Martin
Luther King Jr. Biography
original name Michael Luther King, Jr.
( 1929 – 1968 )
(born Jan. 15, 1929, Atlanta, Ga., U.S.—died
April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tenn.) Baptist minister and social activist
who led the
civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until
his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental
to that movement's success in ending the legal segregation of African
Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. King
rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, which promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive
March on Washington (1963), to achieve civil rights. He was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Early years
King came from a comfortable middle-class family steeped in the tradition
of the Southern black ministry: both his father and maternal grandfather
were Baptist preachers. His parents were college-educated, and
King's father had succeeded his father-in-law as pastor of the
prestigious Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The family lived
on Auburn Avenue, otherwise known as “Sweet Auburn,” the
bustling “black Wall Street,” home to some of the country's
largest and most prosperous black businesses and black churches
in the years before the civil rights movement. Young Martin received
a solid education and grew up in a loving extended family.
This secure upbringing, however, did not prevent King from experiencing
the prejudices then common in the South. He never forgot the time
when, at about age six, one of his white playmates announced that
his parents would no longer allow him to play with King, because
the children were now attending segregated schools. Dearest to King
in these early years was his maternal grandmother, whose death in
1941 left him shaken and unstable. Upset because he had learned of
her fatal heart attack while attending a parade without his parents'
permission, the 12-year-old King attempted suicide by jumping from
a second-story window.
In
1944, at age 15, King entered Morehouse College in Atlanta under
a special
wartime
program intended to boost enrollment by admitting
promising high-school students like King. Before beginning college,
however, King spent the summer on a tobacco farm in Connecticut;
it was his first extended stay away from home and his first substantial
experience of race relations outside the segregated South. He was
shocked by how peacefully the races mixed in the North. “Negroes
and whites go [to] the same church,” he noted in a letter to
his parents. “I never [thought] that a person of my race could
eat anywhere.” This summer experience in the North only deepened
King's growing hatred of racial segregation.
At Morehouse, King favoured studies in medicine and law, but these
were eclipsed in his senior year by a decision to enter the ministry,
as his father had urged. King's mentor at Morehouse was the college
president, Benjamin Mays, a social gospel activist whose rich oratory
and progressive ideas had left an indelible imprint on King's father.
Committed to fighting racial inequality, Mays accused the African
American community of complacency in the face of oppression, and
he prodded the black church into social action by criticizing its
emphasis on the hereafter instead of the here and now; it was a call
to service that was not lost on the teenage King. He graduated from
Morehouse in 1948.
King spent the next three years at Crozer Theological
Seminary in Chester, Pa., where he became acquainted with Mohandas
Gandhi's philosophy of
nonviolence as well as with the thought of contemporary Protestant
theologians. He earned a bachelor of divinity degree in 1951. Renowned
for his oratorical skills, King was elected president of Crozer's student
body, which was composed almost exclusively of white students. As a
professor at Crozer wrote in a letter of recommendation for King, “The
fact that with our student body largely Southern in constitution a
colored man should be elected to and be popular [in] such a position
is in itself no mean recommendation.” From Crozer, King went
to Boston University, where, in seeking a firm foundation for his own
theological and ethical inclinations, he studied man's relationship
to God and received a doctorate (1955) for a dissertation titled “A
Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich
and Henry Nelson Wieman.”
The Montgomery bus boycott
While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, a native Alabamian who was
studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. They were married
in 1953 and had four children. King had been pastor of the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., slightly more than a
year when the city's small group of civil rights advocates decided
to contest racial segregation on that city's public bus system
following the incident on Dec. 1, 1955, in which Rosa Parks, an
African American woman, had refused to surrender her bus seat to
a white passenger and as a consequence was arrested for violating
the city's segregation law. Activists formed the Montgomery Improvement
Association to boycott the transit system and chose King as their
leader. He had the advantage of being a young, well-trained man
who was too new in town to have made enemies; he was generally
respected, and it was thought that his family connections and professional
standing would enable him to find another pastorate should the
boycott fail.
In
his first speech to the group as its president, King declared:
We
have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown
an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers
the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But
we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes
us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.
These
words introduced to the country a fresh voice, a skillful rhetoric,
an inspiring personality, and in time a dynamic new doctrine
of civil struggle. Although King's home was dynamited and his
family's safety threatened, he continued to lead the boycott
until, one year and a few weeks later, the city's buses were
desegregated.
The
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Recognizing
the need for a mass movement to capitalize on the successful Montgomery
action, King set about organizing the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC), which gave him a base of operation throughout the
South, as well as a national platform from which to speak. King lectured
in all parts of the country and discussed race-related issues with
religious and civil rights leaders at home and abroad. In February
1959 he and his party were warmly received by India's Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru and others; as the result of a brief discussion with
followers of Gandhi about the Gandhian concepts of peaceful noncompliance
(satyagraha), King became increasingly convinced that nonviolent resistance
was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle
for freedom. King also looked to Africa for inspiration. “The
liberation struggle in Africa has been the greatest single international
influence on American Negro students,” he wrote. “Frequently
I hear them say that if their African brothers can break the bonds
of colonialism, surely the American Negro can break Jim Crow.” In
1960 King and his family moved to his native city of Atlanta,
where he became co-pastor with his father of the Ebenezer Baptist
Church. At this post he devoted most of his time to the SCLC
and the civil rights movement, declaring that the “psychological
moment has come when a concentrated drive against injustice can
bring great, tangible gains.” His thesis was soon tested
as he agreed to support the sit-in demonstrations undertaken
by local black college students. In late October he was arrested
with 33 young people protesting segregation at the lunch counter
in an Atlanta department store. Charges were dropped, but King
was sentenced to Reidsville State Prison Farm on the pretext
that he had violated his probation on a minor traffic offense
committed several months earlier. The case assumed national proportions,
with widespread concern over his safety, outrage at Georgia's
flouting of legal forms, and the failure of Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower
to intervene. King was released only upon the intercession of
Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy—an action
so widely publicized that it was felt to have contributed substantially
to Kennedy's slender election victory eight days later.
In
the years from 1960 to 1965, King's influence reached its zenith.
Handsome, eloquent, and doggedly determined, King quickly caught
the attention of the news media, particularly of the producers
of that budding medium of social change—television. He
understood the power of television to nationalize and internationalize
the struggle for civil rights, and his well-publicized tactics
of active nonviolence (sit-ins, protest marches) aroused the
devoted allegiance of many African Americans and liberal whites
in all parts of the country, as well as support from the administrations
of Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. But there were also
notable failures, as in Albany, Ga. (1961–62), when King
and his colleagues failed to achieve their desegregation goals
for public parks and other facilities.
The
letter from the Birmingham jail
In Birmingham, Ala., in the spring of 1963, King's campaign to end segregation
at lunch counters and in hiring practices drew nationwide attention when police
turned dogs and fire hoses on the demonstrators. King was jailed along with large
numbers of his supporters, including hundreds of schoolchildren. His supporters
did not, however, include all the black clergy of Birmingham, and he was strongly
opposed by some of the white clergy who had issued a statement urging African
Americans not to support the demonstrations. From the Birmingham jail, King wrote
a letter of great eloquence in which he spelled out his philosophy of nonviolence:
You
may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches
and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?” You are
quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very
purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create
such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which
has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the
issue.
Near
the end of the Birmingham campaign, in an effort to draw together
the multiple forces for peaceful change and to dramatize to the
country and to the world the importance of solving the U.S. racial
problem, King joined other civil rights leaders in organizing
the historic March on Washington. On Aug. 28, 1963, an interracial
assembly of more than 200,000 gathered peaceably in the shadow
of the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens
under the law. Here the crowds were uplifted by the emotional
strength and prophetic quality of King's famous “I Have
a Dream” speech, in which he emphasized his faith that
all men, someday, would be brothers.
The
rising tide of civil rights agitation produced, as King had hoped,
a strong effect on national opinion and resulted in the passage
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, authorizing the federal government
to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing
discrimination in publicly owned facilities, as well as in employment.
That eventful year was climaxed by the award to King of the Nobel
Peace Prize in Oslo in December. “I accept this award today
with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the
future of mankind,” said King in his acceptance speech. “I
refuse to accept the idea that the ‘isness' of man's present
nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness'
that forever confronts him.”
Challenges
of the final years
The first signs of opposition to King's tactics from within the civil rights
movement surfaced during the March 1965 demonstrations in Selma, Ala., which
were aimed at dramatizing the need for a federal voting-rights law that would
provide legal support for the enfranchisement of African Americans in the South.
King organized an initial march from Selma to the state capitol building in
Montgomery but did not lead it himself. The marchers were turned back by state
troopers with nightsticks and tear gas. He was determined to lead a second
march, despite an injunction by a federal court and efforts from Washington
to persuade him to cancel it. Heading a procession of 1,500 marchers, black
and white, he set out across Pettus Bridge outside Selma until the group came
to a barricade of state troopers. But, instead of going on and forcing a confrontation,
he led his followers to kneel in prayer and then unexpectedly turned back.
This decision cost King the support of many young radicals who were already
faulting him for being too cautious. The suspicion of an “arrangement” with
federal and local authorities—vigorously but not entirely convincingly
denied—clung to the Selma affair. The country was nevertheless aroused,
resulting in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Throughout
the nation, impatience with the lack of greater substantive progress
encouraged the growth of black militancy. Especially in the slums of
the large Northern cities, King's religious philosophy of nonviolence
was increasingly questioned. The rioting in the Watts district of Los
Angeles in August 1965 demonstrated the depth of unrest among urban
African Americans. In an effort to meet the challenge of the ghetto,
King and his forces initiated a drive against racial discrimination
in Chicago at the beginning of the following year. The chief target
was to be segregation in housing. After a spring and summer of rallies,
marches, and demonstrations, an agreement was signed between the city
and a coalition of African Americans, liberals, and labour organizations,
calling for various measures to enforce the existing laws and regulations
with respect to housing. But this agreement was to have little effect;
the impression remained that King's Chicago campaign was nullified
partly because of the opposition of that city's powerful mayor, Richard
J. Daley, and partly because of the unexpected complexities of Northern
racism.
In
Illinois and Mississippi alike, King was now being challenged
and even publicly derided by young black-power enthusiasts. Whereas
King stood for patience, middle-class respectability, and a measured
approach to social change, the sharp-tongued, blue jean-clad
young urban radicals stood for confrontation and immediate change.
In the latter's eyes, the suit-wearing, calm-spoken civil rights
leader was irresponsibly passive and old beyond his years (King
was in his 30s)—more a member of the other side of the
generation gap than their revolutionary leader. Malcolm X went
so far as to call King's tactics “criminal”: “Concerning
nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself
when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”
In
the face of mounting criticism, King broadened his approach to
include concerns other than racism. On April 4, 1967, at Riverside
Church in New York City and again on the 15th at a mammoth peace
rally in that city, he committed himself irrevocably to opposing
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Once before, in early January
1966, he had condemned the war, but official outrage from Washington
and strenuous opposition within the black community itself had
caused him to relent. He next sought to widen his base by forming
a coalition of the poor of all races that would address itself
to economic problems such as poverty and unemployment. It was
a version of populism—seeking to enroll janitors, hospital
workers, seasonal labourers, and the destitute of Appalachia,
along with the student militants and pacifist intellectuals.
His endeavours along these lines, however, did not engender much
support in any segment of the population.
Meanwhile,
the strain and changing dynamics of the civil rights movement
had taken a toll on King, especially in the final months of his
life. “I'm frankly tired of marching. I'm tired of going
to jail,” he admitted in 1968. “Living every day
under the threat of death, I feel discouraged every now and then
and feel my work's in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives
my soul again.”
King's
plans for a Poor People's March to Washington were interrupted in the
spring of 1968 by a trip to Memphis, Tenn., in support of a strike
by that city's sanitation workers. In the opinion of many of his followers
and biographers, King seemed to sense his end was near. As King prophetically
told a crowd at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis on April 3, the
night before he died, “I've seen the promised land. I may not
get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people,
will get to the promised land.” The next day, while standing
on the second-story balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and his
associates were staying, King was killed by a sniper's bullet. The
killing sparked riots and disturbances in over 100 cities across the
country. On March 10, 1969, the accused assassin, a white man, James
Earl Ray, pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 99 years
in prison.
Ray
later recanted his confession, claiming lawyers had coerced him
into confessing and that he was the victim of a conspiracy. In
a surprising turn of events, members of the King family eventually
came to Ray's defense. King's son Dexter met with the reputed
assassin in March 1997 and then publicly joined Ray's plea for
a reopening of his case. When Ray died on April 23, 1998, Coretta
Scott King declared, “America will never have the benefit
of Mr. Ray's trial, which would have produced new revelations
about the assassination…as well as establish the facts
concerning Mr. Ray's innocence.” Although the U.S. government
conducted several investigations into the murder of King and
each time concluded that Ray was the sole assassin, the killing
remains a matter of controversy.
-
David L. Lewis
Historical significance and legacy
In the years after his death, King remained the most widely known African American
leader of his era. His stature as a major historical figure was confirmed by
the successful campaign to establish a national holiday in his honour in the
United States and by the building of a King memorial on the Mall in Washington,
D.C., near the Lincoln Memorial, the site of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech
in 1963. Many states and municipalities have enacted King holidays, authorized
public statues and paintings of him, and named streets, schools, and other
entities for him. These efforts to honour King have focused more on his role
as a civil rights advocate than on his controversial speeches, during his final
year, condemning American intervention in Vietnam and calling for the Poor
People's Campaign.
The
King holiday campaign overcame forceful opposition, with critics
citing FBI surveillance files suggesting that King was an adulterous
radical influenced by communists. Although the release of these
files during the 1970s under the Freedom of Information Act fueled
the public debate over King's legacy, the extensive archives
that now exist document King's life and thought and have informed
numerous serious studies offering balanced and comprehensive
perspectives. Two major books featuring King—David J. Garrow's
Bearing the Cross (1986) and Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters
(1988)—won Pulitzer Prizes. Subsequent books and articles
reaffirmed King's historical significance while portraying him
as a complex figure: flawed, fallible, and limited in his control
over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet also
a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social
justice through nonviolent means.
Although
the idea of a King national holiday did not gain significant congressional
support until the late 1970s, efforts to commemorate King's life began
almost immediately after his assassination. In 1968 Rep. John Conyers
of Michigan introduced a King holiday bill. The idea gradually began
to attract political support once the newly formed Congressional Black
Caucus included the holiday in its reform agenda. Coretta Scott King
also played a central role in building popular support for the King
holiday campaign while serving as founding president of the Atlanta-based
Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change (later
renamed the King Center), which became one of the major archives of
King's papers.
Despite
the overall conservative trend in American politics in the 1980s,
which might have been expected to work against recognition of
the efforts of a controversial activist, King holiday advocates
gained political support by portraying him as a symbol of the
country's progress in race relations. Musician Stevie Wonder
contributed to the campaign by writing and recording “Happy
Birthday,” a popular tribute to King. In 1983 Coretta Scott
King and Stevie Wonder participated in the 20th Anniversary March
on Washington, which drew a bigger crowd than the original march.
After
the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favour of the
King holiday bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, Pres. Ronald
Reagan put aside his initial doubts and signed the legislation
on Nov. 3, 1983, establishing Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, to
be celebrated annually on the third Monday in January. Coretta
Scott King also succeeded in gaining congressional approval to
establish a King Federal Holiday Commission to plan annual celebrations,
beginning Jan. 20, 1986, that would encourage “Americans
to reflect on the principles of racial equality and nonviolent
social change espoused by Dr. King.”
Celebration
of the King national holiday did not end contention over King's
legacy, but his status as an American icon became more widely
accepted over time. The revelation during the early 1990s that
King had plagiarized some of his academic writings and the occasional
controversies involving his heirs did little to undermine recognition
of King's enduring impact on the country. Even before the first
King national holiday, members of King's fraternity, Alpha Phi
Alpha, had proposed a permanent memorial in Washington, D.C.
By the end of the 20th century, that proposal had secured governmental
approval for the site on the Tidal Basin, near the Mall. In 2000
an international design competition ended with the selection
of a proposal by ROMA Design Group. To build and maintain the
memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project
Foundation eventually raised more than $100 million. Commemorations
of King's life were also held in other countries, and in 2009
a congressional delegation traveled to India to mark the 50th
anniversary of King's pilgrimage to what he called the “Land
of Gandhi.”
Assessment
As with the lives of other major historical figures, King's life has been interpreted
in new ways by successive generations of scholars, many of whom have drawn attention
to the crucial role of local black leaders in the African American protest movements
of the 1950s and '60s. Recognizing that grassroots activists such as Rosa Parks,
Fred Shuttlesworth, and others prepared the way for King's rise to national prominence,
biographers and historians have questioned the view that Southern black protest
movements relied on King's charismatic guidance. Nonetheless, studies of King
continue to acknowledge his distinctive leadership role. For example, though
he often downplayed his contribution to the Montgomery bus boycott, King's inspirational
leadership and his speeches helped to transform a local protest over bus seating
into a historically important event. More generally, studies of King have suggested
that his most significant contribution to the modern African American freedom
struggle was to link black aspirations to transcendent, widely shared democratic
and Christian ideals. While helping grassroots leaders mobilize African Americans
for sustained mass struggles, he inspired participants to believe that their
cause was just and consistent with traditional American egalitarian values. King
also appealed to the consciences of all Americans, thus building popular support
for civil rights reform. His strategy of emphasizing nonviolent protest and interracial
cooperation enabled him to fight effectively against the Southern system of legalized
racial segregation and discrimination, but it also proved inadequate during his
final years as he sought to overcome racial and economic problems that were national
in scope.
- Clayborne
Carson
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