Martin Luther King Jr’s Biography
Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist and a Baptist minister who had a crucial role in the civil rights movement in the 1950’s. Martin was admired all across the world and he spoke in many different places. He was the youngest person to get the Nobel Peace Prize due to his peaceful and nonviolent protests. He is remembered on a Martin Luther King Jr. day which is a country holiday. They observed this holiday from 1986.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader and activist from the 1950’s to 1968. On January 15, 1929 a new person joined the Luther family known as Martin Luther King Jr. This fortunate incident happened in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the second child of Martin Luther King Sr.. He was named as Micheal Luther King Jr., but then his name was changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther’s grandfather was a pastor from 1914 to 1931. His father served as a pastor from 1931 till his death in 1960.
Martin Luther was a co-pastor and attended public schools in Georgia. He graduated from High School at the age of 15 and acquired his B.A degree from More house college in 1948. After his theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary (in Pennsylvania), he was elected president of a mainly white class. He got his B.D in 1951 and signed up for graduate studies in Boston University. He completed his Doctorate in 1953 and got his degree in 1955.
He was married to Corette Scott who had artistic achievements. Two sons and one daughter was born to their family. In 1954 Martin Luther became a pastor. Martin was now a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He then got the leadership of the first non-violent Negro, demonstration of modern times in USA.
On December 1 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to white passenger and was arrested. Activists coordinated a bus surn that would continue for 381 days. They chose Martin Luther King, Jr. as the protest’s leader. Now Martin was a national spotlight and an inspirational advocate of a nonviolent organization. Martin was also a target for white supermastics who bombed his home. In 1957 he was elected president of the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) for doing peaceful protest. On September 20 1958 Martin was stabbed by Izola Ware Curry. Luckily he survived.
From 1957 till 1968 Martin traveled six-million miles and spoke two-thousand five-hundred times. He went wherever there was injustice, protest, and action. And also wrote five books. He managed a peaceful protest on Washington D.C of 250,000 people to whom he said: “I have a Dream”. He was arrested twenty times and assaulted four times. He was known as the “Man of the Year” by Time magazine in 1963 for being a civil rights movement for African-American. And became a symbolic leader of American blacks and a world figure.
In 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest man to obtain the Nobel Peace Prize. He said that he would use his prize money of $54,123 to enhance his civil rights movements.
While Martin was standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee where he was to do a protest regarding the work of garbage men. He was shot and he didn’t survive. This unlucky incident took place on April 4 1968.
Martin Luther King Jr. tried to bring fairness to all Americans and certify civil rights for all people without regarding the color of skin and the race. He started the era of nonviolent protests. Finally after doing nonviolent protests he became the leader of African-American civil rights movement.
References:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr
https://www.biography.com/activist/martin-luther-king-jr
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/history/martin-luther-king-jr/
