martin luther king biography in malayalam

എനിക്ക് ഒരു സ്വപ്നമുണ്ട്...

ഇരുപതാം നൂറ്റാണ്ടിൽ ലോകത്തെ സ്വാധീനിച്ച വ്യക്തിത്വങ്ങളിൽ പ്രമുഖനാണ് മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ്. കേവലം 39 വർഷം മാത്രമാണ് അദ്ദേഹം ജീവിച്ചിരുന്നത്. ചുരുങ്ങിയ കാലംകൊണ്ട് തന്റെ അസാമാന്യമായ നേതൃപാടവത്തിലൂടെയും വാഗ്ധോരണികളിലൂടെയും മനുഷ്യാവകാശ സംരക്ഷണത്തിന് ഊർജം പകരാൻ അദ്ദേഹത്തിനു കഴിഞ്ഞു. 1957 മുതൽ 1968 വരെയുള്ള കാലയളവിൽ അമേരിക്കയിലുടനീളം 60 ലക്ഷം കിലോമീറ്റർ താണ്ടി രണ്ടായിരത്തി അഞ്ഞൂറ് പ്രസംഗങ്ങളാണ് അദ്ദേഹം നടത്തിയത്. ചിന്തോദ്ദീപകങ്ങളായ ആശയങ്ങളിലൂടെ ജനങ്ങളിൽ പൗരബോധവും ആത്മാഭിമാനവും ഉണർത്താൻ അദ്ദേഹത്തിനു കഴിഞ്ഞു.

മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ്ങിനെ ഏറ്റവും സ്വാധീനിച്ച നേതാവ് മഹാത്മാ ഗാന്ധിയായിരുന്നു. വോട്ടവകാശംപോലുമില്ലാതിരുന്ന അമേരിക്കയിലെ കറുത്ത വംശജരെ സംഘടിപ്പിച്ച അദ്ദേഹം അവകാശ പോരാട്ടങ്ങൾ നടത്തിയത് ഗാന്ധിയൻ മാതൃകയിലുള്ള സമാധാന മാർഗങ്ങളിലൂടെയായിരുന്നു. 1964 ൽ സമാധാനത്തിനുള്ള നൊബേൽ സമ്മാനത്തിലൂടെ കിങ്ങിന്റെ പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങൾ ആദരിക്കപ്പെട്ടു.

ഏറ്റവുമധികം ഉദ്ധരിക്കപ്പെട്ട പ്രഭാഷകരിൽ ഒരാളാണ് മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ്. 1963 ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 28 പ്രഭാഷണങ്ങളുടെ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ശ്രദ്ധേയമായ ദിനമാണ്. അന്നാണ് ലിങ്കൺ സ്ക്വയറിൽ വിഖ്യാതമായ 'I have a dream' അഥവാ എനിക്ക് ഒരു സ്വപ്നമുണ്ട് എന്ന പ്രഭാഷണം നടന്നത്. ജനലക്ഷങ്ങളെ ആവേശഭരിതരാക്കിയ ഈ പ്രഭാഷണത്തിൽ അദ്ദേഹം ഉപയോഗിച്ച വാചകങ്ങൾ ഇന്നും പ്രചോദനാത്മകമാണ്.

നേതൃത്വത്തിലേക്കുള്ള യാത്ര മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ്ങിന് സുഗമമായിരുന്നില്ല. അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ വീട് ചുട്ട് ചാമ്പലാക്കുകയും അനവധി തവണ ആക്രമിക്കപ്പെടുകയും ചെയ്തു. അദ്ദേഹം 20 തവണ ജയിൽവാസവും അനുഭവിക്കേണ്ടി വന്നു. തന്റെ ഉദ്ദേശ്യ ലക്ഷ്യങ്ങളിലുണ്ടായിരുന്ന ഉറച്ച വിശ്വാസം ഒരിക്കലും തളർത്താതെ അദ്ദേഹത്തെ മുന്നോട്ടു നയിച്ചു.

ഓരോരുത്തർക്കും അവരവരുടേതായ ആഗ്രഹങ്ങളും...

ചില ആളുകളുടെ സാഹസിക പ്രകടനങ്ങൾ കാണുമ്പോൾ...

‘‘ഒരു വ്യക്തിയെ വിലയിരുത്തേണ്ടത് അയാൾ ആയാസരഹിതമായ അവസ്ഥകളിലൂടെ കടന്നുപോകുമ്പോഴല്ല മറിച്ച് അയാൾ എത്രത്തോളം വെല്ലുവിളികളെയും വിവാദങ്ങളെയും അതിജീവിക്കുന്നു എന്നതിന്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനത്തിലാണ്’’ എന്ന മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ്ങിന്റെ വാചകങ്ങൾ നേതൃത്വത്തെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള മികച്ച അഭിപ്രായമായാണ് ലോകം കണക്കാക്കിയിട്ടുള്ളത്. വെല്ലുവിളികളെ അതിജീവിച്ചവരാണ് മികച്ച നേതാക്കളായിട്ടുള്ളത്. ചെയ്യേണ്ട കാര്യങ്ങൾ ചെയ്യേണ്ട സമയത്ത് നിർഭയമായി ചെയ്യുക.

നമുക്ക് മുന്നോട്ട് ചലിക്കാൻ കഴിയണം. നിങ്ങൾക്ക് പറക്കാൻ കഴിയില്ലെങ്കിൽ ഓടുക, ഓടാൻ കഴിയുന്നില്ലെങ്കിൽ നടക്കുക, നടക്കാൻ കഴിയില്ലെങ്കിൽ ഇഴയുക.... എന്തായാലും ചലിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേയിരിക്കുക. ‘‘വിശ്വാസമുള്ളവൻ ഒരു സ്റ്റെയർകേസിലേക്ക് കാലെടുത്തു വയ്ക്കുന്നത് ഈ നടത്തം എന്നെ ലക്ഷ്യത്തിൽ എത്തിക്കും എന്ന ഉറപ്പോടെയാണ്. അതിന് സ്റ്റെയർകേസ് മുഴുവൻ കാണണമെന്നില്ല.’’ ആത്മവിശ്വാസത്തിന്റെ പ്രസക്തിയെക്കുറിച്ചു മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ് പറയുന്നു.

താൻ കണ്ട സ്വപ്നങ്ങളൊക്കെയും സഫലീകരിക്കുന്നതുവരെ ജീവിച്ചിരിക്കാൻ കഴിഞ്ഞില്ലെങ്കിലും മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ് നേതൃത്വംകൊടുത്ത മനുഷ്യാവകാശ പോരാട്ടങ്ങളിലൂടെ ജനകോടികളുടെ ആത്മാഭിമാനം ഉയർത്താനും അവകാശ സംരക്ഷണം സാധ്യമാക്കാനും കഴിഞ്ഞു. അദ്ദേഹത്തിന്റെ സ്മരണയെ നിലനിർത്താൻ എല്ലാ ജനുവരി മാസത്തെയും മൂന്നാമത്തെ തിങ്കളാഴ്ച അമേരിക്കയിൽ പൊതു ഒഴിവ് ദിനമാണ്. ‘‘ഇരുട്ടുകൊണ്ട് ഇരുട്ടിനെ മാറ്റാൻ കഴിയില്ല. പ്രകാശംകൊണ്ടേ ഇരുട്ടകറ്റാൻ കഴിയൂ. അതുപോലെ വിദ്വേഷത്തിലൂടെ വിദ്വേഷത്തെ അകറ്റാൻ‍ കഴിയില്ല. സ്നേഹത്തിലൂടെ മാത്രമേ സാധിക്കൂ’ എന്നു പറഞ്ഞ മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ്ങിന്റെ വാക്കുകൾ എക്കാലത്തും പ്രസക്തമാണ്.

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മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിംഗ് ജൂനിയർ

• admin trycle
• Jul 3, 2020
• 0 comment(s)

അമേരിക്കൻ പൗരാവകാശ പ്രസ്ഥാനത്തിന് നേതൃത്വം നൽകിയ പ്രധാന നേതാക്കളിൽ ഒരാളാണ് മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിംഗ് ജൂനിയർ. തന്റെ ആക്ടിവിസത്തിലൂടെയും പ്രചോദനാത്മകമായ പ്രസംഗങ്ങളിലൂടെയും, അമേരിക്കയിലെ ആഫ്രിക്കൻ-അമേരിക്കൻ പൗരന്മാരുടെ നിയമപരമായ വേർതിരിവ് അവസാനിപ്പിക്കുന്നതിലും 1964 ലെ പൗരാവകാശ നിയമവും 1965 ലെ വോട്ടവകാശ നിയമവും സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നതിൽ അദ്ദേഹം ഒരു പ്രധാന പങ്ക് വഹിച്ചു. 1964 ൽ കിംഗ് സമാധാനത്തിനുള്ള നോബൽ സമ്മാനം നേടി. ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും സ്വാധീനമുള്ളതും പ്രചോദനാത്മകവുമായ ആഫ്രിക്കൻ-അമേരിക്കൻ നേതാക്കളിൽ ഒരാളായി അദ്ദേഹം ഓർമിക്കപ്പെടുന്നു.

1929 ജനുവരി 15 ന് ജോർജിയയിലെ അറ്റ്ലാന്റയിൽ ആണ് മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിംഗ് ജൂനിയർ ജനിച്ചത്. ഒരു പാസ്റ്ററായിരുന്ന മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിംഗ് സീനിയറിന്റെയും മുൻ സ്കൂൾ അധ്യാപികയായ ആൽബർട്ട വില്യംസ് കിംഗ് എന്നിവരുടെ മകനായിട്ടാണ് അദ്ദേഹം ജനിച്ചത്. പ്രതിഭാധനനായ വിദ്യാർത്ഥിയായ കിംഗ് പതിനഞ്ചാമത്തെ വയസ്സിൽ മോർഹൗസ് കോളേജിൽ ചേർന്നു. അവിടെ അദ്ദേഹം വൈദ്യവും നിയമവും പഠിച്ചു. 1948 ൽ ബിരുദം നേടിയ ശേഷം കിംഗ് പെൻ‌സിൽ‌വാനിയയിലെ ക്രോസർ തിയോളജിക്കൽ സെമിനാരിയിൽ പ്രവേശിച്ചു. അവിടെവെച്ച് മഹാത്മാഗാന്ധിയുടെ അഹിംസ തത്വശാസ്ത്രം പരിചയപ്പെട്ട അദ്ദേഹം ഡിവൈനിറ്റിയിൽ ബിരുദവും നേടി. 1953ൽ തന്റെ ഇരുപത്തി നാലാമത്തെ വയസ്സിൽ അദ്ദേഹം അലബാമ സംസ്ഥാനത്തിലെ മോണ്ട്ഗോമറിയിലെ ഡെക്സ്റ്റർ അവന്യൂ ബാപ്റ്റിസ്റ്റ് പള്ളിയിൽ പാസ്റ്ററായി.

1955 ഡിസംബർ ഒന്നാം തീയതി കറുത്ത വർഗ്ഗക്കാരിയായ റോസ പാർക്സ്, ഒരു വെള്ളക്കാരനു ബസ്സിൽ സീറ്റ് ഒഴിഞ്ഞുകൊടുക്കാത്തതിനാൽ, ജിം ക്രോ നിയമലംഘനത്തിന്റെ പേരിൽ അറസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യപ്പെടുകയുണ്ടായി. ഇതിനെത്തുടർന്ന് മോണ്ട്ഗോമറി ബസ് ബഹിഷ്കരണസമരം നയിച്ചത് കിംഗായിരുന്നു. 385 ദിവസം നീണ്ടുനിന്ന ഈ സമരത്തിനിടെ കിംഗ് അറസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യപ്പെടുകയും ചെയ്തു. അലബാമയിലെ യു. എസ്. ജില്ലാക്കോടതി ഈ കേസിൽ പ്രക്ഷോഭകർക്കനുകൂലമായി വിധി പ്രഖ്യാപിക്കുകയും മോണ്ട്ഗോമറിയിലെ ബസ്സുകളിൽ വെള്ളക്കാർക്ക് പ്രത്യേകസീറ്റുകൾ നിലവിലുണ്ടായിരുന്നത് നിർത്തലാക്കുകയും ചെയ്തു. മോണ്ട്ഗോമറി ബസ് ബഹിഷ്‌കരണത്തിന്റെ വിജയത്തോടെ അദ്ദേഹവും മറ്റ് പൗരാവകാശ പ്രവർത്തകരും ചേർന്ന് 1957-ൽ സതേൺ ക്രിസ്ത്യൻ ലീഡർഷിപ്പ് കോൺഫറൻസ് (എസ്‌.സി.എൽ.സി) സ്ഥാപിച്ചു. അഹിംസാത്മക പ്രതിഷേധത്തിലൂടെ ആഫ്രിക്കൻ അമേരിക്കക്കാർക്ക് സമ്പൂർണ്ണ സമത്വം കൈവരിക്കാൻ പ്രതിജ്ഞാബദ്ധരായ ഒരു സംഘമായിരുന്നു ഇത്. എസ്‌.സി.എൽ.സി പ്രസിഡന്റ് ആയിരുന്ന മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിംഗ് ജൂനിയർ രാജ്യത്തും ലോകമെമ്പാടും സഞ്ചരിച്ച് അഹിംസാത്മക പ്രതിഷേധം, പൗരാവകാശങ്ങൾ എന്നിവയെക്കുറിച്ച് പ്രഭാഷണങ്ങൾ നടത്തുകയും മതവിശ്വാസികൾ, സാമൂഹിക പ്രവർത്തകർ, രാഷ്ട്രീയ നേതാക്കൾ എന്നിവരുമായി കൂടിക്കാഴ്ച നടത്തുകയും ചെയ്തു.

1963 ഓഗസ്റ്റ് 28ന് ലിങ്കൺ മെമ്മോറിയലിന് മുന്നിൽ തടിച്ചുകൂടിയ രണ്ടുലക്ഷത്തോളം ജനങ്ങളെ അഭിസംബോധന ചെയ്ത് മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂഥർ കിങ് ജൂനിയർ നടത്തിയ ‘എനിക്കൊരു സ്വപ്നമുണ്ട്’ എന്ന പ്രസംഗം ഇരുപതാം നൂറ്റാണ്ടില്‍ ലോകം കേട്ട മികച്ച പ്രസംഗങ്ങളിലൊന്നാണ്. സമത്വത്തിനും സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തിനും ആഹ്വാനം ചെയ്ത് കൊണ്ടുള്ള ഈ പ്രസംഗം പൗരാവകാശ പ്രസ്ഥാനത്തിന്റെ നിർണ്ണായക നിമിഷങ്ങളിലൊന്നായും അമേരിക്കൻ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും മികച്ച പ്രസംഗങ്ങളിലൊന്നായും മാറി. 'അമേരിക്കൻ സിവിൽറൈറ്റ്‌സ് മൂവ്മെന്റ്' സംഘടിപ്പിച്ച വാഷിങ്ടൺ മാർച്ചിൽ വെച്ചാണ് മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിങ് ഈ പ്രസംഗം നടത്തിയത്. അമേരിക്കയിലെ കറുത്ത വർഗ്ഗക്കാരോടുള്ള വംശീയ വിവേചനത്തെ എതിർക്കുകയും പൗരാവകാശ നിയമനിർമാണം പാസ്സാക്കാൻ പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുക എന്നതായിരുന്നു ഈ മാർച്ചിന്റെ ഉദ്ദേശ്യം.

അബ്രഹാം ലിങ്കന്റെ ഗെറ്റിസ്ബർഗ് പ്രസംഗത്തെ പരാമർശിച്ച് കൊണ്ടാണ് മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിങ് തന്റെ പ്രസംഗം ആരംഭിച്ചത്. തുടർന്ന് അടിമ വിമോചന വിളംബരത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് സംസാരിച്ച അദ്ദേഹം അടിമത്തത്തിന്റെ നീണ്ട രാത്രി അവസാനിച്ചുവെങ്കിലും, ആഫ്രിക്കൻ അമേരിക്കക്കാർ ഇപ്പോഴും സ്വതന്ത്രരല്ല എന്നും വിവേചനങ്ങൾ അവരെ തളർത്തി എന്നും സൂചിപ്പിച്ചു. ആഫ്രിക്കൻ അമേരിക്കൻ ജനതയുടെ ജീവിതാവസ്ഥകളെക്കുറിച്ച് സംസാരിച്ച അദ്ദേഹം ‘എനിക്കൊരു സ്വപ്നമുണ്ട്’ എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞ് കൊണ്ട് വിവേചനകൾ ഇല്ലാത്ത അമേരിക്കയെ കുറിച്ചുള്ള തന്റെ സ്വപ്നങ്ങൾ പങ്കുവെച്ചു. സ്വാതന്ത്രത്തിന് ആഹ്വനം ചെയ്തു കൊണ്ട് അവസാനിപ്പിച്ച ഈ പ്രസംഗം എക്കാലത്തെയും വലിയ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യപ്രഖ്യാപനങ്ങളിൽ ഒന്നായി ലോകം അംഗീകരിക്കുന്നു. മുപ്പത്തിനാലാം വയസ്സിൽ മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിങ് നടത്തിയ ഈ പ്രസംഗം 1964 ലെ പൗരാവകാശ നിയമം നിലവിൽ വരാൻ സഹായിച്ചതായി പലരും വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നു

1968 ഏപ്രിൽ 4 ന് വൈകുന്നേരം മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിംഗ് കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടു. ലോറൻ മോട്ടലിലെ തന്റെ മുറിക്ക് പുറത്ത് ഒരു ബാൽക്കണിയിൽ നിൽക്കുമ്പോൾ, മാർട്ടിൻ ലൂതർ കിംഗ് ജൂനിയരുടെ ശരീരത്തിൽ ഒരു സ്നൈപ്പറുടെ ബുള്ളറ്റ് തുളച്ച് കയറുകയായിരുന്നു. ജയിംസ് ഏൾ ‌റേ എന്ന വെള്ളക്കാരനായ കുറ്റവാളിയായിരുന്നു അദ്ദേഹത്തെ വെടി വെച്ചത്. ടർന്ന് ലണ്ടനിലേക്ക് ഒളിച്ചു കടന്ന ഇയാൾ ബ്രസൽ‌സിലേക്ക് ഒളിച്ചുകടക്കാൻ ശ്രമിക്കുമ്പോൾ പിടിക്കപ്പെടുകയാണുണ്ടായത്. കുറ്റസമ്മതം നടത്തിയ ഇയാൾക്ക് 99 വർഷത്തെ തടവാണ് ശിക്ഷ വിധിക്കപ്പെട്ടത്.

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Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and major leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After his assassination, he was memorialized by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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In Focus: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Days after his 1968 assassination , a campaign for a holiday in King’s honor began. U.S. Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan first proposed a bill on April 8, 1968, but the first vote on the legislation didn’t happen until 1979. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King , led the lobbying effort to drum up public support. Fifteen years after its introduction, the bill finally became law.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan ’s signature created Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service as a federal holiday. It’s celebrated annually on the third Monday in January. The only national day of service, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986. The first time all 50 states recognized the holiday was in 2000.

See Martin Luther King Jr.’s life depicted onscreen in the 2018 documentary I Am MLK Jr. or the Oscar-winning movie Selma .

Quick Facts

Where did martin luther king jr. go to school, philosophy of nonviolence, civil rights accomplishments, "i have a dream" and other famous speeches, wife and kids, fbi surveillance, later activism, assassination, who was martin luther king jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Through his nonviolent activism and inspirational speeches , he played a pivotal role in ending legal segregation of Black Americans, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray and died on April 4, 1968, at age 39. King continues to be remembered as one of the most influential and inspirational Black leaders in history.

FULL NAME: Martin Luther King Jr. BIRTHDAY: January 15, 1929 DIED: April 4, 1968 BIRTHPLACE: Atlanta, Georgia SPOUSE: Coretta Scott King (1953-1968) CHILDREN: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice King ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Martin Luther King Jr. was born as Michael Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. His birthday was January 15, 1929.

His parents were Michael Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The Williams and King families had roots in rural Georgia. Martin’s maternal grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist Church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks, and they had one child who survived, Alberta.

Michael Sr. came from a family of sharecroppers in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D.’s home in Atlanta. Michael stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931. He, too, became a successful minister and adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther . In due time, Michael Jr. followed his father’s lead and adopt the name himself to become Martin Luther King Jr.

A middle child, Martin Jr. had an older sister, Willie, and a younger brother, Alfred. The King children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while Alberta’s gentleness easily balanced out their father’s strict hand.

Although they undoubtedly tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t shield him completely from racism. His father fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but also because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God’s will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children, which left a lasting impression on Martin Jr.

Growing up in Atlanta, King entered public school at age 5. In May 1936, he was baptized, but the event made little impression on him.

In May 1941, King was 12 years old when his grandmother Jennie died of a heart attack. The event was traumatic for the boy, more so because he was out watching a parade against his parents’ wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young King jumped from a second-story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.

King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades and, at age 15, entered Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but largely unmotivated, floating through his first two years.

Influenced by his experiences with racism, King began planting the seeds for a future as a social activist early in his time at Morehouse. “I was at the point where I was deeply interested in political matters and social ills,” he recalled in The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr . “I could envision myself playing a part in breaking down the legal barriers to Negro rights.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time, King felt that the best way to serve that purpose was as a lawyer or a doctor. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, King questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort had continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father’s dismay.

But in his junior year, King took a Bible class, renewed his faith, and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision, and he was ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church in February 1948.

Later that year, King earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and began attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, was elected student body president, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study.

Even though King was following his father’s footsteps, he rebelled against Martin Sr.’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became romantically involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the relationship.

During his last year in seminary, King came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays, who influenced King’s spiritual development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change.

After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, King enrolled at Boston University. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his doctorate and earned his degree in 1955 at age 25.

Decades after King’s death, in the late 1980s, researchers at Stanford University’s King Papers Project began to note similarities between passages of King’s doctoral dissertation and those of another student’s work. A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University determined that King was guilty of plagiarism in 1991, though it also recommended against the revocation of his degree.

First exposed to the concept of nonviolent resistance while reading Henry David Thoreau ’s On Civil Disobedience at Morehouse, King later discovered a powerful exemplar of the method’s possibilities through his research into the life of Mahatma Gandhi . Fellow civil rights activist Bayard Rustin , who had also studied Gandhi’s teachings, became one of King’s associates in the 1950s and counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of nonviolence.

As explained in his autobiography , King previously felt that the peaceful teachings of Jesus applied mainly to individual relationships, not large-scale confrontations. But he came to realize: “Love for Gandhi was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking.”

It led to the formation of King’s six principles of nonviolence :

• Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
• Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
• Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
• Nonviolence holds that suffering for a just cause can educate and transform.
• Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
• Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

In the years to come, King also frequently cited the “ Beloved Community ”—a world in which a shared spirit of compassion brings an end to the evils of racism, poverty, inequality, and violence—as the end goal of his activist efforts.

Led by his religious convictions and philosophy of nonviolence, King became one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement . He was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and played key roles in several major demonstrations that transformed society. This included the Montgomery Bus Boycott that integrated Alabama’s public transit, the Greensboro Sit-In movement that desegregated lunch counters across the South, the March on Washington that led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in Alabama that culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

King’s efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 when he was 35.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

King’s first leadership role within the Civil Rights Movement was during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956. The 381-day protest integrated the Alabama city’s public transit in one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

The effort began on December 1, 1955, when 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the “colored” section in the middle of the bus. As the bus traveled its route, all the seats in the white section filled up, then several more white passengers boarded the bus.

The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other Black passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated.

The driver asked her again to give up her seat, and again she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her trial a week later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and assessed $4 court fee.

The local NAACP chapter had been looking to challenge Montgomery’s segregated bus policy and had almost made 15-year-old Claudette Colvin the face of the campaign months earlier. She similarly refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on March 2, 1955, but after organizers learned Colvin was pregnant, they feared it would scandalize the deeply religious Black community and make Colvin, along with the group’s efforts, less credible in the eyes of sympathetic white people. Parks’ experience of discrimination provided another opportunity.

On the night Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon , head of the local NAACP chapter, met with King and other local civil rights leaders to plan a Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained, and had solid family connections and professional standing. He was also new to the community and had few enemies, so organizers felt he would have strong credibility with the Black community.

In his first speech as the group’s president, King declared:

“We have no alternative but to protest. For many years, we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”

King’s skillful rhetoric put new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began December 5, 1955, and for more than a year, the local Black community walked to work, coordinated ride sharing, and faced harassment, violence, and intimidation. Both King’s and Nixon’s homes were attacked.

In addition to the boycott, members of the Black community took legal action against the city ordinance that outlined the segregated transit system. They argued it was unconstitutional based on the U.S. Supreme Court ’s “separate is never equal” decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Several lower courts agreed, and the nation’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling in a November 13, 1956, decision that also ruled the state of Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.

After the legal defeats and large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law that mandated segregated public transportation. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy , and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of Black churches. The SCLC helped conduct nonviolent protests to promote civil rights reform.

King’s participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The SCLC felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern cities to register Black voters. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

That September, King survived an attempt on his life when a woman with mental illness stabbed him in the chest as he signed copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in a New York City department store. Saved by quick medical attention, King expressed sympathy for his assailant’s condition in the aftermath .

In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, King visited Gandhi ’s birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a profound way, increasing his commitment to America’s civil rights struggle.

Greensboro Sit-In

By 1960, King was gaining national exposure. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church but also continued his civil rights efforts. His next activist campaign was the student-led Greensboro Sit-In movement.

In February 1960, a group of Black students in Greensboro, North Carolina , began sitting at racially segregated lunch counters in the city’s stores. When asked to leave or sit in the “colored” section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse.

The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. That April, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, with local sit-in leaders. King encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed and, for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By August 1960, the sit-ins had successfully ended segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities. But the movement wasn’t done yet.

On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the city’s reputation, Atlanta’s mayor negotiated a truce, and charges were eventually dropped.

Soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Martin’s wife, Coretta Scott King . Kennedy expressed his concern over the harsh treatment Martin received for the traffic ticket, and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon released.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In the spring of 1963, King organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. With entire families in attendance, city police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. King was jailed, along with large numbers of his supporters.

The event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally criticized by Black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration.

In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail , King eloquently spelled out his theory of nonviolence: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue.”

1963 March on Washington

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, King and his supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation’s capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change. The demonstration was the brainchild of labor leader A. Philip Randolph and King’s one-time mentor Bayard Rustin .

On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew an estimated 250,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It remains one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in American history. During the demonstration, King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech .

The rising tide of civil rights agitation that had culminated in the March on Washington produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation’s Jim Crow laws and the near-century of second-class treatment of African American citizens since the end of slavery. This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities.

Selma March

Continuing to focus on voting rights, King, the SCLC, SNCC, and local organizers planned to march peacefully from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery.

Led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams , demonstrators set out on March 7, 1965. But the Selma march quickly turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The attack was televised, broadcasting the horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured to a wide audience. Of the 600 demonstrators, 58 were hospitalized in a day that became known as “ Bloody Sunday .” King, however, was spared because he was in Atlanta.

Not to be deterred, activists attempted the Selma-to-Montgomery march again. This time, King made sure he was part of it. Because a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order on another march, a different approach was taken.

On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both Black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer, then they turned back. This became known as “Turnaround Tuesday.”

Alabama Governor George Wallace continued to try to prevent another march until President Lyndon B. Johnson pledged his support and ordered U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard to protect the protestors.

On March 21, 1965, approximately 2,000 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery. On March 25, the number of marchers, which had grown to an estimated 25,000 gathered in front of the state capitol where King delivered a televised speech. Five months after the historic peaceful protest, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act .

Along with his “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speeches, King delivered several acclaimed addresses over the course of his life in the public eye.

“I Have A Dream” Speech

Date: august 28, 1963.

King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington. Standing at the Lincoln Memorial, he emphasized his belief that someday all men could be brothers to the 250,000-strong crowd.

Notable Quote: “I have a dream that my four 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.”

“Give Us the Ballot” Speech

Date: may 17, 1957.

Six years before he told the world of his dream, King stood at the same Lincoln Memorial steps as the final speaker of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. Dismayed by the ongoing obstacles to registering Black voters, King urged leaders from various backgrounds—Republican and Democrat, Black and white—to work together in the name of justice.

Notable Quote: “Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights. Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law... Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.”

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Date: december 10, 1964.

Speaking at the University of Oslo in Norway, King pondered why he was receiving the Nobel Prize when the battle for racial justice was far from over, before acknowledging that it was in recognition of the power of nonviolent resistance. He then compared the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement to the ground crew at an airport who do the unheralded-yet-necessary work to keep planes running on schedule.

Notable Quote: “I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners—all those to whom beauty is truth and truth, beauty—and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”

“Our God is Marching On (How Long? Not Long)” Speech

Date: march 25, 1965.

At the end of the bitterly fought Selma-to-Montgomery march, King addressed a crowd of 25,000 supporters from the Alabama State Capitol. Offering a brief history lesson on the roots of segregation, King emphasized that there would be no stopping the effort to secure full voting rights, while suggesting a more expansive agenda to come with a call to march on poverty.

Notable Quote: “I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” Speech

Date: april 4, 1967.

One year before his assassination, King delivered a controversial sermon at New York City’s Riverside Church in which he condemned the Vietnam War. Explaining why his conscience had forced him to speak up, King expressed concern for the poor American soldiers pressed into conflict thousands of miles from home, while pointedly faulting the U.S. government’s role in escalating the war.

Notable Quote: “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Speech

Date: april 3, 1968.

The well-known orator delivered his final speech the day before he died at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. King reflected on major moments of progress in history and his own life, in addition to encouraging the city’s striking sanitation workers.

Notable Quote: “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

While working on his doctorate at Boston University, King met Coretta Scott , an aspiring singer and musician at the New England Conservatory school in Boston. They were married on June 18, 1953, and had four children—two daughters and two sons—over the next decade. Their oldest, Yolanda, was born in 1955, followed by sons Martin Luther King III in 1957 and Dexter in 1961. The couple welcomed Bernice King in 1963.

Although she accepted the responsibility to raise the children while King travelled the country, Coretta opened their home to organizational meetings and served as an advisor and sounding board for her husband. “I am convinced that if I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength, and calmness of Corrie, I could not have withstood the ordeals and tensions surrounding the movement,” King wrote in his autobiography.

His lengthy absences became a way of life for their children, but Martin III remembered his father returning from the road to join the kids playing in the yard or bring them to the local YMCA for swimming. King also fostered discussions at mealtimes to make sure everyone understood the important issues he was seeking to resolve.

Leery of accumulating wealth as a high-profile figure, King insisted his family live off his salary as a pastor. However, he was known to splurge on good suits and fine dining, while contrasting his serious public image with a lively sense of humor among friends and family.

Due to his relationships with alleged Communists, King became a target of FBI surveillance and, from late 1963 until his death, a campaign to discredit the civil rights activist. While FBI wiretaps failed to produce evidence of Communist sympathies, they captured the civil rights leader’s engagement in extramarital dalliances. This led to the infamous “suicide letter” of 1964, later confirmed to be from the FBI and authorized by then-Director J. Edgar Hoover , which urged King to kill himself if he wanted to prevent news of his affairs from going public.

In 2019, historian David Garrow wrote of explosive new allegations against King following his review of recently released FBI documents. Among the discoveries was a memo suggesting that King had encouraged the rape of a parishioner in a hotel room, as well as evidence that he might have fathered a daughter with a mistress. Other historians questioned the veracity of the documentation, especially given the FBI’s known attempts to damage King’s reputation. The original surveillance tapes regarding these allegations are under judicial seal until 2027.

From late 1965 through 1967, King expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young Black power leaders. King’s patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated many Black militants who considered his methods too weak, too late, and ineffective.

To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War . He felt America’s involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the government’s conduct in the war was discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a multiracial coalition to address the economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people. To that end, plans were in the works for another march on Washington to highlight the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement intended to pressure the government into improving living and working conditions for the economically disadvantaged.

By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on King. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress of civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from other African American leaders.

In the spring of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade. On April 3, 1968, he gave his final and what proved to be an eerily prophetic speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in which he told supporters, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now… I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

While standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper’s bullet on April 4, 1968. King died at age 39. The shocking assassination sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the country.

The shooter was James Earl Ray , a malcontent drifter and former convict. He initially escaped authorities but was apprehended after a two-month international manhunt. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

The identity of King’s assassin has been the source of some controversy. Ray recanted his confession shortly after he was sentenced, and King’s son Dexter publicly defended Ray’s innocence after meeting with the convicted gunman in 1997. Another complicating factor is the 1993 confession of tavern owner Loyd Jowers, who said he contracted a different hit man to kill King. In June 2000, the U.S. Justice Department released a report that dismissed the alternative theories of King’s death. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998.

King’s life had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known Black leader of his era.

His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C.

Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible, and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

• But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.
• There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.
• Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.
• The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
• Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.
• We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools.
• Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.
• I have a dream that my four 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.
• The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but with no morals.
• I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.
• Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
• A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
• At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
• Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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Martin Luther King's tryst with truth in Kerala

Nobel Peace Prize-winning American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was accidentally treated to an unforgettable philosophical experience in Thiruvananthapuram on February 22 ,1959.

The visit to Kerala 60 years ago provided unique insightful moments for King to strengthen his convictions for the civil rights movement in America, historical documents reveal.

King and his wife Coretta Scott King visited Kerala as part of their month-long India visit. After the State luncheon with the then Chief Minister E M S Namboothirippad, King was invited to a school in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) that afternoon.

US civil rights pioneer, congressman John Lewis dies

King was ceremoniously welcomed by the school authorities and students, most of them children of former untouchables. When it was time for a formal meeting to begin, the school principal made a speech and introduced the civil rights leader to the students with these words : "Young people, I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America."

King was taken aback. He did not expect to be addressed as an untouchable! Apparently hurt, he pondered over that shocking attribute: 'a fellow untouchable'!

King knew very well about the caste system and 'Harijans' from Mahatma Gandhi, his guiding light in nonviolence. He knew that untouchables of India were mistreated and segregated. That afternoon in Kerala, as he was being introduced to the young descendants of former untouchables, he experienced a sudden flash of enlightenment, details of which he revealed only after a long silence of six years.

That was the occasion of a sermon he delivered at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia on July 4, 1965. While referring to his famous "I Have A Dream" speech and how his great dream had often turned into a nightmare, he suddenly started narrating his unforgettable experience in Kerala:

I remember when Mrs. King and I were in India, we journeyed down one afternoon to the southernmost part of India, the state of Kerala, the city of Trivandrum. That afternoon I was to speak in one of the schools, what we would call high schools in our country, and it was a school attended by and large by students who were the children of former untouchables. Now you know in India, there was the caste system - and India has done a marvelous job in grappling with this problem - but you had your full caste and individuals were in one of the castes. And then you had some sixty or seventy million people who were considered outcasts. They were the untouchables; they could not go places that other people went; they could not do certain things. And this was one of the things that Mahatma Gandhi battled - along with his struggle to end the long night of colonialism - also to end the long night of the caste system and caste untouchability. You remember some of his great fasts were around the question of making equality a reality for the Harijans, as they were called, the "untouchables." He called them the children of God, and he even adopted an untouchable as his daughter. He demonstrated in his own personal life and in his family that he was going to revolt against a whole idea. And I remember that afternoon when I stood up in that school. The principal introduced me and then as he came to the conclusion of his introduction, he says, "Young people, I would like to present to you a fellow untouchable from the United States of America." And for the moment I was a bit shocked and peeved that I would be referred to as an untouchable.

Pretty soon my mind dashed back across the mighty Atlantic. And I started thinking about the fact that at that time no matter how much I needed to rest my tired body after a long night of travel, I couldn’t stop in the average motel of the highways and the hotels of the cities of the South. I started thinking about the fact that no matter how long an old Negro woman had been shopping downtown and got a little tired and needed to get a hamburger or a cup of coffee at a lunch counter, she couldn’t get it there. I started thinking about the fact that still in too many instances, Negroes have to go to the back of the bus and have to stand up over empty seats. I started thinking about the fact that my children and the other children that would be born would have to go to segregated schools. I started thinking about the fact: twenty million of my brothers and sisters were still smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in an affluent society. I started thinking about the fact: these twenty million brothers and sisters were still by and large housed in rat-infested, unendurable slums in the big cities of our nation, still attended inadequate schools faced with improper recreational facilities. And I said to myself, "Yes, I am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable." And this is the evilness of segregation: it stigmatizes the segregated as an untouchable in a caste system. We hold these truths to be self-evident, if we are to be a great nation, that all men (all men) are created equal. God’s black children are as significant as his white children. "We hold these truths to be self-evident." One day we will learn this.

(These excerpts from the transcript of the sermon are from the King Papers collection at King Institute, Stanford University, California, US ).

An eye-opener

Most significantly, King held India close to his heart for many reasons, including his unique experience in Kerala. My research interest in King's Kerala visit was triggered by the visit of his son Martin Luther King III in 2009. The son of the illustrious civil rights leader was retracing his father's 'pilgrimage to India'. (King famously described his travel to India as a pilgrimage, he said that he could not be a tourist in the land of Mahatma Gandhi). After tracing the news reports published in Malayala Manorama daily back issues, I got in touch with the King Institute. I was also informed that King's school visit in Thiruvananthapuram was an unscheduled event. An unscheduled event turned out to be an eye-opener for the great leader!

From Thiruvananthapuram, King and his entourage went to Kanyakumari. His experiences in Kanyakumari as he watched the beautiful sunset in serene meditative silence, are well documented his autobiography:

On February 22, Mrs. King and I journeyed down to a city in India called Trivandrum. Then we went from Trivandrum down to a point known as Cape Comorin. This is where the mass of India ends and the vast rolling waters of the ocean have their beginning. It is one of the most beautiful parts of all the world. Three great bodies of water meet together in all of their majestic splendor: the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean.

I remember how we went out there and looked at the big old rocks, a sight that was truly incredible, out into the waters, out into the ocean. Seated on a huge rock that slightly protruded into the ocean, we were enthralled by the vastness of the ocean and its terrifying immensities. We looked at the waves of those great bodies of water as they unfolded in almost rhythmic suspension. As the waves crashed against the base of the rock on which we were seated, an oceanic music brought sweetness to the ear. To the west we saw the magnificent sun, a red cosmic ball of fire, appear to sink into the very ocean itself. Just as it was almost lost from sight, Coretta touched me and said, "Look, Martin, isn't that beautiful!" I looked around and saw the moon, another ball of scintillating beauty. As the sun appeared to be sinking into the ocean, the moon appeared to be rising from the ocean. When the sun finally passed completely beyond sight, darkness engulfed the earth, but in the east the radiant light of the rising moon shone supreme. This was, as I said, one of the most beautiful parts in all the world, and that happened to be one of those days when the moon was full. This is one of the few points in all the world where you can see the setting of the sun and the rising of the moon simultaneously.

I looked at that and something came to my mind and I had to share it with Coretta, Dr. Reddick, and other people who were accompanying us around at that point. God has the light that can shine through all the darkness. We have experiences when the light of day vanishes, leaving us in some dark and desolate midnight moments when our highest hopes are turned into shambles of despair or when we are victims of some tragic injustice and some terrible exploitation. During such moments our spirits are almost overcome by gloom and despair, and we feel that there is no light anywhere. But ever and again, we look toward the east and discover that there is another light which shines even in the darkness, and "the spear of frustration" is transformed "into a shaft of light."

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I’m an MLK scholar – and I’ll never be able to view King in the same light

Professor of English, North Carolina State University

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David Garrow , the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Martin Luther King Jr., has unearthed information that may forever change King’s legacy.

In an 8,000-word article published in the British periodical Standpoint Magazine on May 30, Garrow details the contents of FBI memos he discovered after spending weeks sifting through more than 54,000 documents located on the National Archive’s website . Initially sealed by court order until 2027, the documents ended up being made available in recent months through the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 .

The most damaging memos describe King witnessing a rape in a hotel room. Instead of stopping it, handwritten notes in the file say he encouraged the attacker to continue.

King was once thought of as a saint beyond reproach. After his death, it eventually emerged that he was a womanizer.

If these FBI memos are accurate – and I have good reason to believe they are – we now have to ask the unthinkable: Was King an abuser? And what might this mean for his legacy?

Other outlets balk

The FBI files contained some other notable information.

Garrow writes that King may have fathered a daughter with Dolores Evans, a girlfriend of his who is still alive and living in Los Angeles. The memos also detail the closeness of his relationship with Dorothy Cotton , a longtime associate of King’s in Atlanta and director of his organization’s Citizen Education Program. It appears that the two were romantically involved .

Many of these transcripts were based on audiotapes that are still sealed under a court order.

Garrow had taken his findings to other outlets, but each decided against publishing them. The Guardian initially agreed to take the story, edited the piece, paid Garrow for his work and then decided the story was too risky to run. Editors at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said they didn’t want to run the piece because they couldn’t listen to the actual recordings the documents were based on. Some historians have questioned Garrow’s choice to publish the content of the memos and transcripts without listening to the recordings, and have pointed out that the FBI had spent years trying to undermine King.

However, I’ve gotten to know Garrow and his work over the last 11 years while conducting my own extensive research into King’s use of Langston Hughes’ poetry. Garrow has the same reputation among historians as Bob Woodward has among journalists – that is to say, I have no reason to doubt Garrow’s intentions or the accuracy of his article.

King’s sexual exploits long known

Soon after King’s death, several members of his inner circle, including Ralph Abernathy, started publicly discussing King’s philandering .

At the time, many justified his behavior by saying it was no different from the biblical David writing his psalms by day, only to be relieved at night by his concubines. Others pursued a line of defense extended to John F. Kennedy: What someone does in their own time isn’t the public’s business.

Garrow had outlined several of King’s marital infelicities in his 1986 biography of King. But he often spared the names of the women involved to protect their identities. Finally, in 2010, Kentucky State Sen. Georgia Davis Powers recounted her intimate relationship with King in her book “ I Shared the Dream .”

But what has just emerged takes things to a whole new level: It now seems that King failed to stop a rape.

Memos detail a rape

During FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s 48-year tenure, the agency greatly expanded the scope of its surveillance activities – often at the behest of sitting presidents. While Harry Truman worried the FBI was becoming a “ citizen spy system ,” presidents like Lyndon B. Johnson eagerly gave Hoover permission to gather information on political enemies.

Starting in late 1963 and continuing until his death, the FBI had been tracking King’s every move . FBI surveillance of King began with the goal of uncovering the relationship of King and his closest advisers, like Stanley Levison, with communists. But over time, the FBI started to fixate on King’s sexual exploits. In an era of lenient surveillance laws , J. Edgar Hoover was able to gain unmitigated access into King’s personal life.

The memos show that agents knew that King and a group including Baltimore Pastor Logan Kearse were going to be staying at the Willard Hotel in January 1964 days before he ever arrived.

By bugging the room, they were able to listen in on King and at least 11 others participated in what the FBI memos describe as “an orgy” on Jan. 6, 1964.

The microphones also picked up activities from the night before, when Kearse, who died in 1991 , allegedly sexually assaulted one of his parishioners. According to the memos , King was in the room. The handwritten note indicates that King didn’t just observe the assault – he laughed.

Worse, instead of trying to stop the incident, the memos say King apparently offered advice to the perpetrator, encouraging the abuse.

What happens next?

The information contained in the memos won’t be confirmed until 2027. That’s when the FBI’s full audiotapes, photographs and film footage of King will be unsealed per a 1977 court order .

Some might doubt the FBI’s trustworthiness given the agency’s historic treatment of black activists . But as someone who has researched similar files, I believe Garrow’s experienced approach parses each of these acts with absolute precision. As Garrow explains in his article :

“Without question [the agents] had both the microphone-transmitted tape-recording and a subsequent full transcript at hand while they were annotating their existing typescript; in 1977 Justice Department investigators would publicly attest to how their own review of both the tapes and the transcripts showed them to be genuine and accurate. Throughout the 1960s, when no precedent for the public release of FBI documents existed or was even anticipated, [the agents] could not have imagined [their] jottings would ever see the light of day.”

It’s natural to want to defend King – to say, “let’s wait and see.”

Others might try to argue that abuse precedes abuse, and that the long legacy of slavery still informed the actions of these revered black clergy who subconsciously became like their oppressors. This legacy, of course, often included white men raping black women and sometimes disowning their children.

But I don’t think any filter of rationalization can soften this portrait of King. I’m not prepared to wait eight years, and I’ve halted my two scholarly projects about King.

I’ve also started thinking about what happens next.

What will the next Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations look like? Will other details emerge? Will more women come forward? Will community centers, schools and streets need to be renamed? Will statues come down, or will they remain – and give fodder to those who justify keeping Confederate monuments?

King espoused nonviolence. If these memos are true, such a stance feels hypocritical.

The narrative has just changed. And if scholarship and true biographical research matters at all, one thing is clear: These FBI memos may have forever damaged King’s legacy.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Occupation: Civil Rights Leader
• Born: January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA
• Died: April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN
• Best known for: Advancing the Civil Rights Movement and his "I Have a Dream" speech

• King was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday.
• At the Atlanta premier of the movie Gone with the Wind , Martin sang with his church choir.
• There are over 730 streets in the United States named after Martin Luther King, Jr.
• One of his main influences was Mohandas Gandhi who taught people to protest in a non-violent manner.
• He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• The name on his original birth certificate is Michael King. This was a mistake, however. He was supposed to be named after his father who was named for Martin Luther, the leader of the Christian reformation movement.
• He is often referred to by his initials MLK.
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✯ ✯ ✯ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ✯ ✯ ✯ His Life and Legacy

Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to the nonviolent struggle for civil rights in the United States. King's leadership played a pivotal role in ending entrenched segregation for African Americans and to the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, considered a crowning achievement of the civil rights era. King was assassinated in 1968, but his words and legacy continue to resonate for all those seeking justice in the United States and around the world. As King said at the Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

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The New Definitive Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

“King: A Life,” by Jonathan Eig, is the first comprehensive account of the civil rights icon in decades.

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By Dwight Garner

• Published May 8, 2023 Updated May 28, 2023

KING: A Life , by Jonathan Eig

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Growing up, he was called Little Mike, after his father, the Baptist minister Michael King. Later he sometimes went by M.L. Only in college did he drop his first name and began to introduce himself as Martin Luther King Jr. This was after his father visited Germany and, inspired by accounts of the reform-minded 16th-century friar Martin Luther, adopted his name.

King Jr. was born in 1929. Were he alive he would be 94, the same age as Noam Chomsky. The prosperous King family lived on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta. One writer, quoted by Jonathan Eig in his supple, penetrating, heartstring-pulling and compulsively readable new biography, “King: A Life,” called it “the richest Negro street in the world.”

Eig’s is the first comprehensive biography of King in three decades. It draws on a landslide of recently released White House telephone transcripts, F.B.I. documents, letters, oral histories and other material, and it supplants David J. Garrow’s 1986 biography “Bearing the Cross” as the definitive life of King, as Garrow himself deposed recently in The Spectator . It also updates the material in Taylor Branch’s magisterial trilogy about America during the King years.

King and his two siblings had the trappings of middle-class life in Atlanta: bicycles, a dog, allowances. But they were sickly aware of the racism that made white people shun them, that kept them out of most of the city’s parks and swimming pools, among other degradations.

Their father expected a lot from his children. He had a temper. He was a stern disciplinarian who spanked with a belt. Their mother was a calmer, sweeter, more stable presence. King would inherit qualities from both.

One of the stranger moments in King’s childhood, and thus in American history, occurred on Dec. 15, 1939. That was the night Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and other Hollywood stars converged on Atlanta for the premiere of “Gone With the Wind,” the highly anticipated film version of Margaret Mitchell’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1936 novel.

“Gone With the Wind” was already controversial in the Black community for its placid and romantic depiction of slavery. To the dismay of some of his peers, King’s father allowed his church’s choir to perform at the premiere. It was only a movie, he thought, and not an entirely inaccurate one. Choir members wore slave costumes, their heads wrapped with cloth. “Martin Luther King Jr., dressed as a young slave, sat in the choir’s first row, singing along,” Eig writes.

King was a sensitive child. When things upset him, he twice tried to commit suicide, if halfheartedly, by leaping out of a second-story window of his house. (Both times, he wasn’t seriously hurt.) He was bright and skipped several grades in school. He thought he might be a doctor or a lawyer; the high emotion in church embarrassed him.

When he arrived in 1944 at nearby Morehouse College, one of the most distinguished all-Black, all-male colleges in America, he was 15 and short for his age. He picked up the nickname Runt. He majored in sociology. He read Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” and it was a vital early influence. He began to think about life as a minister, and he practiced his sermons in front of a mirror.

He was small, but he was a natty dresser and possessed a trim mustache and a dazzling smile. Women were already throwing themselves at him, and they would never stop doing so.

He attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he fell in love with and nearly married a white woman, but that would have ended any hope of becoming a minister in the South. Eig, who has also written artful biographies of Muhammad Ali and Lou Gehrig, describes how several young women attended King’s graduation from Crozer and how — as if in a scene from a Feydeau farce — each expected to be introduced to his parents as his fiancée.

King then pursued a doctorate at Boston University. (He nearly went to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland instead, a notion that is mind-bending to contemplate.) He was said to be the most eligible young Black man in the city.

In Boston he fell in love with Coretta Scott, he said, over the course of a single telephone call. She had attended Antioch College in Ohio and was studying voice at the New England Conservatory; she hoped to become a concert singer. Their love story is beautifully related. They were married in Alabama, at the Scott family’s home near Marion. They spent the first night of their marriage in the guest bedroom of a funeral parlor, because no local hotel would accommodate them.

The Kings moved to Montgomery, Ala., in 1954, when he took over as pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. A year later, a seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to white passengers on a Montgomery bus. Thus began the Montgomery bus boycott, an action that established the city as a crucible of the civil rights movement. The young pastor was about to rise to a great occasion, and to step into history.

“As I watched them,” he wrote about the men and women who participated in the long and difficult boycott, “I knew that there is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.”

By this point in “King: A Life,” Eig has established his voice. It’s a clean, clear, journalistic voice, one that employs facts the way Saul Bellow said they should be employed, each a wire that sends a current. He does not dispense two-dollar words; he keeps digressions tidy and to a minimum; he jettisons weight, on occasion, for speed. He appears to be so in control of his material that it is difficult to second-guess him.

By the time we’ve reached Montgomery, King’s reputation has been flyspecked. Eig flies low over his penchant for plagiarism, in academic papers and elsewhere. (King was a synthesizer of ideas, not an original scholar.) His womanizing only got worse over the years. This is a very human, and quite humane, portrait.

Many readers will be familiar with what follows: the long fight in Montgomery, in which the world came to realize that this wasn’t merely about bus seats, and it wasn’t merely Montgomery’s problem. Later, the whole world was watching as Bull Connor, Birmingham’s commissioner of public safety, sicced police dogs on peaceful protesters. In prison, King would compose what is now known as “Letter From Birmingham Jail” on napkins, toilet paper and in the margins of newspapers. Later came the 1963 March on Washington and King’s partly improvised “I Have a Dream” speech.

During these years, King was imprisoned on 29 separate occasions. He never got used to it. He had shotguns fired into his family’s house. Bombs were found on his porch. Crosses were burned on his lawn. He was punched in the face more than once. In 1958, in Harlem, he was stabbed in the chest with a seven-inch letter opener. He was told that had he even sneezed before doctors could remove it, he might have died.

Eig is adept at weaving in other characters, and other voices. He makes it plain that King was not acting in a vacuum, and he traces the work of organizations like the N.A.A.C.P., CORE and SNCC, and of men like Thurgood Marshall, John Lewis, Julian Bond and Ralph Abernathy. He shows how King was too progressive for some, and vastly too conservative for others, Malcolm X central among them.

As this book moves into its final third, you sense the author echolocating between two other major biographies, Robert Caro’s multivolume life of Lyndon Johnson and Beverly Gage’s powerful recent biography of J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime F.B.I. director.

King’s relationships with John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy were complicated; his relationship with Johnson was even more so. King and Johnson were driven apart when King began to speak out against the Vietnam War, which Johnson considered a betrayal.

The details about Hoover’s relentless pursuit of King, via wiretaps and other methods, are repulsive. American law enforcement was more interested in tarring King with whatever they could dig up than in protecting him. Hoover tried to paint him as a communist; he wasn’t one.

King was under constant surveillance. Hoover’s F.B.I. agents bugged his hotel rooms and reported that he was having sex with many women, in many cities; ‌they tried to drive him to suicide by threatening to release the tapes. King, in one bureau report, is said to have “participated in a sex orgy.” There is also an allegation, about which Eig is dubious, that King looked on during a rape. Complete F.B.I. recordings and transcripts are scheduled to be released in 2027.

Eig catches King in private moments. He had health issues; the stresses of his life aged him prematurely. He rarely got enough sleep, but he didn’t seem to need it. Writing about his demeanor in general, the writer Louis Lomax called King the “foremost interpreter of the Negro’s tiredness.”

King loved good Southern food and ate like a country boy. When the meal was especially delicious, he liked to eat with his hands. He argued, laughing, that utensils only got in the way.

Once, when his daughter skinned her knee by a swimming pool, he took a piece of fried chicken and jokingly pretended to apply it to the wound. “Let’s put some fried chicken on that,” he said. “Yes, a little piece of chicken, that’s always the best thing for a cut.”

Eig has read everything, from W.E.B. Du Bois through Norman Mailer and Murray Kempton and Caro and Gage. He argues that we have sometimes mistaken King’s nonviolence for passivity. He doesn’t put King on the couch, but he considers the lifelong guilt King felt about his privileged upbringing, and how he was driven by competitiveness with his father, who had moral failures of his own.

He lingers on the cadences of King’s speeches, explaining how he learned to work his audience, to stretch and rouse them at the same time. He had the best material on his side, and he knew it. Eig puts it this way: “Here was a man building a reform movement on the most American of pillars: the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, the American dream.”

Eig’s book is worthy of its subject.

Audio produced by Kate Winslett .

KING: A Life | By Jonathan Eig | Illustrated | 669 pp. | Farrar, Straus & Giroux | $35

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008. His new book, “The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading,” is out this fall. More about Dwight Garner

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POTTSTOWN MERCURY: Pottstown programs help teach more about Martin Luther King Jr.

January 15 , 2024.

By Evan Brandt 

POTTSTOWN — “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal and the facts from the fiction.”

That is what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about education in 1947 in his student newspaper, The Maroon Tiger, while attending Morehouse College. “We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”

Education about King’s own legacy was front and center Monday when two programs sought to educate people about King, his often-over-looked radicalism, and the broader impacts of his life.

Monday was also filled with service projects and services all revolving around another famous King quote, read aloud Monday during one of the programs, that: “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

A program at YWCA Tri-County Area began with service projects that included work around the North Adams Street building and work around town, including serving soup to the hungry on King Street, according to Kelly Grosser, chief mission impact officer for the YW.

“We worked to set up some of youth empowerment programs for the high school, including a resource closet for teens with school supplies, as well as giving out some supplies for the community, things like diapers and clothing for kids,” Grosser said.

“We have a vision of the YW serving as a hub for all kinds of groups conducting community service and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was a good day to work on some of that, gather volunteers and then disperse them through the community.”

After the service projects were finished, Pottstown High School alum (class of 2000) and current high school history teacher Matt Reid outlined some of the ways he teaches his students at Upper Merion High School about King and the Civil Rights era.

“I explained to my students about ‘respectability politics,’ about how dressing well was how “black people were supposed to interact, for them to ‘stay in their lane,’ but Dr. King did not stay in his lane,” Reid told the crowd of about 30 people.

He quoted King’s daughter Bernice, who is very active on social media working to protect her father’s true legacy, who posted that respectability does not protect protesters anymore. “My father died in a suit,” she posted and Reid recounted.

Social media has not only broadened the reach of efforts to expand peace and justice for all — referring to the war in Gaza, Reid noted “This is the first generation that is recording its own genocide. It used to be easier to hide that kind of thing” — he said it can also make things more dangerous for young people speaking out.

“That’s why Dr. King used to have children march because it was much harder to hate a child, but we can’t do that anymore. That’s why I try to create a safe space in my classroom for young people to speak up and speak their minds,” said Reid.

Reid, who has taught at Pottstown Middle School, as well as schools in Philadelphia, Wissahickon and the Devereux School, grew up in what is now called the Bright Hope community in Pottstown. “But we all still call it Penn Village.”

He said “I never intended to be a teacher, but after my first year at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, I came home and I was in Barth Elementary School and I saw what (teacher) Kelli Wolfel was doing in the classroom and I said ‘that’s what I want to do.'”

In his classes, Reid — who teaches humanities classes on American Culture, and African American studies and next year will teach an AP class on that subject — said he not only teaches his students about King’s history but his methods and how they can use those methods to pursue social justice in their lifetimes. He sets up student panels that are run by the students, so they know how to take responsibility for and ownership of the issues they care about.

The more than 50 people who attended the program at the senior center learned more about King by singing some of his favorite hymns as well as taking turns sharing some of King’s more famous quotes.

U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist., was among those in attendance.

See full article here .

Permalink: https://dean.house.gov/2024/1/pottstown-mercury

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