GetWiki

{{Short description|American civil rights leader (1929–1968)}}{{Redirect-multi|2|Martin Luther King|MLK}}{{Good article}}{{Pp|small=yes}}{{Pp-move}}{{Use American English|date=February 2019}}{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

factoids

| birth_place = Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.196841|15}}| death_place = Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.>Assassination by gunshot| resting_place = Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical ParkCoretta Scott King>June 18, 1953}}Yolanda King>Martin Luther King III>Dexter King>Bernice}}Martin Luther King Sr.|Alberta Williams King}}Christine King Farris (sister)A. D. King (brother)>Alveda King (niece)}}Morehouse College (Bachelor of Arts)>Crozer Theological Seminary (Bachelor of Divinity)>Boston University (PhD)}}| occupation = Baptist minister and activist

factoids

}}Nobel Peace Prize (1964)Presidential Medal of Freedom (Posthumous award>posthumous, 1977)|Congressional Gold Medal (posthumous, 2004)}}| signature = Martin Luther King Jr Signature2.svgpos=centerfilename=Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks about Barry Goldwater at a press conference at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, August 1964 (audio from Polygoon).ogatype=speech|description=King giving a press conference at Amsterdam Airport SchipholRecorded August 1964}}}}{{Martin Luther King Jr. sidebar}}Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 â€“ April 4, 1968) was an American Christian minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. A black church leader and a son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination. King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights.{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=53}} He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches during the 1965 Selma voting rights movement. The civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.The SCLC put into practice the tactics of nonviolent protest with some success by strategically choosing the methods and places in which protests were carried out. There were several dramatic standoffs with segregationist authorities, who frequently responded violently.{{sfn|Glisson|2006|p=190}} King was jailed several times. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover considered King a radical and made him an object of the FBI’s COINTELPRO from 1963 forward. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, spied on his personal life, and secretly recorded him. In 1964, the FBI mailed King a threatening anonymous letter, which he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In his final years, he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People’s Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was convicted of the assassination, though the King family believes he was a scapegoat; the assassination remains the subject of conspiracy theories. King’s death was followed by national mourning, as well as anger leading to riots in many U.S. cities. King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2003. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in cities and states throughout the United States beginning in 1971; the federal holiday was first observed in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, and King County in Washington was rededicated for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011.

Early life and education

Birth

Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta; he was the second of three children born to Michael King Sr. and Alberta King ({{Nee|Williams}}).BOOK, Ogletree, Charles J.,archive.org/details/alldeliberatespe00ogle/page/138, All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education, W. W. Norton & Co, 2004, 0-393-05897-2, 138, Michael Jr. had an older sister, Christine King Farris, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel “A. D.” King.{{sfn|King|1992|p=76}} Alberta’s father, Adam Daniel Williams,WEB, Upbringing & Studies,www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies, dead,www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies," title="web.archive.org/web/20130122161058www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies,">web.archive.org/web/20130122161058www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies, January 22, 2013, September 2, 2012, The King Center, was a minister in rural Georgia, moved to Atlanta in 1893,WEB, Martin Luther King Jr.,www.biography.com/activist/martin-luther-king-jr, March 9, 2015, Biography, A&E Television Networks, LLC, January 22, 2020, March 10, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200310135126/https://www.biography.com/activist/martin-luther-king-jr, live, and became pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in the following year.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=6}} Williams married Jennie Celeste Parks. Michael Sr. was born to sharecroppers James Albert and Delia King of Stockbridge, Georgia;WEB, Birth & Family,www.thekingcenter.org/birth-family, The King Center, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, January 22, 2020,www.thekingcenter.org/birth-family," title="web.archive.org/web/20130122161032www.thekingcenter.org/birth-family,">web.archive.org/web/20130122161032www.thekingcenter.org/birth-family, January 22, 2013, he was of African-Irish descent.WEB, King, James Albert,mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_james_albert_1864_1933/, June 24, 2014,mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_james_albert_1864_1933/," title="web.archive.org/web/20141217012826mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_james_albert_1864_1933/,">web.archive.org/web/20141217012826mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_james_albert_1864_1933/, December 17, 2014, dead, WEB, Nsenga, Burton, AfricanAncestry.com Reveals Roots of MLK and Marcus Garvey, January 13, 2011,www.theroot.com/africanancestry-com-reveals-roots-of-mlk-and-marcus-gar-1790862357, May 29, 2020, January 18, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200118095620/https://www.theroot.com/africanancestry-com-reveals-roots-of-mlk-and-marcus-gar-1790862357, live, BOOK, Alondra, Nelson, Alondra Nelson,books.google.com/books?id=W5nhDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA160, The Social Life of DNA, “Kittles informed King that his Y-chromosome DNA analysis traced to Ireland and his mtDNA analysis associated him with the Mende.”, 160–161, 2016, Beacon Press, 978-0-8070-2718-9, As an adolescent, Michael Sr. left his parents’ farm and walked to Atlanta, where he attained a high school education,{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=11}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=10}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=2}} and enrolled in Morehouse College to study for entry to the ministry.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=2}} Michael Sr. and Alberta began dating in 1920, and married on November 25, 1926.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=12}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}} Until Jennie’s death in 1941, their home was on the second floor of Alberta’s parents’ Victorian house, where King was born.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=4}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=12}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}Shortly after marrying Alberta, Michael King Sr. became assistant pastor of the Ebenezer church.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}} Senior pastor Williams died in the spring of 1931{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}} and that fall Michael Sr. took the role. With support from his wife, he raised attendance from six hundred to several thousand.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}}{{sfn|Eig|2023|p=43}} In 1934, the church sent King Sr. on a multinational trip, one of the stops on the trip was Berlin for the Congress of the Baptist World Alliance [BWA]).NEWS, DeNeen L., Brown, The Washington Post, January 20, 2019, The story of how Michael King Jr. became Martin Luther King Jr., January 15, 2019,www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/01/15/story-how-michael-king-jr-became-martin-luther-king-jr/, December 31, 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191231120621/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/01/15/story-how-michael-king-jr-became-martin-luther-king-jr/, live, He also visited sites in Germany which are associated with the Reformation leader Martin Luther. In reaction to the rise of Nazism, the BWA made a resolution saying, “This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward colored people, or toward subject races in any part of the world.“NEWS, Nancy Clanton, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Why Martin Luther King Jr.’s father changed their names,www.ajc.com/lifestyles/why-martin-luther-king-father-changed-their-names/5ClNJ60MUtgsAZyCB4A4IN/, February 3, 2020, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 17, 2020, en, January 20, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200120172044/https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/why-martin-luther-king-father-changed-their-names/5ClNJ60MUtgsAZyCB4A4IN/, live, After returning home in August 1934, Martin Sr. changed his name to Martin Luther King Sr. and his five-year-old son’s name to Martin Luther King Jr.{{sfn|King|1992|pp=30–31}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=12}}{{efn|King Jr’s birth certificate was later altered to read “Martin Luther King Jr.” on July 23, 1957, when he was 28 years old.{{sfn|King|1992|p=31}}}}

Early childhood

File:Martin Luther King’s Boyhood Home.jpg|thumb|left|King’s childhood home in AtlantaAtlantaAt his childhood home, Martin King Jr. and his two siblings read aloud the Bible as instructed by their father.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=5}} After dinners, Martin Jr.’s grandmother Jennie, whom he affectionately referred to as “Mama” told lively stories from the Bible.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=5}} Martin Jr.’s father regularly used whippings to discipline his children,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}} sometimes having them whip each other.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}} Martin Sr. later remarked, “[Martin Jr.] was the most peculiar child whenever you whipped him. He’d stand there, and the tears would run down, and he’d never cry.“{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=14}} Once, when Martin Jr. witnessed his brother A.D. emotionally upset his sister Christine, he took a telephone and knocked A.D. unconcious with it.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} When Martin Jr. and his brother were playing at their home, A.D. slid from a banister and hit Jennie, causing her to fall unresponsive.{{sfn|Oates|1983|pp=8–9}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} Martin Jr. believing her dead, blamed himself and attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} but rose from the ground after hearing that she was alive.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}}Martin King Jr. became friends with a white boy whose father owned a business across the street from his home.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}} In September 1935, when the boys were about six years old, they started school.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}BOOK, Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Alan, Pierce,archive.org/details/assassinationofm0000pier, registration, 14, 2004, Abdo Pub Co, 978-1-59197-727-8, King had to attend a school for black children, Yonge Street Elementary School,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=13}} while his playmate went to a separate school for white children only.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=13}} 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”.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=4}} When King relayed this to his parents, they talked with him about the history of slavery and racism in America,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=14}} which King would later say made him “determined to hate every white person”.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}} His parents instructed him that it was his Christian duty to love everyone.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=14}}Martin King Jr. witnessed his father stand up against segregation and discrimination.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=15}} Once, when stopped by a police officer who referred to Martin Sr. as “boy”, responded sharply that Martin Jr. was a boy but he was a man.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=15}} When Martin Jr’s father took him into a shoe store in downtown Atlanta, the clerk told them they needed to sit in the back.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=9}} Martin Sr. refused asserting “we’ll either buy shoes sitting here or we won’t buy any shoes at all”, before leaving the store with Martin Jr.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=10}} He told Martin Jr. afterward, “I don’t care how long I have to live with this system, I will never accept it.“{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=10}} In 1936, Martin Sr. led hundreds of African Americans in a civil rights march to the city hall in Atlanta, to protest voting rights discrimination.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}} Martin Jr. later remarked that Martin Sr. was “a real father” to him.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=12}}Martin King Jr. memorized hymns and Bible verses by the time he was five years old.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}} Beginning at six years old, he attended church events with his mother and sing hymns while she played piano.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}} His favorite hymn was “I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus”; his singing moved attendees.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}} King later became a member of the junior choir in his church.BOOK, Martin Luther King Jr.: Young Man with a Dream, Dharathula H., Millender, 45–46, 1986, 978-0-02-042010-1, Aladdin,archive.org/details/martinlutherking00mill_0/page/45, He enjoyed opera, and played the piano.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=13}} King garnered a large vocabulary from reading dictionaries.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} He got into physical altercations with boys in his neighborhood, but oftentimes used his knowledge of words to stop or avoid fights.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=13}} King showed a lack of interest in grammar and spelling, a trait that persisted throughout his life.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=13}} In 1939, King sang as a member of his church choir dressed as a slave, for the all-white audience at the Atlanta premiere of the film Gone with the Wind.BOOK, Katznelson, Ira, 5, When Affirmative Action was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America, 0-393-05213-3, 2005, WW Norton & Co,archive.org/details/whenaffirmativea00katz/page/5, {{sfn|Oates|1983|p=11}} In September 1940, at the age of 11, King was enrolled at the Atlanta University Laboratory School for the seventh grade.{{sfn|Boyd|1996|p=23}}WEB, King enters seventh grade at Atlanta University Laboratory School,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-enters-seventh-grade-atlanta-university-laboratory-school, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, September 17, 2020, June 12, 2017, April 27, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210427032434/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-enters-seventh-grade-atlanta-university-laboratory-school, live, While there, King took violin and piano lessons and showed keen interest in history and English classes.{{sfn|Boyd|1996|p=23}}On May 18, 1941, when King had sneaked away from studying at home to watch a parade, he was informed that something had happened to his maternal grandmother.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=12}} After returning home, he learned she had a heart attack and died while being transported to a hospital.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}} He took her death very hard and believed that his deception in going to see the parade may have been responsible for God taking her.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}} King jumped out of a second-story window at his home but again survived.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=14}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} His father instructed him that Martin Jr. should not blame himself and that she had been called home to God as part of God’s plan.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=16}} Martin Jr. struggled with this.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}} Shortly thereafter, Martin Sr. decided to move the family to a two-story brick home on a hill overlooking downtown Atlanta.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}

Adolescence

File:Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta.jpg|thumb|The high school that King attended was named after African-American educator Booker T. WashingtonBooker T. WashingtonAs an adolescent, he initially felt resentment against whites due to the “racial humiliation” that he, his family, and his neighbors often had to endure.NEWS, Blake, John, How MLK became an angry black man, April 16, 2013, CNN,www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/us/king-birmingham-jail-letter-anniversary/, May 29, 2020, July 13, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200713045959/https://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/us/king-birmingham-jail-letter-anniversary/, live, In 1942, when King was 13, he became the youngest assistant manager of a newspaper delivery station for the Atlanta Journal.{{sfn|King|1992|p=82}} In the same year, King skipped the ninth grade and enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School, where he maintained a B-plus average.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=16}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=15}} The high school was the only one in the city for African-American students.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}}Martin Jr. was brought up in a Baptist home; as he entered adolescence he began to question the literalist teachings preached at his father’s church.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=16}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=14}} At the age of 13, he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus during Sunday school.WEB,mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/papers/vol1/501122-An_Autobiography_of_Religious_Development.htm, An Autobiography of Religious Development, The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University,mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/papers/vol1/501122-An_Autobiography_of_Religious_Development.htm," title="swap.stanford.edu/20141218230444mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/papers/vol1/501122-An_Autobiography_of_Religious_Development.htm,">swap.stanford.edu/20141218230444mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/papers/vol1/501122-An_Autobiography_of_Religious_Development.htm, December 18, 2014, dead, November 15, 2018, {{sfn|Oates|1983|p=14}} Martin Jr. said that he found himself unable to identify with the emotional displays from congregants which were frequent at his church; he doubted if he would ever attain personal satisfaction from religion.{{sfn|King|1998|p=14}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=14}} He later said of this point in his life, “doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly.“{{sfn|King|1998|p=6}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=14}}In high school, Martin King Jr. became known for his public-speaking ability, with a voice that had grown into an orotund baritone.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=8}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=15}} He joined the school’s debate team.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=8}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=15}} King continued to be most drawn to history and English,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=15}} and chose English and sociology as his main subjects.{{sfn|Patterson|1969|p=25}} King maintained an abundant vocabulary.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=15}} However, he relied on his sister Christine to help him with spelling, while King assisted her with math.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=15}} King also developed an interest in fashion, commonly wearing polished patent leather shoes and tweed suits, which gained him the nickname “Tweed” or “Tweedie” among his friends.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=17}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Davis|2005|p=18}}{{sfn|Muse|1978|p=17}} He liked flirting with girls and dancing.{{sfn|Davis|2005|p=18}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Rowland|1990|p=23}} His brother A.D. later remarked, “He kept flitting from chick to chick, and I decided I couldn’t keep up with him. Especially since he was crazy about dances, and just about the best jitterbug in town.“{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}On April 13, 1944, in his junior year, King gave his first public speech during an oratorical contest.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}NEWS, Fraser, C. Gerald, Thousands of Black Elks in City To Attend Annual Convention,www.nytimes.com/1974/08/11/archives/thousands-of-black-elks-in-city-to-attend-annual-convention.html, October 12, 2020, The New York Times, August 11, 1974, March 16, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210316022147/https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/11/archives/thousands-of-black-elks-in-city-to-attend-annual-convention.html, live, NEWS, Crenshaw, Wayne, King’s ‘journey to the mountain top’ started in Dublin,www.macon.com/news/local/article224559455.html, October 12, 2020, Macon Telegraph, January 18, 2019, January 26, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210126184221/https://www.macon.com/news/local/article224559455.html, live, In his speech he stated, “black America still wears chains. The finest negro is at the mercy of the meanest white man.“{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=17}}WEB, The Negro and the Constitution,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/negro-and-constitution, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, October 12, 2020, en, December 9, 2014, {{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} King was selected as the winner of the contest.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}} 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.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=9}} The driver of the bus called King a “black son-of-a-bitch”.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}} King initially refused but complied after his teacher told him that he would be breaking the law if he did not.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=9}} As all the seats were occupied, he and his teacher were forced to stand the rest of the way to Atlanta.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}} Later King wrote of the incident: “That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.“{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=9}}

Morehouse College

During King’s junior year in high school, Morehouse College—an all-male historically black college that King’s father and maternal grandfather had attended{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=19}}{{sfn|Davis|2005|p=10}}—began accepting high school juniors who passed the entrance examination.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Schuman|2014|loc=chpt. 2}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=9}} As World War II was underway many black college students had been enlisted,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Schuman|2014|loc=chpt. 2}} so the university aimed to increase their enrolment by allowing juniors to apply.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Schuman|2014|loc=chpt. 2}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=9}} In 1944, aged 15, King passed the examination and was enrolled at the university that autumn.In the summer before King started at Morehouse, he boarded a train with his friend—Emmett “Weasel” Proctor—and a group of other Morehouse College students to work in Simsbury, Connecticut, at the tobacco farm of Cullman Brothers Tobacco.NEWS, Tewa, Sophia, How picking tobacco in Connecticut influenced MLK’s life,www.ctpost.com/news/article/How-picking-tobacco-in-Connecticut-influenced-12802478.php, October 18, 2020, Connecticut Post, April 3, 2018, November 24, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201124043013/https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/How-picking-tobacco-in-Connecticut-influenced-12802478.php, dead, NEWS, MLK Worked Two Summers on Simsbury Tobacco Farm,www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-worked-two-summers-on-simsbury-tobacco-farm/1947510/, October 18, 2020, NBC Connecticut, January 19, 2015, November 29, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201129041936/https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-worked-two-summers-on-simsbury-tobacco-farm/1947510/, live, This was King’s first trip into the integrated north.NEWS, Kochakian, Mary, How a Trip To Connecticut Changed Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life,www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2000-01-17-0001181153-story.html, October 18, 2020, The Hartford Courant, January 17, 2000,web.archive.org/web/20191230030434/https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2000-01-17-0001181153-story.html, December 30, 2019, In a June 1944 letter to his father King wrote about the differences that struck him: “On our way here we saw some things I had never anticipated to see. After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all. The white people here are very nice. We go to any place we want to and sit anywhere we want to.” The farm had partnered with Morehouse College to allot their wages towards the university’s tuition, housing, and fees. On weekdays King and the other students worked in the fields, picking tobacco from 7:00am to at least 5:00pm, enduring temperatures above 100 Â°F, to earn roughly USD$4 per day.NEWS, Christoffersen, John, MLK Was Inspired by Time in Connecticut,www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-was-inspired-by-time-in-connecticut/1885278/, October 18, 2020, NBC Connecticut, January 17, 2011, May 13, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210513091409/https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-was-inspired-by-time-in-connecticut/1885278/, live, On Friday evenings, the students visited downtown Simsbury to get milkshakes and watch movies, and on Saturdays they would travel to Hartford, Connecticut, to see theatre performances, shop and eat in restaurants. On Sundays they attended church services in Hartford, at a church filled with white congregants. King wrote to his parents about the lack of segregation, relaying how he was amazed they could go to “one of the finest restaurants in Hartford” and that “Negroes and whites go to the same church”.NEWS, Brindley, Emily, Martin Luther King Jr.’s time in Connecticut was pivotal, but has never been thoroughly documented; that’s about to change,www.courant.com/community/simsbury/hc-news-simsbury-martin-luther-king-jr-tobacco-20191113-mcp3mzoevbf37io2yixwp4fojq-story.html, October 19, 2020, courant.com, November 13, 2019, July 24, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200724083647/https://www.courant.com/community/simsbury/hc-news-simsbury-martin-luther-king-jr-tobacco-20191113-mcp3mzoevbf37io2yixwp4fojq-story.html, live, He played freshman football there. The summer before his last year at Morehouse, in 1947, the 18-year-old King chose to enter the ministry. He would later credit the college’s president, Baptist minister Benjamin Mays, with being his “spiritual mentor”.WEB, Kelly, Jason, January 1, 2013, Benjamin Mays found a voice for civil rights,www.uchicago.edu/features/benjamin_mays/, June 6, 2020, The University of Chicago, en, March 9, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210309041036/https://www.uchicago.edu/features/benjamin_mays/, dead, King had concluded that the church offered the most assuring way to answer “an inner urge to serve humanity”, and he made peace with the Baptist Church, as he believed he would be a “rational” minister with sermons that were “a respectful force for ideas, even social protest.“{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=18}} King graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology in 1948, aged nineteen.BOOK, Finkelman, Paul,books.google.com/books?id=UVgKAgAAQBAJ&q=MLK+BA+sociology&pg=PA889, Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, 2013, Routledge, 978-1-135-94704-0, en,

Religious education

File:OldMainUpland.JPG|alt=A large facade of a building|thumb|King received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological SeminaryCrozer Theological Seminary{{see also|Martin Luther King Jr. authorship issues}}King enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania,BOOK, To See the Promised Land: The Faith Pilgrimage of Martin Luther King, Jr., 150, Downing, Frederick L., Mercer University Press, 1986, 0-86554-207-4,archive.org/details/toseepromisedlan0000down/page/150, BOOK, Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance, Nojeim, Michael J., 179, 0-275-96574-0, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, and took several courses at the University of Pennsylvania.WEB,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-audits-courses-university-pennsylvania, King audits courses at University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University Archives and Records Center, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, July 21, 2023, subscription, August 14, 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230814040507/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-audits-courses-university-pennsylvania, live, WEB,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/mlk-topic/martin-luther-king-jr-education?page=2, Martin Luther King, Jr. – Education, Stanford University Archives and Records Center, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute,web.archive.org/web/20180612184435/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/mlk-topic/martin-luther-king-jr-education?page=2, June 12, 2018, At Crozer, King was elected president of the student body.{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=20–22}} At Penn, King took courses with William Fontaine, Penn’s first African-American professor, and Elizabeth F. Flower, a professor of philosophy.WEB,penntoday.upenn.edu/news/martin-luther-king-jrs-time-studying-penn, Martin Luther King Jr.’s time studying at Penn, April 4, 2018, September 11, 2023, October 6, 2023,web.archive.org/web/20231006232419/https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/martin-luther-king-jrs-time-studying-penn, live, King’s father supported his decision to continue his education and made arrangements for King to work with J. Pius Barbour, a family friend and Crozer alumnus who pastored at Calvary Baptist Church in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania.BOOK, Baldwin, Lewis V., There is a Balm in Gilead: The Cultural Roots of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1991, Fortress Publishing, 0-8006-2457-2, 281–282,books.google.com/books?id=_oeMI9gxa2QC, July 5, 2018, King became known as one of the “Sons of Calvary”, an honor he shared with William Augustus Jones Jr. and Samuel D. Proctor, who both went on to become well-known preachers.BOOK, Baldwin, Lewis V., There is a Balm in Gilead: The Cultural Roots of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1991, Fortress Publishing, 0-8006-2457-2, 167,books.google.com/books?id=_oeMI9gxa2QC, July 5, 2018, King reproved another student for keeping beer in his room once, saying they shared responsibility as African Americans to bear “the burdens of the Negro race”. For a time, he was interested in Walter Rauschenbusch’s “social gospel”.{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=20–22}} In his third year at Crozer, King became romantically involved withMAGAZINE, Sanneh, Kelefa, The Voice, The New Yorker, May 15, 2023, 62–63, the white daughter of an immigrant German woman who worked in the cafeteria. King planned to marry her, but friends, as well as King’s father, advised against it, saying that an interracial marriage would provoke animosity from both blacks and whites, potentially damaging his chances of ever pastoring a church in the South. King tearfully told a friend that he could not endure his mother’s pain over the marriage and broke the relationship off six months later. One friend was quoted as saying, “He never recovered.“{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=20–22}} Other friends, including Harry Belafonte, said Betty had been “the love of King’s life.” King graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1951. He applied to the University of Edinburgh for a doctorate in the School of Divinity but ultimately chose Boston instead.WEB, January 28, 2015, To Hugh Watt,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/hugh-watt, January 21, 2022, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, en, January 21, 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220121103429/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/hugh-watt, live, In 1951, King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University, and worked as an assistant minister at Boston’s historic Twelfth Baptist Church with William Hunter Hester. Hester was an old friend of King’s father and was an important influence on King.BOOK, Baldwin, Lewis V., The Voice of Conscience: The Church in the Mind of Martin Luther King, Jr., 2010, Oxford University Press, 978-0-19-538031-6,archive.org/details/voiceofconscienc0000bald, registration, 42, In Boston, King befriended a small cadre of local ministers his age, and sometimes guest pastored at their churches, including Michael E. Haynes, associate pastor at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. The young men often held bull sessions in their apartments, discussing theology, sermon style, and social issues.At the age of 25 in 1954, King was called as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.BOOK,archive.org/details/nationaldaysnati0000unse, registration, 314, Fuller, Linda K., Greenwood Publishing, 2004, 0-275-97270-4, National Days, National Ways: Historical, Political, And Religious Celebrations around the World, King received his PhD on June 5, 1955, with a dissertation (initially supervised by Edgar S. Brightman and, upon the latter’s death, by Lotan Harold DeWolf) titled A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.WEB, A comparison of the conceptions of God in the thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,buprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ALMA_BOSU121651367690001161&vid=BU&search_scope=default_scope&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US&context=L&isFrbr=true, July 6, 2020, Boston University Library, July 6, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200706155623/https://buprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ALMA_BOSU121651367690001161&vid=BU&search_scope=default_scope&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US&context=L&isFrbr=true, live, An academic inquiry in October 1991 concluded that portions of his doctoral dissertation had been plagiarized and he had acted improperly. However, {{nowrap|“[d]espite}} its finding, the committee said that ‘no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King’s doctoral degree,’ an action that the panel said would serve no purpose.“WEB,www.snopes.com/history/american/mlking.asp, Four Things About King, Mikkelson, David, July 19, 2003, Snopes, March 14, 2011, July 27, 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230727202900/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/four-things-about-king/, live, NEWS, Panel Confirms Plagiarism by King at BU, Charles A., Radin, The Boston Globe, October 11, 1991, 1, NEWS, Associated Press,www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html, Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King, October 11, 1991, The New York Times, November 13, 2013, November 8, 2013,www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20131108033759www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html,">web.archive.org/web/20131108033759www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html, live, The committee found that the dissertation still “makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship.” A letter is now attached to the copy of King’s dissertation in the university library, noting that numerous passages were included without the appropriate quotations and citations of sources.WEB,mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol2/550415AComparisonOfTheConceptionsOfGod.pdf, King’s Ph.D. dissertation, with attached note, November 7, 2014,mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol2/550415AComparisonOfTheConceptionsOfGod.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20141107223114mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol2/550415AComparisonOfTheConceptionsOfGod.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20141107223114mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol2/550415AComparisonOfTheConceptionsOfGod.pdf, November 7, 2014, Significant debate exists on how to interpret King’s plagiarism.JOURNAL, Ling, Peter, October 1996, Plagiarism, preaching and prophecy: the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the persistence of racism [Review], Ethnic and Racial Studies, 19, 4, 912–916, 10.1080/01419870.1996.9993942,

Marriage and family

File:Martin Luther, Coretta Scott and Yolanda Denise King, 1956.png|thumb|Martin Luther King Jr. with his wife, Coretta Scott King, and daughter, Yolanda Denise KingYolanda Denise KingWhile studying at Boston University, he asked a friend from Atlanta named Mary Powell, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music, if she knew any nice Southern girls. Powell spoke to fellow student Coretta Scott; Scott was not interested in dating preachers but eventually agreed to allow King to telephone her based on Powell’s description and vouching. On their first call, King told Scott, “I am like Napoleon at Waterloo before your charms,” to which she replied, “You haven’t even met me.” King married Scott on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents’ house, in Heiberger, Alabama.NEWS,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1509338/Coretta-Scott-King.html

Activism and organizational leadership

Montgomery bus boycott, 1955

File:Rosa Parks (detail).tiff|thumb|King (left) with civil rights activist Rosa ParksRosa ParksThe Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was influential in the Montgomery African-American community. As the church’s pastor, King became known for his oratorical preaching in Montgomery and the surrounding region.WEB, Martin Luther King Jr.,encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1426, January 23, 2022, Encyclopedia of Alabama, en, January 23, 2022,encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1426," title="web.archive.org/web/20220123161105encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1426,">web.archive.org/web/20220123161105encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1426, live, In March 1955, Claudette Colvin—a fifteen-year-old black schoolgirl in Montgomery—refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in violation of Jim Crow laws, local laws in the Southern United States that enforced racial segregation.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=103}} Nine months later on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus.NEWS, December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks arrested, March 11, 2003, CNN, June 8, 2008,www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/10/sprj.80.1955.parks/, September 18, 2007,www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/10/sprj.80.1955.parks/," title="web.archive.org/web/20070918150509www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/10/sprj.80.1955.parks/,">web.archive.org/web/20070918150509www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/10/sprj.80.1955.parks/, live, The two incidents led to the Montgomery bus boycott, which was urged and planned by Edgar Nixon and led by King.BOOK, The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 24, Walsh, Frank, Gareth Stevens, 2003, 0-8368-5375-X,archive.org/details/montgomerybusboy0000wals/page/24, The other ministers asked him to take a leadership role because his relative newness to community leadership made it easier for him to speak out. King was hesitant but decided to do so if no one else wanted it.Interview with Coretta Scott King, Episode 1, PBS TV series Eyes on the Prize.The boycott lasted for 385 days,BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=bA1azdRdD18C&pg=PA25, Ethical Leadership Through Transforming Justice, McMahon, Thomas F., 25, 0-7618-2908-3, University Press of America, 2004, May 29, 2020, January 23, 2024,web.archive.org/web/20240123124315/https://books.google.com/books?id=bA1azdRdD18C&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q&f=false, live, and the situation became so tense that King’s house was bombed.BOOK, Patterns of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Fisk, Larry J., 115, Broadview Press, 1-55111-154-3, John, Schellenberg, 1999,archive.org/details/patternsofconfli0000unse/page/115, King was arrested for traveling 30 mph in a 25 mph zoneWEB, King arrested for speeding; MIA holds seven mass meetings, June 22, 2017,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-arrested-speeding-mia-holds-seven-mass-meetings, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, November 10, 2022, November 10, 2022,web.archive.org/web/20221110144232/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-arrested-speeding-mia-holds-seven-mass-meetings, live, and jailed, which overnight drew the attention of national media, and greatly increased King’s public stature. The controversy ended when the United States District Court issued a ruling in Browder v. Gayle that prohibited racial segregation on Montgomery public buses.{{sfn|King|1992|p=9}}{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=53}}King’s role in the bus boycott transformed him into a national figure and the best-known spokesman of the civil rights movement.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=52}}File:Dexter Avenue Baptist.jpg|alt=|thumb|upright|King first rose to prominence in the civil rights movement while minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist ChurchDexter Avenue Baptist Church

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The group was created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct nonviolent protests in the service of civil rights reform. The group was inspired by the crusades of evangelist Billy Graham, who befriended King,BOOK,archive.org/details/billygrahamriseo0000mill/page/92, Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South, 92, Steven P., Miller, 2009, University of Pennsylvania Press, 978-0-8122-4151-8, April 8, 2015, as well as the national organizing of the group In Friendship, founded by King allies Stanley Levison and Ella Baker.WEB,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/levison-stanley-david, Levison, Stanley David, May 17, 2017, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, en, January 30, 2020, California 94305, January 15, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200115075615/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/levison-stanley-david, live, King led the SCLC until his death.BOOK, Let Nobody Turn Us Around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal: an African American Anthology,archive.org/details/letnobodyturnusa00mann, registration, Marable, Manning, Leith, Mullings, Rowman & Littlefield, 0-8476-8346-X, 2000, 391–392, The SCLC’s 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom was the first time King addressed a national audience.WEB, Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom,crdl.usg.edu/events/prayer_pilgrimage/?Welcome, Civil Rights Digital Library, October 25, 2013, October 29, 2013,crdl.usg.edu/events/prayer_pilgrimage/?Welcome," title="web.archive.org/web/20131029193659crdl.usg.edu/events/prayer_pilgrimage/?Welcome,">web.archive.org/web/20131029193659crdl.usg.edu/events/prayer_pilgrimage/?Welcome, live, Harry Wachtel joined King’s legal advisor Clarence B. Jones in defending four ministers of the SCLC in the libel case Abernathy et al. v. Sullivan; the case was litigated about the newspaper advertisement “Heed Their Rising Voices”. Wachtel founded a tax-exempt fund to cover the suit’s expenses and assist the nonviolent civil rights movement through a more effective means of fundraising. King served as honorary president of this organization, named the “Gandhi Society for Human Rights”. In 1962, King and the Gandhi Society produced a document that called on President Kennedy to issue an executive order to deliver a blow for civil rights as a kind of Second Emancipation Proclamation. Kennedy did not execute the order.WEB,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/gandhi-society-human-rights, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle: Gandhi Society for Human Rights, Stanford University, August 30, 2013, June 12, 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180612015745/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/gandhi-society-human-rights, live, The FBI, under written directive from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, began tapping King’s telephone line in the fall of 1963.BOOK, The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide, Theoharis, Athan G., Tony G., Poveda, Richard Gid, Powers, Susan, Rosenfeld, 148, 0-89774-991-X, Greenwood Publishing, 1999,archive.org/details/fbicomprehensive0000theo/page/148, 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. Journalistic accounts and televised footage of the daily indignities suffered by southern blacks, and of segregationist violence and harassment of civil rights supporters, produced a wave of sympathetic public opinion that convinced the majority of Americans that the civil rights movement was the most important issue in American politics in the early 1960s.BOOK, Race and Labor Matters in the New U.S. Economy, Wilson, Joseph, Manning, Marable, Immanuel, Ness, 47, 0-7425-4691-8, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006,archive.org/details/racelabormatters0000unse/page/47, BOOK, Architects of Political Change: Constitutional Quandaries and Social Choice Theory, Schofield, Norman, 0-521-83202-0, Cambridge University Press, 2006, 189,archive.org/details/architectsofpoli00norm/page/189, King organized and led marches for blacks’ right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights.{{sfn|Jackson|2006|p=53}} Most of these rights were successfully enacted into law with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.BOOK, International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration, Shafritz, Jay M., 1242, 1998, 0-8133-9974-2, Westview Press, BOOK, The Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Passage of the Law that Ended Racial Segregation, Loevy, Robert D., Hubert H., Humphrey, John G., Stewart, 0-7914-3361-7, SUNY Press, 1997, 337, The SCLC used tactics of nonviolent protest with great success by strategically choosing the methods and places in which protests were carried out. There were often dramatic stand-offs with segregationist authorities, who sometimes turned violent.{{sfn|Glisson|2006|p=190}}

Survived knife attack, 1958

On September 20, 1958, King was signing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in Blumstein’s department store in HarlemBOOK, Pearson, Hugh, 2002, When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Seven Stories Press, 37, 978-1-58322-614-8,books.google.com/books?id=RyVQUJHo55IC&pg=PA37, June 3, 2020, January 23, 2024,web.archive.org/web/20240123124428/https://books.google.com/books?id=RyVQUJHo55IC&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q&f=false, live, when Izola Curry—a mentally ill black woman who thought that King was conspiring against her with communists—stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener, which nearly impinged on the aorta. King received first aid by police officers Al Howard and Philip Romano.NEWS, Wilson, Michael, Before ‘I Have a Dream,’ Martin Luther King Almost Died. This Man Saved Him,www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/nyregion/martin-luther-king-stabbed-harlem.html,web.archive.org/web/20201113101051/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/nyregion/martin-luther-king-stabbed-harlem.html, November 13, 2020, subscription, live, The New York Times, November 13, 2020, November 13, 2020, King underwent emergency surgery by Aubre de Lambert Maynard, Emil Naclerio and John W. V. Cordice; he remained hospitalized for several weeks. Curry was later found mentally incompetent to stand trial.WEB,www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7694472.html,www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7694472.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130514044835www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7694472.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130514044835www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7694472.html, dead, May 14, 2013, ‘King’ is a Deft Exploration of the Civil Rights Leader’s Stabbing, February 4, 2002, Graham, Renee, The Boston Globe, January 20, 2013, WEB,www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-51d3eceac5094ac7a08d8dd326287c79.html,www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-51d3eceac5094ac7a08d8dd326287c79.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130514060644www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-51d3eceac5094ac7a08d8dd326287c79.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130514060644www.highbeam.com/doc/1A1-51d3eceac5094ac7a08d8dd326287c79.html, dead, May 14, 2013, Today in History, September 20, Associated Press, September 19, 2012, January 20, 2013,

Atlanta sit-ins, prison sentence, and the 1960 elections

(File:Ebenezer-Baptist-from-pulpit.jpg|thumb|King led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and later became co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (pulpit and sanctuary pictured).)In December 1959, after being based in Montgomery for five years, King announced his return to Atlanta at the request of the SCLC.WEB, SCLC Press Release, January 28, 2015,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/sclc-press-release-dr-king-leaves-montgomery-atlanta, November 14, 2020, November 16, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201116161217/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/sclc-press-release-dr-king-leaves-montgomery-atlanta, live, In Atlanta, King served until his death as co-pastor with his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver expressed open hostility towards King’s return. 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.WEB, Samuel Vandiver, in the MLK Encyclopedia, July 6, 2017,kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/vandiver-samuel-ernest-jr, November 14, 2020, February 25, 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210225180318/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/vandiver-samuel-ernest-jr, live, On May 4, 1960, King drove writer Lillian Smith to Emory University when police stopped them. King was cited for “driving without a license” because he had not yet been issued a Georgia license. King’s Alabama license was still valid, and Georgia law did not mandate any time limit for issuing a local license.NEWS, Traffic stop 60 years ago spurred Martin Luther King Jr. into greater action,romesentinel.com/stories/traffic-stop-60-years-ago-spurred-martin-luther-king-jr-into-greater-action,97644, The Rome Sentinel, May 4, 2020, November 14, 2020, November 16, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201116021726/https://romesentinel.com/stories/traffic-stop-60-years-ago-spurred-martin-luther-king-jr-into-greater-action,97644, dead, King paid a fine but was unaware that his lawyer agreed to a plea deal that included probation.Meanwhile, the Atlanta Student Movement had been acting to desegregate businesses and public spaces, organizing the Atlanta sit-ins from March 1960 onwards. In August the movement asked King to participate in a mass October sit-in, timed to highlight how 1960’s Presidential election campaigns had ignored civil rights. The coordinated day of action took place on October 19. King participated in a sit-in at the restaurant inside Rich’s, Atlanta’s largest department store, and was among the many arrested that day. The authorities released everyone over the next few days, except for King. Invoking his probationary plea deal, judge J. Oscar Mitchell sentenced King on October 25 to four months of hard labor. Before dawn the next day, King was transported to Georgia State Prison.NEWS, Negro Integration Leader Sentenced to Four Months,accesswdun.com/article/2020/5/900021, Associated Press, October 25, 1960, November 14, 2020, November 20, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201120082602/https://accesswdun.com/article/2020/5/900021, live, The arrest and harsh sentence drew nationwide attention. Many feared for King’s safety, as he started a prison sentence with people convicted of violent crimes, many of them White and hostile to his activism.NEWS, Levingston, Steven, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Phone Call That Changed History,time.com/4817240/martin-luther-king-john-kennedy-phone-call/, Time.com, June 20, 2017, November 14, 2020, November 9, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201109043524/https://time.com/4817240/martin-luther-king-john-kennedy-phone-call/, live, Both Presidential candidates were asked to weigh in, at a time when both parties were courting the support of Southern Whites and their political leadership including Governor Vandiver. Nixon, with whom King had a closer relationship before, declined to make a statement despite a personal visit from Jackie Robinson requesting his intervention. Nixon’s opponent John F. Kennedy called the governor (a Democrat) directly, enlisted his brother Robert to exert more pressure on state authorities, and, at the personal request of Sargent Shriver, called King’s wife to offer his help. The pressure from Kennedy and others proved effective, and King was released two days later. King’s father decided to openly endorse Kennedy’s candidacy for the November 8 election which he narrowly won.BOOK, King, Martin Luther Jr., The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr., Hatchette, Chapter 15: Atlanta Arrest and Presidential Politics, After the October 19 sit-ins and following unrest, a 30-day truce was declared in Atlanta for desegregation negotiations. However, the negotiations failed and sit-ins and boycotts resumed for several months. On March 7, 1961, a group of Black elders including King notified student leaders that a deal had been reached: the city’s lunch counters would desegregate in fall 1961, in conjunction with the court-mandated desegregation of schools.NEWS, Photos: How Atlanta Public Schools integrated in 1961,www.ajc.com/news/local/photos-how-atlanta-public-schools-integrated-1961/c4isBuwZmZxJsdU2u9FBpJ/, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 15, 2020, October 19, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201019235659/https://www.ajc.com/news/local/photos-how-atlanta-public-schools-integrated-1961/c4isBuwZmZxJsdU2u9FBpJ/, live, NEWS, Burns, Rebecca, The integration of Atlanta Public Schools,www.atlantamagazine.com/civilrights/the-integration-of-atlanta-public-schools/, Atlanta Magazine, August 1, 2011, November 15, 2020, November 17, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201117022606/https://www.atlantamagazine.com/civilrights/the-integration-of-atlanta-public-schools/, live, Many students were disappointed at the compromise. In a large meeting on March 10 at Warren Memorial Methodist Church, the audience was hostile and frustrated. King then gave an impassioned speech calling participants to resist the “cancerous disease of disunity”, helping to calm tensions.WEB, Hatfield, Edward A., Atlanta Sit-ins,www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/atlanta-sit-ins, New Georgia Encyclopedia, November 14, 2020, December 23, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201223194432/https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/atlanta-sit-ins, live,

Albany Movement, 1961

The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. In December, King and the SCLC became involved. The movement mobilized thousands of citizens for a nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation in the city and attracted nationwide attention. When King first visited on December 15, 1961, he “had planned to stay a day or so and return home after giving counsel.“BOOK, King, Martin Luther Jr.,books.google.com/books?id=pynSnGuC964C&pg=PT147, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., Hatchette Digital, 2001, 147, 978-0-7595-2037-0, January 4, 2013, July 27, 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230727202925/https://books.google.com/books?id=pynSnGuC964C&pg=PT147, live, The following day he was swept up in a mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators, and he declined bail until the city made concessions. According to King, “that agreement was dishonored and violated by the city” after he left.King returned in July 1962 and was given the option of forty-five days in jail or a $178 fine ({{Inflation|US|178|1962|r=-2|fmt=eq}}); he chose jail. Three days into his sentence, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett discreetly arranged for King’s fine to be paid and ordered his release. “We had witnessed persons being kicked off lunch counter stools ... ejected from churches ... and thrown into jail ... But for the first time, we witnessed being kicked out of jail.“BOOK, A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., King, Martin Luther Jr., 1990, Harper Collins, 978-0-06-064691-2, 105,archive.org/details/testamentofhope00mart/page/105, It was later acknowledged by the King Center that Billy Graham was the one who bailed King out.King Center:Billy Graham {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315074536www.thekingcenter.org/archive/theme/2179 |date=March 15, 2015 }} Accessed September 15, 2014After nearly a year of intense activism with few tangible results, the movement began to deteriorate. King requested a halt to all demonstrations and a “Day of Penance” to promote nonviolence and maintain the moral high ground. Divisions within the black community and the canny, low-key response by local government defeated efforts.{{sfn|Glisson|2006|pp=190–193}} Though the Albany effort proved a key lesson in tactics for King and the national civil rights movement,WEB,www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany, Albany, GA Movement, Civil Rights Movement Archive, September 8, 2008, July 7, 2010,www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany," title="web.archive.org/web/20100707051408www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany,">web.archive.org/web/20100707051408www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany, live, the national media was highly critical of King’s role in the defeat, and the SCLC’s lack of results contributed to a growing gulf between the organization and the more radical SNCC. After Albany, King sought to choose engagements for the SCLC in which he could control the circumstances, rather than entering into pre-existing situations.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=96}}File:Photograph of White House Meeting with Civil Rights Leaders. June 22, 1963 - NARA - 194190 (no border).tif|thumb|Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy with King, Benjamin MaysBenjamin Mays

Birmingham campaign, 1963

File:MLK mugshot birmingham.jpg| thumb| right | King was arrested in 1963 for protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham.NEWS, Martin Luther King mugshot April 12 1963, April 16, 2013, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans AdvocateThe Times-Picayune/The New Orleans AdvocateIn April 1963, the SCLC began a campaign against racial segregation and economic injustice in Birmingham, Alabama. The campaign used nonviolent but intentionally confrontational tactics, developed in part by Wyatt Tee Walker. Black people in Birmingham, organizing with the SCLC, occupied public spaces with marches and sit-ins, openly violating laws that they considered unjust.King’s intent was to provoke mass arrests and “create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.“{{sfn|Garrow|1986|p=246}} The campaign’s early volunteers did not succeed in shutting down the city, or in drawing media attention to the police’s actions. Over the concerns of an uncertain King, SCLC strategist James Bevel changed the course of the campaign by recruiting children and young adults to join the demonstrations.BOOK, McWhorter, Diane, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, 2001, Simon and Schuster, 978-0-7432-2648-6,archive.org/details/isbn_9780743217729, registration, Two Mayors and a King, Newsweek called this strategy a Children’s Crusade.BOOK, Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People, Volume 2, 1055, Edwin S., Gaustad, Randall M., Miller, John B., Boles, Randall Bennett, Woods, Sally Foreman, Griffith, Harrell, David Edwin, 0-8028-2945-7, Wm B Eerdmans Publishing, 2005, JOURNAL, Birmingham USA: Look at Them Run, Newsweek, May 13, 1963, 27, The Birmingham Police Department, led by Eugene “Bull” Connor, used high-pressure water jets and police dogs against protesters, including children. Footage of the police response was broadcast on national television news, shocking many white Americans and consolidating black Americans behind the movement.{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=113–114}} Not all of the demonstrators were peaceful, despite the avowed intentions of the SCLC. In some cases, bystanders attacked the police, who responded with force. King and the SCLC were criticized for putting children in harm’s way. But the campaign was a success: Connor lost his job, the “Jim Crow” signs came down, and public places became more open to blacks. King’s reputation improved immensely.King was arrested and jailed early in the campaign—his 13th arrestJOURNAL, Integration: Connor and King, Newsweek, April 22, 1963, 28, 33, out of 29.WEB, King, Coretta Scott, The Meaning of The King Holiday,www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday, The King Center, August 22, 2012, May 14, 2013,www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday," title="web.archive.org/web/20130514204850www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday,">web.archive.org/web/20130514204850www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday, live, From his cell, he composed the now-famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that responds to calls to pursue legal channels for social change. The letter has been described as “one of the most important historical documents penned by a modern political prisoner”.BOOK, Greene, Helen Taylor,books.google.com/books?id=v_9yAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Political+prisoner%22, Encyclopedia of Race and Crime, Gabbidon, Shaun L., 2009, Sage Publications, 978-1-4522-6609-1, 636–639, en, Political Prisoners, June 7, 2022, January 23, 2024,web.archive.org/web/20240123124418/https://books.google.com/books?id=v_9yAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Political+prisoner%22#v=snippet&q=%22Political%20prisoner%22&f=false, live, King argues that the crisis of racism is too urgent, and the current system too entrenched: “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” He points out that the Boston Tea Party, a celebrated act of rebellion in the American colonies, was illegal civil disobedience, and that, conversely, “everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’.” Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, arranged for $160,000 to bail out King and his fellow protestors.WEB,www.hoover.org/research/great-society-new-history-amity-shlaes-0, The Great Society: A New History with Amity Shlaes, Hoover Institution, en, April 28, 2020, July 1, 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200701062533/https://www.hoover.org/research/great-society-new-history-amity-shlaes-0, live,

March on Washington, 1963

(File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Leaders of the march posing in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln... - NARA - 542063 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Leaders of the March on Washington posing in front of the Lincoln Memorial)(File:March on Washington edit.jpg|thumb|upright|The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963))King, representing the SCLC, was among the leaders of the “Big Six” civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place on August 28, 1963. The other leaders and organizations comprising the Big Six were Roy Wilkins from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Whitney Young, National Urban League; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis, SNCC; and James L. Farmer Jr., Congress of Racial Equality.BOOK, Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Gates, Henry Louis, Anthony, Appiah, Basic Civitas Books, 0-465-00071-1, 1999, 1251,archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi/page/1251, Bayard Rustin’s open homosexuality, support of socialism, and former ties to the Communist Party USA caused many white and African-American leaders to demand King distance himself from Rustin,BOOK,archive.org/details/freedomriders1960000arse, registration, 62, Arsenault, Raymond, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, 0-19-513674-8, Oxford University Press, 2006, which King agreed to do.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=42}} However, he did collaborate in the 1963 March on Washington, for which Rustin was the primary organizer.BOOK, 138–43, David, De Leon, Leaders from the 1960s: A biographical sourcebook of American activism, 1994, Greenwood Publishing, 0-313-27414-2,archive.org/details/leadersfrom1960s0000unse, registration, BOOK, African-Americans and the Quest for Civil Rights, 1900–1990,archive.org/details/africanamericans00cash, registration, Cashman, Sean Dennis, 162, 0-8147-1441-2, NYU Press, 1991, For King, this role was another which courted controversy, since he was one of the key figures who acceded to the wishes of President Kennedy in changing the focus of the march.BOOK, Robert Kennedy and His Times, Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., 351, 0-345-28344-9, Houghton Mifflin Books, 1978, 2002,archive.org/details/robertkennedyhis00arth/page/351, BOOK, 74, Marable, Manning, 0-87805-493-6, 1991, Univ. Press of Mississippi, Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction in Black America, 1945–1990,archive.org/details/racereformrebell00mara_0/page/74, File:The March (1964 film).webm|thumb|The March, a 1964 documentary film produced by the United States Information Agency. King’s speech has been redacted from this video because of the copyright held by King’s estate.]]The march originally was planned to dramatize the desperate condition of blacks in the southern U.S. and place organizers’ concerns and grievances squarely before the seat of power in the nation’s capital. Organizers intended to denounce the federal government for its failure to safeguard the civil rights and physical safety of civil rights workers and blacks. The group acquiesced to presidential pressure, and the event ultimately took on a far less strident tone.BOOK, Living for Change: An Autobiography,archive.org/details/livingforchangea00bogg, limited, Boggs, Grace Lee, 127, U of Minnesota Press, 1998, 0-8166-2955-2, As a result, some civil rights activists felt it presented an inaccurate, sanitized pageant of racial harmony; Malcolm X called it the “Farce on Washington”, and the Nation of Islam forbade its members from attending.BOOK, Mysteries in History: From Prehistory to the Present, Aron, Paul, 398–399, 1-85109-899-2, ABC-CLIO, 2005,books.google.com/books?id=82zu_Aw5VFgC&pg=PA398, May 29, 2020, January 23, 2024,web.archive.org/web/20240123124426/https://books.google.com/books?id=82zu_Aw5VFgC&pg=PA398, live, File:Martin Luther King - March on Washington.jpg|thumb|upright|King gave his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream”, before the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and FreedomMarch on Washington for Jobs and Freedom{{listen| filename = I Have A Dream sample.ogg| title = I Have a Dream| description = 30-second sample from “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963| filetype = Ogg| image = none}}The march made specific demands: an end to racial segregation in public schools; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality; a $2 minimum wage for all workers ({{Inflation|US|2|1963|r=0|fmt=eq}}); and self-government for Washington, D.C., then governed by congressional committee.BOOK, The Sixties in America, Singleton, Carl, Rowena, Wildin, 454, 0-89356-982-8, Salem Press, 1999,archive.org/details/sixtiesinamerica03sing/page/454, BOOK, Bennett, Scott H., 225, 2003, Syracuse University Press, 0-8156-3003-4, Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915–1963, JOURNAL, Celebrating the Birthday and Public Holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr, Davis, Danny, Danny K. Davis, Library of Congress,thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:H16JA7-0046:, Congressional Record, July 11, 2011, January 16, 2007, July 28, 2013,thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:H16JA7-0046:," title="web.archive.org/web/20130728081414thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:H16JA7-0046:,">web.archive.org/web/20130728081414thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r110:H16JA7-0046:, live, Despite tensions, the march was a resounding success.BOOK, 313, Powers, Roger S., William B., Vogele, Christopher, Kruegler, Ronald M., McCarthy, Taylor & Francis, 1997, 0-8153-0913-9, Protest, power, and change: an encyclopedia of nonviolent action from ACT-UP to Women’s Suffrage,archive.org/details/protestpowerchan00roge/page/313, More than a quarter of a million people of diverse ethnicities attended, sprawling from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial onto the National Mall. At the time, it was the largest gathering of protesters in Washington, D.C.’s history.King delivered a 17-minute speech, later known as “I Have a Dream”. In the speech’s most famous passage{{snd}}in which he departed from his prepared text, possibly at the prompting of Mahalia Jackson, who shouted behind him, “Tell them about the dream!“NEWS,www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/21/usa.comment, I have a dream, Younge, Gary, Gary Younge, August 21, 2003, The Guardian, January 9, 2013, August 27, 2013,www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/21/usa.comment," title="web.archive.org/web/20130827063459www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/21/usa.comment,">web.archive.org/web/20130827063459www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/21/usa.comment, live, BOOK, The Dream: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation, Hansen, Drew, 2005, HarperCollins, 978-0-06-008477-6, 98,archive.org/details/dreammartinluthe00hans/page/98, {{snd}}King said:BOOK, The Words of Martin Luther King Jr., Second, King, Martin Luther Jr., King, Coretta Scott, 2008, Newmarket Press, 978-1-55704-815-8, 95,books.google.com/books?id=irMxJS36904C&pg=PA95, May 29, 2020, January 23, 2024,web.archive.org/web/20240123124316/https://books.google.com/books?id=irMxJS36904C&pg=PA95, live, {{poemquote|I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: (United States Declaration of Independence|“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”)I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.I have a dream 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.I have a dream today.I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.I have a dream today.}}“I Have a Dream” came to be regarded as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory.WEB, Dream Assignment, Smithsonian, August 1, 2003, August 27, 2008, Moore, Lucinda,www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dream-speech.html,www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dream-speech.html," title="archive.today/20130105000547www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dream-speech.html,">archive.today/20130105000547www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dream-speech.html, dead, January 5, 2013, The March, and especially King’s speech, helped put civil rights at the top of the agenda of reformers and facilitated passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.{{cite book|first=James T.|last=Patterson|author-link=James T. Patterson (historian)|title=Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1996|pages=482–85, 542–46