Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
1954: Began ministry career as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
Rosa Parks is arrested. A catalyst for beginning the Civil Rights Movement. MLK selected as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association.
Media Day was held on May 20, 1956 after the bus boycott in Montgomery. Established himself as the national leader of the civil rights movement Continued leading boycotts/staging protests against segregation in the South.
“And you know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression.”
Influences: Gandhi Bible Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience "Love your enemies," King surely read many times in the book of Matthew. "Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."
King’s Platform: We can stick together. Our leaders do not have to sell out. Threats and violence do not intimidate us. We believe in ourselves. Economics is part of our struggle. We have a powerful weapon: non-violent resistance. “We as Negroes have arrived!”
Sit-ins at “all white” lunch counters promoted King’s mission of non- violent protest.
March on Birmingham April 12, 1963 – MLK leads marches in street Jailed without rights Coretta called White house, Robert and John called her back Sent FBI to Birmingham Wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail
March on Birmingham May 2 nd - Led march w/ children for symbolic reason, 1000 kids arrested May 3 rd – More gathered, police used fire hoses, attack dogs, clubs on kids Nationally televised, brought attention to movement, forced Kennedy to take direct action Birmingham agreed to desegregate public facilities
King spoke to 250,000 civil rights supporters during the “March on Washington” August 28, 1963.
March on D.C. - his famous “I have a dream” speech.
Violence Against King Bomb thrown at his house during Montgomery Bus Boycott Hotel Albert in Harlem promoting his book, Stride Toward Freedom, stabbed by a deranged African American woman St. Augustine, Florida meeting, a shot fired through a window in his rented beach cottage. No one was home at the time.
On December 10, 1965, Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Vietnam War King rethought his mission focus from racial discrimination to problems of poverty & economic injustice Caused issues with other Civil Rights Leaders King expressed his disenchantment with President Johnson’s Vietnam policies.
On April 4, 1968, while standing on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray.
The country, along with Coretta and King’s young daughter Bernice, mourned his death.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is entombed at the Freedom Hall Complex. This site was listed as a National Historic Landmark on May 5, 1977 and was made a National Historic Site on October 10, 1980.
President Ronald Reagan signed the bill to make January 20 th, the celebration of Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday.