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Martin Luther King's birth
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta. He was named Michael, but after a trip to Germany, his father decided to change his and his son's name to Martin Luther, a great religious leader in Germany in the 1500s.
Before starting school, King used to play with a white boy, but when they turned 5, they had to go to diferent schools because of their different skin colors.
In school, the teachers moved him up a grade twice, due to his intelligence so he finished school at 15. -
King's marriage
King met Coretta Scott in 1952, while he was studying in Boston. She was from Alabama and she was studying in a famous music school. She was beautiful and very intelligent, King's perfect wife. They married a year later, on June 18, 1953, and moved together to Montgomery on January 1954. They had four children, Yolanda (1955), Martin Luther King III (1957), Dexter (1961) and Bernice (1963).
After some years, Coretta became King's secretary and helped him on his fought. -
The MIA and the civil rights campaign
King became the president of the MIA, an organization of black preachers and leaders in Montgomery (Alabama) that protested against unfair laws in the city. He started as well the civil rights campaign, which took place in the 1950s and 1960s. This was very important because now, the African-Americans had a man who represented them and could speak for them.
Around these dates, King met Ralph Abernathy, another black preacher, with who he would fight for black people's rights for over 13 years. -
The Montgomery bus boycott
That day, Mrs. Rosa Parks, after a long journey got on a bus and sat down.The bus got full and the driver told Mrs. Parks to give her seat to a white passenger. She refused so the driver called the police. She got arrested. Fortunately, she was the secretary of E. D. Nixon, a NAACP worker. With King's, Abernathy's and Nixon's help, she went to court and fought for her civil rights. A boycott of the Montgomery city buses began. A year later, a new law appeared, segregation in buses was illegal. -
The lunch bar demonstrations.
It all started on February 1, 1960. Four black students ordered food in a lunch bar and they were told to leave. They refused to go. This was the start of many other student demonstrations at lunch bars across the South. On October 19, King joined the protests, but he got arrested with 35 students. They were sent to prison. Judge Mitchell sent the students back home 6 days after, but not King. He gave nim 4 months in prison. With JFK help, King was freed on October 27 on $2,000 bail. -
Letter from Birminham jail
On April 11, King recieved a letter from the Alabama state court. It was illegal for the blacks to demonstrate in Alabama.
The next day, he got arrested and prisioned with Abernathy and 50 demonstrators.
On april 16, his lawyers secretely brought him a newspapaer, where eight white preachers disagreed with his ideas. He decided to write a letter to them. It has now became famous in protest literature.
https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdf -
The children's march
There were plans for a protest march, and the Birmingham's black children wanted to take part. Adult protesters led more than 1,000 children. Bull Connor, the city's police cheif, told the police to arrest them. They did. The next day, 2,500 children marched again. The firemen attacked them with water. It crashed into them and knocked them down. They also had police dogs that bit the protestants. King told the parents not to worry, that their kids were suffering to make the US a better nation. -
"I have a dream" speech
A march was organised in Washinton, and more than 200,000 marchers from all arround the US came to the nation's capital to protest. Almost one quarter of them were white. King gave one of the most important speeches in history that day. All America watched him talking and millions of people arround the world heard his voice. He talked about his dreams about equality for all Americans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s -
The Selma to Montgomery march
3,200 people started marching from Selma, led by King. They marched for 5 days. They wanted George Wallace, the Alabama state leader to listen to them. They wanted oting rights and an end to police violence. They were exhausted, but their hearts were full of happiness. They arrived to Montgomery and George didn't want to listen to them. King spoke to the crowd and promised that they will have voting rights soon. President Johnson signed the Voting Rights law on August 6, 1965. -
Nobel peace prize
He acceped the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35 in Oslo, Norway. He was the youngest winner in history. He didn't accepted it for himself. He accepted it for all the protesters he led against the segregation around the world. After he recieved this prize, he became the most famous person in Atlanta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN1w3-9-_j8 -
Martin Luther King's death
King spent his last day with Abernathy. They were getting ready to go out to dinner with friends and King was waiting him outside their hotel room. At six o'clock, they heard a gunshot. He was hit in the face. Abernathy took him to the hospital, but he died at 7.05 pm.
On April 8, Coretta, his kids and Abernathy led a silent march of black workers. The next day, Abernathy spoke in the Ebenezer Chuch to say goodbye to him. His birthay has now become a national day in the US.