Biography of Martin Luther King Jr

446 Words1 Page

Biography of Martin Luther King Jr Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 to Alberta Williams, a school teacher, and Martin Luther King, a Baptist pastor. King became a minister at 17, and then went on to graduate from Crozer Theological School at 22, and then continued to study at Boston University. While studying King became highly interested in Christian activism, and improving society through non-violent means. His ideas were heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi . After his degree, however King decided to become pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1953 he married Coretta Scott later becoming father of their four children Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott and Bernice Albertine, In December,1955, King was elected to the Montgomery Improvement Association, a group to lead the bus boycott . King's house was bombed and King was arrested and jailed on charges of being connected with the boycott. Yet King continued to preach that non-violent protests were the answer. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of desegregation of the buses in 1966 giving King his first victory enforcing his belief in the power of the black community. In 1958 King led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group formed to promote peaceful protests against white oppression . King led anti-segregation sit-ins and freedom rides. In 1958 King wrote "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story." In 1959 he travelled to India to study Ghandi style non-violent protest . The same year, King moved to Atlanta, where he served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1[IMAGE]Text Box: Washington, 1964, “I have a dreamâ€963 King organized and led Black non-violent campaigns for desegregation and better education for Blacks. Police reacted badly to the harmless protests and King was arrested a few times , though the subsequent nationwide publicity of police injustice in the south only proved helped his cause. Then, June 1964 President Kennedy passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs and also

Open Document