A Baptist member, and social activist, by the name of Martin Luther King Jr., played a very important role in the Civil Rights Movement. He began playing his role in the mid 1950’s until he was later assassinated in 1968. Being inspired by supporters of the nonviolence movement, such as Mahatma Gandhi, King fought for equality for all African Americans. King not only fought for equality, but he also fought for the right to vote and for the victims of unfairness all through peaceful protesting. He had a splendid speaking ability, which allowed him to reveal the demands of African Americans for social justice. King’s fluent appeal won the support of billons of people, black and white, which made him famous. In 1964 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading nonviolent civil rights affirmation. Regardless of King’s stress on nonviolence, he started to become the target of violence. Back in Montgomery, Alabama, white racists bombed his home, and threw rocks at him in Chicago. Finally, at the age of 39, violence took his life as an assassin shot and killed him. …show more content…
His given name was Michael King Jr., after his father. His father later changed their name to Martin Luther King Sr. and Jr. Martin was the second to the oldest child out of the two children, Alberta Williams King and Michael King. King Jr. was mostly called M.L. King Sr., served at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, as a pastor. In high school Martin was so smart that he skipped 9th and 12th grade. At the age of 15, King entered Morehouse College. King then became a fan of Benjamin E. Mays, Morehouse’s president and well-known scholar of black religion. King later decided to become minister as Mays’s influenced
King, Jr. was a strong believer in the fact that every race should be treated equally to one another. As Edward Berry stated in his own Rhetorical Analysis, “Doing Time: King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail””, King dreamed of a time where whites and blacks could be equal (111). Some of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s largest achievements through this movement where the March on Washington, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and obviously the Birmingham Campaign. He gave his all into this movement and on April 4, 1969, at the young age of 39, was assassinated because of his belief in racial equality and gave his life for the Civil Rights Campaign. Like Martin Luther King said in his piece, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, “I am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom far beyond my own hometown (1). And that he did. Which is one of the biggest reasons that he is so widely remembered in the United States of America and
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15 , 1929 and died on April 4, 1968. He was born Michael Luther King Jr. but decided to change his name to Martin. Both Martin Luther’s grandfather and father were pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Martin Luther carried on the tradition and served as pastor from 1960-1968 (Nobel Prize, 1). He was a big part of the civil rights movement for his race. In fact he was the most important voice in this movement. Dr. King is know for his nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice. Throughout his life he tried his hardest to make people understand that “all men are created equal”(American
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia on the date of January 15, 1929. King was a Baptist minister and highly influential figure in the civil-rights movement. Throughout King’s life, he made many efforts to impact the way African- Americans were viewed in the United States. King is remarkably known for two of his writings that changed the future for African-Americans. One of these is his Letter from a Birmingham Jail and the other being his public speech targeted towards voting rights titled “I Have a Dream”. At the age of 35, King made history by becoming the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize Award. With his winnings, he donated all of the proceeds to the civil rights movement. Four short years later, King was murdered while in Memphis, Tennessee on a job to lead another march for sympathy of garbage
Martin Luther King was an enthusiastic, inspiring, determined African American in a time where all those traits were difficult to achieve; these traits were especially complicated for him because of his skin color. He did many great things and showed communities that equality was an option to be considered. King had many impactful speeches and protests which impacted the civil rights movement in a positive way for mainly African Americans. He won the Nobel Peace Prize when he was 35, and was the youngest person to win the prize at the time. Four years after receiving the award, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on his hotel balcony. Across the country people reacted violently by rioting, protesting, and grieving over
As a young child he skipped the ninth and the eleventh grade while attending Booker T. Washington High school a result of being a gifted child. At the young age of fifteen years old he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta from the year’s nineteen forty-fourth to nineteen forty-eight. While in college king studied sociology and also begin to accept the calling on his life just like his father to minister the gospel to the people. The president of Morehouse College Benjamin E. Mays was a major influence on king’s spiritual development in his Christian faith in which he viewed Christianity as a main force for social change in American society. Martin just like his father changed his name from Michael king to Martin Luther King in honor of a German protestant.
Martin Luther King preached the realities of what justice truly is. Nearly 50 years later our world is still having trouble with these ideas. There is no doubt that Martin Luther King was an extremely virtuous man. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, had a Ph.D. in systematic theology, was a baptist minister, and was probably the most recognized person in the civil rights movement. He was assassinated in 1968. The incident as described by Thich Nhat Hanh; "I couldn 't believe it. I thought the American people had produced a king, but are not capable of preserving him".
Martin Luther King Jr. was one of many great civil rights activists that have fought for equal rights. Throughout the 1960’s he persevered through many things such as, “On March 7, 1965, a civil rights march, planned from Selma to Alabama's capitol in Montgomery, turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. King was not in the march, however the attack was televised showing horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured. Seventeen demonstrators were hospitalized leading to the naming the event "Bloody Sunday." Everyone, young or old, gay or straight, women or man, everyone should get equal rights and this man shows why and how we can do it.
was a social activist and Baptist minister who had played a role in the American civil rights movement which was in the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. King had fought for equality and human rights for African Americans which was an economically weakness, all victims were injustice through the peaceful protest. He was apart of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March in Washington, it helped bring a legislation as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. As a SCLC president, King traveled across the country and around the world, he gave speeches on nonviolent protest and civil rights, he was also meeting with religious figures, activists, and political leaders. The March on Washington lead up to King’s most famous speech, which is known as “ I Have A Dream.”
Martin Luther King Jr. is revered as a symbol of peace and understanding. He is humble as he is true to himself. We recognized him as someone who can overcome any obstacles that stand in his way. A leader who is fully capable of evaluating justice and inequality. These are only some of the characteristics that describe Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his work to enhancing the quality of life for his fellow people and open the rest of america’s eyes of the promise of African-Americans. This man has shed blood in the name of peace and equality. It all began with the amount of civil unrest MLK encountered in Atlanta, Georgia, where segregation and Jim Crow Laws were a daily reality for African-Americans. He found inspiration for social change at his local
One of the most important civil rights leaders in American history was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King fought for freedom, equality and peace, which helped our nation in the best way. During his time he fought for liberation using nonviolence and passive resistance while he preached equality to the people. However, on August 28th, 1963, Dr. King preached a message of nonviolence in hopes to achieve social change. This speech expressed his feelings and perspectives of the unjust events during the 1900's. Dr. King proposed that African Americans had
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929; He died on April 4, 1968. His original name was Michael Luther King Jr. he changed his name to Martin Luther King. His grandfather started the family long tradition of pastoring of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; His father had served as pastor from 1916 until death. Martin Luther King was co pastoring under his father, he attended segregated public school in Georgia. Graduating high school at the age of 15; He received the B.A. degree in 1940 from More House college, a distinguished negro institution of Atlanta, from which his father and grandfather graduated from. After 3 years of Theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class. He was awarded B.D. in 195, with a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled graduate studies at Boston University. He met his wife Coretta Scott while in Boston, Martin has 2 daughters and 2 Sons. He awarded leadership of the first negro in 1955. His bus boycott lasted for 382 days. On December 1956, After the Supreme Court of the United States declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, and now the road the bus at equals. During these days king was arrested multiple time for the bombing of his house, which also subjected to personal abuse. He engaged as a negro leader, at age 35 he was the youngest man to receive the “Nobel” prize, and on April 14, 1968, while standing on his balcony in Tennessee he was assassinated.
Martin Luther King, JR., was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929 to Martin Luther King and Alberta Williams King. He was the middle child. He had an
Martin Luther King was a great man and a brilliant leader. He was born on January 15, 1929. He Married Coretta Scott in 1953 and had four children. On October 14, 1964, Dr. King received a Nobel Peace prize for his great contributions in the peaceful fight for civil rights. At the age of 35 he is the youngest to receive a Nobel Peace Award. He died at the age of 39. He never deserved his assassination on April 4, 1968, as the “bullet entered through his right cheek, breaking his jaw, neck and several vertebrae as it travelled down his spinal cord, severing the jugular vein and major arteries in the process before lodging in his shoulder.” (Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 9) He truly inspired the hearts of many brave men and women no matter what color or religion you are and the way he brought the souls of people to try whatever is required to receive what they believe in was phenomenal. Until the day that I lay on my deathbed to the sound of David’s horn, I will doing everything I can to live out the dream of Martin Luther King “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
Martin Luther King Jr. born on January 15, 1929 is widely regarded as America’s pre-eminent activist of nonviolence and one of the utmost nonviolent leaders in world history. King's message of non-violence and relentlessly courageous pursuit of justice to accomplish equality for African-Americans in the United States, made him a reverential figure in the world arena.
Martin Luther was a civil rights activist, a clergy and one of the key personalities behind the formation of the American Civil Rights Movement. The major goal of the movement was to advocate for the abolishment the racial discrimination of the African Americans population. King was shot on 4th April 1968 while he was his motel room at Memphis, Tennessee and was pronounced dead that evening while in hospital2. After the killing, James Earl Ray, who was convicted for murdering King, escaped but was arrested after two months in London. Many people believe that the government was involved in the assassination. Following the death of King, lots of riots and protests emerged in different cities across US.