Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, originally Michael Luther King, Jr. (Atlanta (Georgia), 15 January 1929 – Memphis (Tennessee), april 4, 1968) was an American Baptist Pastor, political leader and one of the most prominent members of the American civil rights movement.



Content
[hide] *1 Fame 
 * 2 Biography
 * 1950s 2.1
 * 2.2 1960s
 * 2.3 Death
 * 3 Relatives
 * 4 Work
 * 4.1 Books
 * 4.2 Speeches
 * 5 Bibliography
 * 6 see also
 * 7 external links

Fame
Martin Luther King and Malcolm Xmeet for a Press Conference. Both men were come to the Senate to listen to the debate about the "Civil Rights Act", March 26, 1964King became famous in the 1950s and 1960s thanks to his non-violent opposition to the racial segregation in the United States, including a mass demonstration on August 28, 1963 and the boycott of city buses that whites advantaged. Are verbal and rhetoricalskills and charismatic appearance earned him much fame, but King also had enemies. During the demonstration in 1963 he held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial are legendary speech "I Have a Dream", in which he expresses his hope that people ever on their behavior and not on their skin color would be assessed. A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1968, Martin Luther King on 39-year-old age shot while on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis stood. This was a tragic nadir in the turbulent sixties, in which also other progressives and champions of civil rights in the United States, as president John f. Kennedy (november 1963), Malcolm X (February 1965) and Robert f. Kennedy (June 1968), fell victim to violence.

For many, Martin Luther King a symbol for the civil rights movement in the United States remained. The third Monday in January in the u.s. the Martin Luther Jr. day, a national holiday, dedicated to King and his thought.

Biography
King was born as grandson and son of pastors to the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta, in the southern state of Georgia. He found very quickly that there were still many prejudices in the South against African-Americans, and wanted something has to change. His desire was to make the black people and white people equivalent.

After the death of his grandmother he did at the age of 12 a suicide attempt by jumping from the second floor of a House. At the age of 15, he started working on a tobacco plantation in Connecticut, more to the North of the USA, and was impressed by the benign relationship between whites and blacks there. In 1953, he married the musician Coretta Scott.

Fifties
King studied theology at the Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1955 he obtained the doctorate (Ph.d.). Afterwards he devoted himself to his duties of pastor of the Dexter Avenue baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in which his father on 31 October (reformation day) 1954 had confirmed. There he witnessed an incident that brought civil rights movement gained momentum.

On 1 december 1955 refused the black Rosa Parks her place in a bus to a white passenger to face off. Black people had to sit in the back of the bus in accordance with local regulations. The (also white) police was brought in and gave the white driver and passenger alike. Rosa Parks was out of the bus and then arrested. The black community of Montgomery, led by Reverend King, responded to the incident with a successful bus boycott (1955-1956) and achieved a major victory when the bus company from Montgomery also had to allow blacks to any place in the bus to sit down. Hereinafter referred to as King soon reached national prominence because of his exceptional charisma and personal courage. On numerous occasions he performed as a speaker on the discrimination against the black population, in which he denounced.

King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and took over the Presidency in itself. By the Association, he was able to go back to Atlanta and to devote himself to the fight for equality of the black Americans, with his great example Mahatma Gandhi was, because also this aspired to willpower and non-violence at protests.

Kings philosophy of non-violent resistance led to his arrest on numerous occasions. King was hated by supporters of the racial segregation in the southern States. There was an attack on his home, and he and other black leaders were convicted on charges of conspiracy.

Sixties
Martin Luther King in Netherlands in 1964However, Kings campaigns success: on August 28, 1963 he delivered a speech in Washington, where more than 250,000 people came and where Mahalia Jackson at his request "I've been buked and I've been scorned" sang. In his speech he described that whites and blacks can live together and he spoke the legendary words "I have a dream". In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize awarded. On August 6, 1965, president Lyndon b. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Bill "and agreed to as most of Kings requirements in.

The leading position of King in the civil rights movement in the mid 1960s was challenged, when there are voices merged to more militant actions rather than the King pursued peaceful protest. However, he retained his important position and began to focus on other business. So, he expressed criticism of the Viet Nam war and made known his concern about poverty.

On april 4, 1967, exactly a year before his death, King spoke clearly against the role of the United States in the war, and argued that the United States were in Viet Nam "to occupy as a US colony" and that the United States need moral changes.

Death
King was shot on april 4, 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel (since 1991 the National Civil Rights Museum). The murder led to a wave of riots in more than 60 American cities, where 39 people were killed. President Lyndon b. Johnson declared 7 april 1968 to a day of national mourning. Kings funeral on 9 april 1968 was attended by more than 150,000 people. millions around the world watched with it via television. In many countries the flags hung at half mast on government buildings.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">James Earl Ray, a thug who had used violence, not previously known, however, on the advice of his lawyer as the murder and the death penaltyontliep. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. The rest of his life he tried to withdraw his confession and he claimed that there had been a conspiracy. In 1997, this view supported by members of the family of King. Ray died in prison in 1998. In 1999 won the family of King in Memphis ajury court case against Loyd Jowers, who claimed he had committed the murder for a mafia figure. Many experts, however, were not convinced by the verdict and was in 2000, after an investigation of 18 months, concluded that there was no evidence against Jowers.

Next-Of-Kin
<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Kings widow Coretta Scott King, who continued his work after his death, died on 30 January 2006 at the age of 78 in Mexico. The couple had two daughters and two sons. One of the daughters, Yolanda King, died onMay 15, 2007 in Santa Monica on 51-year-old age to a heart attack.

Books

 * 1958: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. Kings first book is about the Montgomery bus boycott and his philosophy of non-violent confrontation.
 * 1963: Letter from the Birmingham Jail. King responds to critics and light are philosophy.
 * 1964: Why We Can't Wait. About the demonstrations of 1963 and the March in Washington.

Speeches

 * As the negro wins, labor wins
 * Give us the ballot
 * We will transform the South
 * Beyond Viet Nam: a time to break silence
 * I have a dream
 * I have seen the promised land