Martin Luther King’s Life The civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta (State of Georgia) on January 15th 1929. He went to a segregated public school and graduated at the early age of 15 from High School in Georgia. In 1948 Luther King received a B.A. degree in Sociology from Morehouse College, Atlanta. During his last year of college, he wrote in the student publication: "We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." It was clear he was a young man with high ideals, ready to become a leader. King continued his studies in Pennsylvania, at Crozer Theological Seminary, for three years; there he was elected president of a senior …show more content…
His mother, Alberta Williams King (1904-1974) was a former school teacher. His father served in the family’s long tenure as pastor, he was born in 1899 and died in 1984. King Jr’s family’s long tenure as pastors Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta began thanks to his grandfather in 1914, but sadly ended in 1931. From 1960 Martin Luther King helped as a pastor in his family’s long tenure until his …show more content…
He led the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), an African-American organization recognized in 1957. The SCLC wanted to save “the soul of America” by using non-violence in protests. He was inspired by nonviolence supporters to protest with no aggression. During his speeches Martin Luther King in multiple occasions quoted Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish historian and writer in the Victorian era. “We shall overcome, because Carlyle is right, ‘No lie can live forever’” this is what King said during his “we shall overcome” speech in March 1968. Ghandi was inspiring for Martin Luther King, who cited the Indian anti-war leader in one of his sermon in Los Angeles, 1962. King said “There is another way… as modern as Gandhi saying through Thoreau, that ‘non‑cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.’” Luther King led some of the most famous marches of all time, such as: “The Montgomery Bus Boycott”, “The March on Washington”, “The Selma March” and “The Birmingham March”. He was an important leader during the anti-segregation marches. These marches helped to bring to legislation the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Martin Luther King was the youngest man to win the Novel Peace Prize in 1964, at the age of 35. When he received the Prize of $54,123, he announced that the money would have gone to the furtherance of the Civil Rights