A Biography of Martin Luther King

8/2/2019 A Biography of Martin Luther King

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A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

one of the figures behind the civil rights movement

Martin Luther King, Jr., at a 1964 press conference

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

In 1966, Martin Luther King, Jr., was in Miami when he had a meeting with producer

Abby Mann, who was contemplating a film about King. Mann asked the 37-year-old minister

how the movie should end. King replied, "It ends with me getting killed." Throughout his

civil rights career, King was painfully aware that a number of white Americans wanted to see

him destroyed or even dead, but he accepted the mantle of leadership anyway, assuming its

heavy burden at the young age of twenty-six. The twelve years King spent fighting first for

civil rights and later against poverty changed America in profound ways and turned Dr.

Martin Luther King into "the moral leader of the nation," in A. Philip Randolph's words.

Childhood

King was born on January 15, 1929, to an Atlanta pastor, Michael (Mike) King, and

his wife, Alberta King. Mike King's son was named after him, but when little Mike was five,

the elder King changed his name and his son's name to Martin Luther, suggesting that both

had a destiny as great as the founder of the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther King, Sr.,

was a prominent pastor among African Americans in Atlanta, and his son grew up in a

comfortable middle-class environment.


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King Jr. was an intelligent boy who impressed his teachers with his efforts to expand

his vocabulary and sharpen his speaking skills. He was a dutiful member of his father's

church, but as he grew older, he did not show much interest in following in his father's

footsteps. On one occasion, he told a Sunday school teacher that he did not believe that Jesus

Christ was ever resurrected.

King's experience in his youth with segregation was mixed. On the one hand, King Jr.

witnessed his father stand up to white policemen who called him "boy" instead of

"Reverend." King Sr. was a strong man who demanded the respect he was due. But, on the

other hand, King himself had been subject to a racial epithet in a downtown Atlanta store.

When he was 16, King, accompanied by a teacher, went to a small town in southern Georgia

for an oratorical contest; on the way home, the bus driver forced King and his teacher to give

up their seats for white passengers. King and his teacher had to stand for the three hours it

took to return to Atlanta. King later noted that he had never been angrier in his life.

Education

King's intelligence and excellent schoolwork led him to skip two grades in high

school, and in 1944, at the age of 15, King began his university studies at Morehouse College

while living at home. His youth did not hold him back, however, and King joined the college

social scene. Classmates remembered his stylish mode of dress-a "fancy sportcoat and wide-

brimmed hat."

King became more interested in the church as he grew older. At Morehouse, he took a

Bible class that prompted his conclusion that whatever doubts he had about the Bible, it

contained many truths about human existence. King majored in sociology, and by the end of

his college career, he was contemplating either a career in law or in ministry.

At the start of his senior year, King settled on becoming a minister and started acting as

assistant pastor to King Sr. He applied and was accepted into Crozer Theological Seminary in

Pennsylvania. He spent three years at Crozer where he excelled academically-more so than he

had at Morehouse-and began to hone his preaching skills.


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His professors thought he would do well in a doctoral program, and King decided to

attend Boston University to pursue a doctorate in theology. In Boston, King met his future

wife, Coretta Scott, and in 1953, they married. King told friends that he liked people too

much to become an academic, and in 1954, King moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to

become pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist church. That first year, he finished his dissertation

while also building up his ministry. King earned his doctorate in June of 1955.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Shortly after King finished his dissertation, on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was on

a Montgomery bus when told to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused and was

arrested. Her arrest marked the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The evening of

her arrest, King received a phone call from union leader and activist E.D. Nixon, who asked

King to join the boycott and host the boycott meetings at his church. King hesitated, seeking

the counsel of his friend Ralph Abernathy before agreeing. That agreement catapulted King

into the leadership of the civil rights movement.

On December 5, the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization leading

the boycott, elected King as its president. The meetings of Montgomery's African-American

citizens saw the full realization of King's oratorical skills. The boycott lasted longer than any

had predicted, as white Montgomery refused to negotiate. Montgomery's black community

withstood the pressure admirably, organizing car pools and walking to work if necessary.

During the year of the boycott, King developed the ideas that formed the core of his

non-violent philosophy, which was that the activists should, through quiet and passive

resistance, reveal to the white community their own brutality and hatred. Though Mahatma

Gandhi later became an influence, he initially developed his ideas out of Christianity. King

explained that "[t]his business of passive resistance and nonviolence is the gospel of Jesus. I

went to Gandhi through him."
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King, 1956-1963

The bus boycott was successful in integrating Montgomery's buses by December of

1956. The year was a trying one for King-he was arrested and twelve sticks of dynamite with

a burnt-out fuse were discovered on his front porch--but it also was the year that King

accepted his role in the Civil Rights Movement. After the boycott in 1957, King helped to

found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which became a key organization in the

Civil Rights Movement. King came a sought-out speaker across the South, and though he

worried about people's overweening expectations, King began the travels that would take up

the rest of his life.

In 1959, King traveled to India and met with Gandhi's former lieutenants. India had

won its independence from Great Britain in 1947 due in large part to Gandhi's non-violent

movement, which entailed peaceful civil resistance-that is resisting the unjust government but

doing so without violence. King was impressed by the incredible success of the Indian

independence movement through the employment of non-violence.

When he returned, King announced his resignation from Dexter Avenue Baptist

Church. He felt it was unfair to his congregation to spend so much time on civil rights

activism and so little time on ministry. The natural solution was to become co-pastor with his

father at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

By the time King moved to Atlanta, became full-fledged. College students in

Greensboro, North Carolina, initiated the protests that formed this phase. On February 1,

1960, four African-American college students, young men from North Carolina Agricultural

and Technical College, went to a Woolworth's lunch counter that served whites only and

asked to be served. When denied service, they sat silently until the store closed. They

returned for the rest of the week, kicking off a lunch-counter boycott that spread across the

South.

In October, King joined students at a Rich's department store in downtown Atlanta. It

became the occasion for another of King's arrests. But, this time, he was on probation for

driving without a Georgia license (he had retained his Alabama license when he made his

move to Atlanta). When he appeared before a Dekalb County judge on the charge of

trespassing, the judge sentenced King to four months hard labor. It was presidential election


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season, and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy called Coretta Scott to offer his support

while King was in jail. Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy, though angry that the publicity of the

phone call might alienate white Democrat voters from his brother, worked behind the scenes

to procure King's early release. The result was that King Sr. announced his support for the

Democratic candidate.

In 1961, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which had been

formed in the wake of the Greensboro lunch-counter protests began a new initiative in

Albany, Georgia. Students and Albany residents began a series of demonstrations designed to

integrate the city's services. Albany's police chief, Laurie Pritchett, employed a strategy of

peaceful policing. He kept his police force tightly controlled, and the Albany protesters were

having trouble making any headway. They called King.

King arrived in December and found his non-violent philosophy tested. Pritchett told

the press that he had studied King's ideas and that non-violent protests would be countered by

non-violent police work. What became apparent in Albany was the non-violent

demonstrations were most effective when performed in an environment of overt hostility. As

Albany's police kept peacefully jailing protesters, the Civil Rights Movement was being

denied their most effective weapon in the new age of television-images of peaceful protesters

being brutally beaten. King left Albany in August 1962 as Albany's civil rights community

decided to shift its efforts to voter registration.

Though Albany is generally considered a failure for King, it was merely road bump

on the way to greater success for the non-violent Civil Rights Movement.

King, 1963-1965

In the spring of 1963, King and the SCLC took what they learned and applied it in

Birmingham, Alabama. The police chief there was Eugene "Bull" Connor, a violent

reactionary lacking the political skills of Pritchett. When Birmingham's African-American

community started mounting protests against segregation, Connor's police force responded by

spraying the activists with high-pressure water hoses and unleashing police dogs.
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It was during the Birmingham demonstrations that King was arrested for the thirteenth

time since Montgomery. On April 12, King went to jail for demonstrating without a permit.

While in jail, he read in theBirmingham News about an open letter from white clergy, urging

civil rights protesters to stand down and be patient. King's response became known as "Letter

from a Birmingham Jail," a powerful essay that defended the morality of civil rights activism.

King emerged from the Birmingham jail determined to win the fight there. SCLC and

King made the difficult decision to allow high-school students to join the protests. Connor

did not disappoint--the resulting images of peaceful youths being brutally put down shocked

white America. King had won a decisive victory.

On the heels of success in Birmingham came King's speech at the March on

Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. The march was planned to urge

support for a civil rights bill, though President Kennedy had his misgivings about the march.

Kennedy delicately suggested that thousands of African Americans converging on DC might

hurt the chances of a bill making it through Congress, but the civil rights movement remained

dedicated to the march., although they agreed to avoid any rhetoric that could be interpreted

as militant. The highlight of the march was King's speech that used the famous refrain "I have

a dream." King exhorted Americans, "Now is the time to make real the promises of

democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the

sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial

injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of

God's children."

When Kennedy was assassinated, his successor President Lyndon B. Johnson used the

moment to push the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress, which outlawed segregation.At the end of 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his success in

so prominently articulating and demanding human rights.

With that Congressional victory in hand, King and the SCLC turned the attention next

to the issue of voting rights. White Southerners since the end of Reconstruction had come up

with various ways to deprive African Americans of suffrage-outright intimidation, poll taxes

and literacy tests. In March of 1965, SNCC and SCLC tried to march from Selma, Alabama,

to Montgomery, Alabama, but were violently rebuffed by police. King joined them, leading a
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symbolic march that turned around before heading over the Pettus Bridge, the scene of the

police brutality. Though King was criticized for that move, it presented a cooling-down

period, and activists were able to complete the march to Montgomery on March 25.

In the midst of the troubles at Selma, President Johnson gave a speech urging support

for his voting rights bill. He ended the speech by echoing the Civil Rights anthem, "We Shall

Overcome." The speech brought tears to King's eyes as he watched it on television-it was the

first time his closest friends had seen him cry. President Johnson signed the Voting Rights

Act into law on August 6.

King and Black Power

As the federal government endorsed the causes of the Civil Rights Movement-

integration and voting rights-King increasingly came face-to-face with the growing black

power movement. Non-violence had been enormously effect in the South, which was

segregated by law, but in the North African American faced de facto segregation, or

segregation kept in place by custom, poverty due to years of discrimination, and housing

patterns that were difficult to change overnight. So, despite the enormous changes coming to

the South, African Americans in the North were frustrated by the slow pace of change.

The black power movement addressed these frustrations. Stokely Carmichael of

SNCC articulated these frustrations during a 1966 speech, "Now we maintain that in the past

six years or so, this country has been feeding us a "thalidomide drug of integration," and that

some negroes have been walking down a dream street talking about sitting next to white

people; and that that does not begin to solve the problem . . . that people ought to understand

that; that we were never fighting for the right to integrate, we were fighting against white

supremacy."

The black power movement dismayed King. As he began speaking out against the

Vietnam War, he found himself having to address the issues raised by Carmichael and others,

who were arguing that non-violence was not enough. He told one audioence in Mississippi,

"I'm sick and tired of violence. I'm tired of the war in Vietnam. I'm tired of war and conflict

in the world. I'm tired of shooting. I'm tired of selfishness. I'm tired of evil. I'm not going to

use violence, no matter who says it."
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The Poor People's Campaign

By 1967, in addition to becoming outspoken about the Vietnam War, King also began

an anti-poverty campaign. He broadened his activism to include all poor Americans, seeing

the achievement of economic justice as a way to overcome the sort of segregation that existed

in cities like Chicago but also as a basic human right. It was the Poor People's Campaign, a

movement to unite all impovershed Americans regardless of race or religion. King envisioned

the movement as culminating in a march on Washington in the spring of 1968.

But events in Memphis interfered. In February of 1968, Memphis sanitation workers

went on strike, protesting the mayor's refusal to recognize their union. An old friend, James

Lawson, pastor of a Memphis church, called King and asked him to come. King could not

refuse Lawson or their workers who needed his help and went to Memphis at the end of

March, leading a march that turned into a riot.

King returned to Memphis on April 3, determined to help the sanitation workers in

spite of his dismay at the violence that had erupted. He spoke at a mass meeting that night,

encouraging his listeners that "we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!"

He was staying at the Lorraine Motel, and on the afternoon of April 4, as King and other

SCLC members were readying themselves for dinner, King stepped onto the balcony, waiting

on Ralph Abernathy to out on some aftershave. As he stood waiting, King was shot. The

hospital pronounced his death at 7:05 pm.

Legacy

King was not perfect-he would have been the first to admit this. His wife, Coretta,

desperately wanted to join the Civil Rights marches, but he insisted that she stay at home

with their children, unable to break out of the rigid gender patterns of the era. He committed

adultery, a fact that the FBI threatened to use against him and that King feared would make

its way into the papers. But King was able to overcome his all-too-human weaknesses and

lead African Americans, and all Americans, to a better future.


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The Civil Rights Movement never recovered from the blow of his death. Abernathy

tried to continue the Poor People's Campaign without King, but he could not marshal the

same support. King, however, has continued to inspire the world. By 1986, a federal

holidaycommemorating his birthday had been established. Schoolchildren study his "I have a

dream" speech. No other American before or since has so clearly articulated and so

determinedly fought for social justice.
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Preliminary

The first African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The English

settlers treated these captives as indentured servants and released them after a number of

years. This practice was gradually replaced by the system of race-based slavery used in

the Caribbean.As servants were freed, they became competition for resources. Additionally,

released servants had to be replaced. This, combined with the still ambiguous nature of the

social status of Blacks and the difficulty in using any other group of people as forced servants,

led to the relegation of Blacks into slavery. Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize

slavery in 1641. Other colonies followed suit by passing laws that passed slavery on to the

children of slaves and making non-Christian imported servants slaves for life. Since that time

the black American was suffering slavery and always tried to free themselves with vary of

ways, such as escape, rebellion, and by made an organization called SCLC (Southern

Christian Leadership Conference). The SCLC purpose is to fight for civil rights, and Martin

Luther King is elected its first president.

During this time we just know a bit about the black people slavery and the movement

that they did to free themselves in America, without knowing deeply about the figures behind

the movement. Therefore, here in my paper, I would like to introduce you to one of the

figures behind the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, the first SCLC president.

The method which I use here is the description method.
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Conclusion

Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of African American people. He was born on January

15, 1929, in Atlanta. His father was a pastor in Atlanta. King began his university studies at

Morehouse College while living at home and King joined the college social scene. King met

his future wife, Coretta Scott, in Boston and in 1953, they married. King earned his doctorate

in June of 1955.

Martin Luther King helps found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

(SCLC) in January1957. The organization's purpose is to fight for civil rights, and King is

elected its first president.
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References

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/timelines/a/50sCVTimeline.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_history

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/slavery/a/How-Did-Slaves-Resist-Slavery_2.htm

http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/

Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1964. New York:

Simon and Schuster, 1988.
http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/timelines/a/50sCVTimeline.htmhttp://afroamhistory.about.com/od/timelines/a/50sCVTimeline.htmhttp://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.htmlhttp://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_historyhttp://afroamhistory.about.com/od/slavery/a/How-Did-Slaves-Resist-Slavery_2.htmhttp://afroamhistory.about.com/od/slavery/a/How-Did-Slaves-Resist-Slavery_2.htmhttp://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/biographies/http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/slavery/a/How-Did-Slaves-Resist-Slavery_2.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_historyhttp://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.htmlhttp://afroamhistory.about.com/od/timelines/a/50sCVTimeline.htm


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A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

one of the figures behind the civil rights movement

b

y

Wina Viqa Sari 100705032

English Literature Faculty

University of North Sumatera

2012

Documents

A Biography of Martin Luther King