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OVERARCHING LESSON
Martin Luther King Jr. was an Afro-American leader, who was known for being the voice of the American civil rights movement. Thanks to his leadership and achievements throughout his life, a more genuine progress towards racial equality in America was achieved. -
BIRTH
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born as Michael Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia. As a second child in the family, his parents were Michael King Sr., pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and Alberta Williams, a former schoolteacher. -
ORIGINAL NAME
When King JR. was 5 years old, his father attended to the World Baptist Alliance held in Berlin. After the Protestant reformist, he changed his and his son son's name from Michael King to Martin Luther King. He was inspired by Martin Luther's courage of confronting institutionalized evil. -
EARLY EDUCATION
Martin Luther King Jr. attended to segregated public schools in his hometown. At the age of 15, while attending as a junior in high school, he was accepted and enrolled in Morehouse College, institution where his grandfather and father graduated from, pursuing a sociology degree. -
AFTER GRADUATING FROM COLLEGE...
Luther King Jr. entered the predominately white Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania. Three years after, he earned a Bachelor of Divinity Degree, became the first African American to be elected as student body president, and won a prestigious fellowship. -
HIGHER EDUCATION
Thanks to his fellowship won in college, King Jr. enrolled Boston University’s School of Theology to pursue his doctoral studies. In 1953, he completed his residency, and therefore received a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. Based on his beliefs of advocating for the marginalized, and unwilling to rest until the oppressed were not only accounted for, but justified and made equal, he was able to take social and political action rather than waiting for a next large-scale injustice -
STARTING A FAMILY
Martin married Coretta Scott, a singer studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music, who met while studying in Boston. The couple started to create a family by having four kids. -
BECOMING A PASTOR
After both receiving their educational degrees, the couple both settled in Montgomery, Alabama. He became the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. -
MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT
He led and served as spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a campaign by the African-American population of Montgomery, Alabama to force integration of the city’s bus lines based on the experience of Rosa Parks. After 381 days of the shutdown of the transit system in Montgomery, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in transportation was unconstitutional. -
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF SCLC
Luther King Jr., along with other civil right activists, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Their vision was to achieve full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest. Him being the president, his role was to travel across the country and around the world, giving lectures on nonviolent protest and civil rights as well as meeting with religious figures, activists and political leaders. -
MARCH ON WASHINGTON
Becoming the largest civil rights demonstration in history, King Jr. directed a massive protest march where some 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The event aimed to draw attention to continuing challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans a century after emancipation. During this event, he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream" speech -
"I HAVE A DREAM" SPEECH
Remaining as one of the most famous speeches in history and the most memorable speech of his life, King used universal themes to depict the struggles of African Americans before closing with an improvised riff on his dreams of equality. He had had a dream, he declared, “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” -
"MAN OF THE YEAR"
Due to his worldwide recognition, King Jr. appeared on a magazine cover and was named "Man of the Year" by Time magazine . He became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks, but also a world figure. -
THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
Partly due to the March on Washington, President Lyndon Johnson passed the landmark Civil Rights Act, essentially eliminating legalized racial segregation in the United States. The legislation made it illegal to discriminate against blacks or other minorities in hiring, public accommodations, education or transportation, areas which at the time were still very segregated in many places. -
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER
At the age of 35 years old, Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest man to have received it. Once done so, he announced that the prize money would be directed to the furtherance of the civil rights movement. -
SELMA TO MONTGOMERY MARCH
King’s elevated profile drew international attention to the violence that erupted between white segregationists and peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Alabama. Captured on television, the brutal scene outraged many Americans and inspired supporters from across the country to gather in Alabama and take part in the Selma to Montgomery march led by King and supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson -
VOTING RIGHTS ACT
Due to the brutal attacks during the Selma to Montgomery march, captured in national television, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act with King Jr. and and other civil rights leaders. This was an equally-important set of laws that eliminated the remaining barriers, such as literacy test, to voting for African-Americans, who in some locales had been almost completely disenfranchised. -
DEATH
On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. He was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, where King had traveled to support a sanitation workers’ strike. In the wake of his death, a wave of riots swept major cities across the country, while President Johnson declared a national day of mourning. -
LEGACY
Dr. Martin Luther King was known for his powerful speeches and motivating words to get people involved in facing the injustices of the day. His work is remembered and as a tribute to his life, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a U.S. federal holiday that is celebrated on the third Monday of January every year in honor of King.