 13 years old, he became the youngest assistant manager of a newspaper delivery station for the Atlanta Journal. [327][328], In the aftermath of the boycott, King wrote Stride Toward Freedom, which included the chapter Pilgrimage to Nonviolence. [369], He posited that "the money spent would be more than amply justified by the benefits that would accrue to the nation through a spectacular decline in school dropouts, family breakups, crime rates, illegitimacy, swollen relief rolls, rioting and other social evils. [400], In his 1989 autobiography And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, Ralph Abernathy stated that King had a "weakness for women", although they "all understood and believed in the biblical prohibition against sex outside of marriage. [350] Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee founder Ella Baker regarded King as a charismatic media figure who lost touch with the grassroots of the movement[351] as he became close to elite figures like Nelson Rockefeller. [162][163], The original typewritten copy of the speech, including King's handwritten notes on it, was discovered in 1984 to be in the hands of George Raveling, the first African-American basketball coach of the University of Iowa. There is some disagreement in sources regarding precisely when King took and passed the entrance exam in 1944. [432], King and his wife were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. [285][286] King's friend and colleague, James Bevel, also disputed the argument that Ray acted alone, stating, "There is no way a ten-cent white boy could develop a plan to kill a million-dollar black man. [273], In 1997, King's son Dexter Scott King met with Ray, and publicly supported Ray's efforts to obtain a new trial. According to King, "that agreement was dishonored and violated by the city" after he left town. [56] Later King wrote of the incident, saying "That night will never leave my memory. [30][32] Soon afterwards, the parents of the white boy stopped allowing King to play with their son, stating to him "we are white, and you are colored". [288], King's legacy includes influences on the Black Consciousness Movement and civil rights movement in South Africa. On the spur of the moment Dr. King wanted to go to an Indian Reservation to meet the people so Reverend Casper Glenn took King to the Papago Indian Reservation. Seeing an opportunity to unite civil rights activists and anti-war activists,[199] Bevel convinced King to become even more active in the anti-war effort. When the series first appeared, the police show had largely been given up for dead. Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders … At the time he received the honor in 1964, he was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at age 35; he donated all of the prize money to the civil rights movement to which he dedicated, and ultimately gave, his … [57][56][59] His brother A. D. later remarked, "He kept flitting from chick to chick, and I decided I couldn't keep up with him. As a result, King Sr. changed his own name as well as that of his 5-year-old son”… Martin Luther King married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953. I don't plan to run for any political office. I may not get there with you. President Kennedy was concerned the turnout would be less than 100,000. Two months after the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary I of England, Elizabeth Tudor, the 25-year-old daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is crowned Queen Elizabeth I at Westminster Abbey in London. King married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents' house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama. The SCLC petitioned for an injunction in federal court against the State of Alabama; this was denied and the judge issued an order blocking the march until after a hearing. On their first phone call, King told Scott "I am like Napoleon at Waterloo before your charms," to which she replied "You haven't even met me." [140] From his cell, he composed the now-famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" that responds to calls on the movement to pursue legal channels for social change. "[218] King had read Marx while at Morehouse, but while he rejected "traditional capitalism", he rejected communism because of its "materialistic interpretation of history" that denied religion, its "ethical relativism", and its "political totalitarianism. "[359] King then went to Southside Presbyterian, a predominantly Native American church, and was fascinated by their photos. It was the clearest demonstration up to that time of the dramatic potential of King and Bevel's nonviolence strategy. Jowers claimed to have received $100,000 to arrange King's assassination. [138] Not all of the demonstrators were peaceful, despite the avowed intentions of the SCLC. [253], Two months after King's death, James Earl Ray—who was on the loose from a previous prison escape—was captured at London Heathrow Airport while trying to leave England on a false Canadian passport. Criticism of King's plan was subdued in the wake of his death, and the SCLC received an unprecedented wave of donations for the purpose of carrying it out. Twitter. [7] King's older sister is Christine King Farris and his younger brother was Alfred Daniel "A.D." King. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? The movement mobilized thousands of citizens for a broad-front nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation within the city and attracted nationwide attention. [313] At the White House Rose Garden on November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King. [101] King was arrested during this campaign, which concluded with a United States District Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses. [29] His favorite hymn to sing was "I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus"; he moved attendees with his singing. [356], In September 1959, King flew from Los Angeles, California, to Tucson, Arizona. He was the son of Alberta Christine (Williams), a schoolteacher, and Martin Luther King Sr. a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Jerry Ray said that he had assisted his brother on one such robbery. [170] In his March 18,1964 interview by Robert Penn Warren, King compared his activism to his father's, citing his training in non-violence as a key difference. 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. He put into words his belief that one must not use force in this struggle "but match the violence of his opponents with his suffering. The young men often held bull sessions in their various apartments, discussing theology, sermon style, and social issues. Finally they would observe that we spend paltry sums for population planning, even though its spontaneous growth is an urgent threat to life on our planet. "[402], In his 1986 book Bearing the Cross, David Garrow wrote about a number of extramarital affairs, including one woman King saw almost daily. [108], Harry Wachtel joined King's legal advisor Clarence B. Jones in defending four ministers of the SCLC in the libel case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan; the case was litigated in reference to the newspaper advertisement "Heed Their Rising Voices". [125][126] Many students were disappointed at the compromise. [419] Immediately following the shooting, officers rushed out of the station to the motel. 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.' According to Garrow, "that relationship ... increasingly became the emotional centerpiece of King's life, but it did not eliminate the incidental couplings ... of King's travels." "[210][211], The "Beyond Vietnam" speech reflected King's evolving political advocacy in his later years, which paralleled the teachings of the progressive Highlander Research and Education Center, with which he was affiliated. [39] As he grew up, King garnered a large vocabulary from reading dictionaries and consistently used his expanding lexicon. Hundreds of the marchers were arrested and jailed. [406] The bureau also sent anonymous letters to King threatening to reveal information if he did not cease his civil rights work. [70][73][71], He played freshman football there. [271] Supporters of this assertion said that Ray's confession was given under pressure and that he had been threatened with the death penalty. The pacifists guided King by showing him the alternative of nonviolent resistance, arguing that this would be a better means to accomplish his goals of civil rights than self-defense. The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute. William Hunter Hester. "I Have a Dream" came to be regarded as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory. [397] Mail belonging to King and other civil rights activists was intercepted by the CIA program HTLINGUAL. He was the father and namesake of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The group acquiesced to presidential pressure and influence, and the event ultimately took on a far less strident tone. You don't have a black role. When he went to one of the boys' house, their mother met him at the front door and told him in a rude tone tha… I don't plan to do anything but remain a preacher. Acting on James Bevel's call for a march from Selma to Montgomery, Bevel and other SCLC members, in partial collaboration with SNCC, attempted to organize a march to the state's capital. He gave a short, improvised speech to the gathering of supporters informing them of the tragedy and urging them to continue King's ideal of nonviolence. Wyatt Tee Walker. In some cases, bystanders attacked the police, who responded with force. He claimed that "wherever M. L. King, Jr., has been there has followed in his wake a wave of crimes", and vowed to keep King under surveillance. [53][47] King continued to be most drawn to history and English,[47] and choose English and sociology to be his main subjects while at the school. [56][67][64] In 1944, at the age of 15, King passed the entrance examination and was enrolled at the university for the school season that autumn. [279], In 2000, the U.S. Department of Justice completed the investigation into Jowers' claims but did not find evidence to support allegations about conspiracy. [69][70] On weekdays King and the other students worked in the fields, picking tobacco from 7:00am till at least 5:00pm, enduring temperatures above 100°F, to earn roughly USD$4 per day. [214] He guarded his language in public to avoid being linked to communism by his enemies, but in private he sometimes spoke of his support for democratic socialism. Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Scott was not interested in dating preachers, but eventually agreed to allow Martin to telephone her based on Powell's description and vouching. After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all. List of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Reparations for slavery debate in the United States, Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. So I'm happy, tonight. On January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of a Baptist minister. Those tests did not implicate Ray's specific rifle. "[71] The students worked at the farm to be able to provide for their educational costs at Morehouse College, as the farm had partnered with the college to allot their salaries towards the university's tuition, housing, and other fees. [356][360] Native Americans were also active participants in the Poor People's Campaign in 1968.[357]. [265] Ray was quickly extradited to Tennessee and charged with King's murder. [165][166] King and the SCLC worked to bring white Northern activists to St. Augustine, including a delegation of rabbis and the 72-year-old mother of the governor of Massachusetts, all of whom were arrested. [357] In King's book Why We Can't Wait he writes: Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. During an April 4, 1967, appearance at the New York City Riverside Church—exactly one year before his death—King delivered a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. [184], The SCLC formed a coalition with CCCO, Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, an organization founded by Albert Raby, and the combined organizations' efforts were fostered under the aegis of the Chicago Freedom Movement. Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. Thus we must begin anew. [269] However, prison records in different U.S. cities have shown that he was incarcerated on numerous occasions for charges of armed robbery. [19][44] King struggled with this, and could not fully believe that his parents knew where his grandmother had gone. He gazed upon the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. [337][338] King was moved by Rauschenbusch's vision of Christians spreading social unrest in "perpetual but friendly conflict" with the state, simultaneously critiquing it and calling it to act as an instrument of justice. [390] Another King lieutenant, Jack O'Dell, was also linked to the Communist Party by sworn testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). During the course of this movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. However, the organizers were firm that the march would proceed. [427] Two years later, he won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. [55][56][57][58] He further grew a liking for flirting with girls and dancing. [194], A 1967 CIA document declassified in 2017 downplayed King's role in the "black militant situation" in Chicago, with a source stating that King "sought at least constructive, positive projects. [191] King was hit by a brick during one march, but continued to lead marches in the face of personal danger. They said that it came from behind thick shrubbery near the boarding house—which had been cut away in the days following the assassination—and not from the boarding house window.