Biographie
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was
born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather
began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving
from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his
death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in
Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in
1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both
his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer
Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly
white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he
enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate
in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a
young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters
were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in
Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King
was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was
ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro
nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott
described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott
lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had
declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode
the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed,
he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the
first rank.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an
organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement.
The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from
Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million
miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice,
protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these
years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the
entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter
from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in
Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on
Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he
conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson;
he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded
five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became
not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the
Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the
prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in
Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage
workers of that city, he was assassinated.
Bibliographie for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929, and assassinated in 1968. He dreamed of
a world blind to the lines of color. He worked unceasingly and peacefully to obtain that goal.
His peaceful resistance was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who led the peaceful struggle for
India's independence from Great Britain. King's work was helped in the civil rights movement
by such people as Rosa Parks who served as a catalyst for the Montgomery, Alabama, bus
boycott. The following books will help provide information about King and the others who
were important in King's work in the 20th-century Civil Rights Movement in the United
States. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
Adler, David A. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Free at Last. Illustrated by Robert Casilla.
Holiday, 1986. A biography of the Baptist minister who worked unceasingly for his
dream of a world without hate, prejudice, or violence. Bray, Rosemary L. Martin
Luther King. Greenwillow, 1995 (forthcoming). A new look at the work and life of
Martin Luther King, Jr. King, Coretta Scott. My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. H.
Holt, 1993. A widow's perspective on her husband's work in the civil rights movement
of the 20th century. Lazo, Caroline Evensen. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dillon Press,
1994. A biography of the influential civil rights leader who won a Nobel Peace Prize
for his work. Includes bibliographical references. Livingston, Myra Cohn. Let
Freedom Ring: A Ballad of Martin Luther King, Jr. Illustrated by Samuel Byrd.
Holiday, 1992. A poetic treatment of MLK and his dream. McKissack, Pat. Martin
Luther King, Jr.: Man of Peace. Enslow, 1991. Simple text and illustrations describe
the life and accomplishments of the civil rights leader. King's inspiration, Mahatma
Gandhi Birch, Beverly. Mahatma Gandhi: Champion of Human Rights. G. Stevens
Children's Books, 1990. Abridged from a text first published in 1987 in Great Britain
by Exley Publications. Follows the life of the statesman who was a key figure in
India's fight for independence from Great Britain. Sherrow, Victoria. Mohandas
Gandhi: The Power of the Spirit. Milbrook, 1994. Biographical look at the statesman
and his influence. Nicholson, Michael. Mahatma Gandhi: The Man Who Freed India
and Led the World in Nonviolent Change. G.Stevens, 1988.
Rosa Parks served as a catalyst for the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott, a boycott that,
with the subsequent leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., brought the fight for civil rights
into the consciousness of mainstream America. The following books will be valuable
references about the involvement of Rosa Parks in the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Adler, David A. A Picture Book of Rosa Parks. Illustrated by Robert Casilla. Holiday,
1993. Siegel, Beatrice. The Year They Walked: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus
Boycott. Four Winds, 1992. Parks, Rosa, and Jim Haskins. Rosa Parks: My Story.
Dial, 1992. Friese, Kai. Rosa Parks: The Movement Organizes. Burdett, 1990.
