Home and Birth Place
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born at noon Tuesday, January 15, 1929, at the family home, 501 Auburn Avenue, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Charles Johnson was physician conducting the birth. Martin Luther King Jr., was the first son and second child born to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and Alberta Williams King. Other Mr.and Mrs King Sr. children wereChristine King Farrisand Reverend Alfred Daniel Williams King. Martin Luther King Jr. maternal grandparents were the Reverend Adam Daniel Williams, second pastor of Ebenezer Baptist, and Jenny Parks Williams. His paternal grandparents, James Albertand Delia King, were sharecroppers on a farm in Stockbridge, Georgia
A King's Wedding
Martin Luther King Jr. married Coretta Scott, younger daughter of Obadiah Scott and Bernice McMurray Scott of Marion, Alabama on June 18, 1953. The marriage ceremony took place at the Scott's home in Marion. The Reverend King, Sr., performed the service, with Mrs. Edythe Bagley, the sister of Mrs. King, maid of honor, and the Reverend A.D. King, the brother of Martin Luther King, Jr., best man. Martin and Coretta King had four children,Yolanda Denisewho was born on November 17, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.Martin Luther III was born on October 23, 1957 in Montgomery, Alabama. Dexter Scott was born on January 30, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia. Bernice Albertinewas born on March 28, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia
Life Waters
When King was a student at Morehouse College, at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and the University of Boston. King understanding about theological scholarship and of Mahatma Ghandi's non-violent strategy of social change was enlightened. While completing his doctoral requirements at Boston ,he also received a Ph. D. in systematic theology in May 1955. He rejected academic positions and became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In December 1,1955 Rosa Parks refuse to give up her sit for a white gentleman on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. On December 5, 1955, five days after Montgomery civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to obey the city's policy mandating segregation on buses, An King was elected president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association. Black Montgomerains launched a boycott of the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama.. As the boycott continued during 1956, King exceptional oratorical skills and personal courage gained him national prominence as a result of the boycott in Alabama. King's house was bombed, and he and other boycott leaders were convicted on charges of conspiring to interfere with the bus company's operations. Despite attempts to suppress the movement, Montgomery's buses were desegregated in December, 1956, after theUnited States Supreme Court declared Alabama's segregation laws unconstitutional. In 1957, King and other Southern black ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) after the success of the Montgomery boycott movement. As SCLC president, King stressed the goal of black voting rights when he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial during the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. King traveled to West Africa to attend the independence celebration of Ghana. In 1958, he published his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.
The next King toured India, increasing his understanding of Ghandi's ideas. At the end of 1959, he resigned from Dexter and returned to Atlanta where the SCLC headquarters were located and where he also could assist his father as pastor of Ebenezer.
Kings:Peace,Love,and War
Although achieving few of his objectives in Albany, King and his staff came uop with a major protest campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, where local white police officials were known for their anti-black attitudes. In the spring of 1963, clashes between black demonstrators and police using police dogs and fire hoses generated newspapers headlines throughout the world. In June,1963, President Kennedy, reacting the to the Birmingham protests and the obstinacy of segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace, agreed to submit broad civil rights legislation, which became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to Congress. Subsequent mass demonstrations in many communities culminated in a march onAugust 28, 1963 attracting more than 250,000 protesters to Washington, D.C. Addressing the marchers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" oration. During the year following the March on Washington, King's reputation as a non-violent leader grew. An in 1963, he was named Time magazine's "Man of the Year" and, in December 1964, received the "Nobel Peace Prize". Despite fame and accolades, however, King was faced with another challenge to his leadership. Malcolm X's (1927-1965) who spoke of self-defense and black nationalism expressed the discontent and anger of northern urban blacks more forcefully than did King's moderation. During the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march which led to the Voting Rights Act of the year. King and his lieutenants had difficulty keeping conflicts sufficiently under control. The following year, while participating in a civil rights march through Mississippi, King ran into strong criticism from "Black Power" proponent Stokely Carmichael. Shortly afterward King was physically assaulted by, northern white counter-protesters in an unsuccessful effort to transfer non-violent protest techniques to the Chicago movement. Despite these leadership conflicts however, King still had confindence and remained committed to non-violent techniques. Early in 1968, he initiated a Poor People's campaign designed to confront economic problems that had not been addressed by early civil rights reforms.
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