About Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born Michael King on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, the son of Martin Luther King Sr., a pastor, and Alberta Williams King, a former schoolteacher. In 1934 his father changed both their names to Martin Luther King. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, and in 1955 he earned a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University. He married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953, at her family's home in Alabama. They had four children: Yolanda, Martin Luther III, Dexter and Bernice.
In 1954 he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. When the city's bus boycott began on December 5, 1955, he was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which led it. The boycott lasted 381 days and ended after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling against segregated buses. In 1957 he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and became its first president. In 1959 he and Coretta traveled to India to study the nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi, which had shaped his own approach. In 1960 he moved home to Atlanta to serve as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.
During the Birmingham campaign in 1963 he was arrested and wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail." On August 28, 1963, he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington. In 1964, at 35, he became the youngest person at that time to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and he gave the prize money to the movement. In March 1965 he led the march from Selma to Montgomery, and that August he was present when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. He took the work north to Chicago in 1966 and announced the Poor People's Campaign in late 1967. In March 1968 he went to Memphis to support the city's striking sanitation workers. He was assassinated there on April 4, 1968, at 39. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which Coretta accepted, and since 1986 the nation has marked his birthday as a federal holiday.
A Life in Time
- 1929: Born Michael King on January 15 in Atlanta
- 1948: Graduates from Morehouse College
- 1953: Marries Coretta Scott, June 18
- 1954: Becomes pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery
- 1955: Earns his doctorate from Boston University; leads the Montgomery bus boycott, which begins December 5
- 1957: Helps found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and becomes its first president
- 1959: Travels to India with Coretta to study Gandhi's nonviolence
- 1960: Returns to Atlanta as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father
- 1963: Writes "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in April; gives "I Have a Dream" at the March on Washington, August 28
- 1964: Receives the Nobel Peace Prize, at 35
- 1965: Leads the march from Selma to Montgomery, March 21–25; present as the Voting Rights Act is signed, August 6
- 1966: Brings the movement north with the Chicago Freedom Movement
- Apr 4, 1968: Assassinated in Memphis, at 39
- 1977: Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Carter; Coretta accepts it
- 1986: The King federal holiday is first observed, January 20
- 2011: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is dedicated on the National Mall, October 16
Connected lives
- SCLC · First president · 1957 – 1968
- Martin Luther King Sr. · Father · co-pastor at Ebenezer
- John Lewis · Met in Montgomery · 1958
- Jesse Jackson · SCLC · Operation Breadbasket
- Memphis, Tennessee · The sanitation workers' strike · 1968
- Rosa Parks · Montgomery bus boycott · 1955
- Ralph Abernathy · Co-founder · SCLC
- Paul Newman · Freedom Rally · March on Washington
- Alberta Williams King · Mother
- Pope Francis · Address to Congress · 2015
- Montgomery, Alabama · Dexter Avenue · the bus boycott
- Atlanta, Georgia · Birthplace · Ebenezer Baptist Church
- Andrew Young · SCLC executive director
- Jimmy Carter · Capitol portrait · Medal of Freedom
- Coretta Scott King · Wife · married 1953
- Mahatma Gandhi · Nonviolence · India, 1959