The SCLC motto was “Not one hair of one head of one person should be harmed.” King would remain at the helm of this influential organization until his death.
ALL MEN ARE CREATED FULL
King survived, and the attempted assassination only reinforced his dedication to nonviolence: “The experience of these last few days has deepened my faith in the relevance of the spirit of nonviolence if necessary social change is peacefully to take place.” Southern Christian Leadership ConferenceĮmboldened by the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in 1957 he and other civil rights activists-most of them fellow ministers-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.
On September 20, 1958, Izola Ware Curry walked into a Harlem department store where King was signing books and asked, “Are you Martin Luther King?” When he replied “yes,” she stabbed him in the chest with a knife. King had also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January. as the protest’s leader and official spokesman.īy the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in November 1956, King-heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and the activist Bayard Rustin-had entered the national spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance. Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for 381 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott placed a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, secretary of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested.
The King family had been living in Montgomery for less than a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown v.
The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice Albertine King. The couple wed in 1953 and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. While in Boston he met Coretta Scott, a young singer from Alabama who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. King then enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing his coursework in 1953 and earning a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. After graduating in 1948, King entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree, won a prestigious fellowship and was elected president of his predominantly white senior class. Benjamin Mays, an influential theologian and outspoken advocate for racial equality. Did you know? The final section of Martin Luther King Jr.’s eloquent and iconic “I Have a Dream” speech is believed to have been largely improvised.Ī gifted student, King attended segregated public schools and at the age of 15 was admitted to Morehouse College, the alma mater of both his father and maternal grandfather, where he studied medicine and law.Īlthough he had not intended to follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the ministry, he changed his mind under the mentorship of Morehouse’s president, Dr.
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