Martin Luther King Jr. was a prominent leader in the Civil Rights Movement, known for his nonviolent protests and tireless work toward equality.
If you follow African history, you must have heard bits and pieces of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and heard stories about his famous dreams. This article details everything about the famous African American whose role in the civil rights movement gave African Americans a better quality of life in the United States.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. He was a Baptist minister and activist who led the ‘civil rights movement’ from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968.
EARLY LIFE
Born to an ancestry of Baptist ministers, Martin Luther King Jr. was one of those American heroes who came from humble beginnings. His father was a Baptist minister and even took over the parish where his father-in-law ministered, which possibly influenced Luther in his choices when he was advanced in school as his dad convinced him to pursue ministry rather than medicine.
Martin’s first racial experience occurred quite early in his life when he was six years old, as one of his best friends growing up reported that he would not be playing with Martin anymore as he was not going to an only white school. This experience damaged Martin subconsciously, to the point that he wrote a letter to his parents at age 15 when he left for a school-related experience. The content of his letter simply read, “Negroes and whites even attend the same church.” This experience spurred the young man against racial segregation even further.
He met his wife many years later while in Boston; she was from Alabama and was studying New England Conservatory music. He married Caretta Scott in 1953, and they went on to have four kids together.
SOCIAL-ACTIVISM
His earliest form of activism came after he was made president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which was formed to boycott the Montgomery bus for an incident on December 1, 1955, where a black woman was arrested for failing to give up her seat to a white passenger, which was against the city’s segregation law.
The incident sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Martin Luther King emerged as the leader, advocating for the end of racial segregation on public transportation. Luther King was inspired by Gandhi’s principles of nonviolent resistance; he and other activists organized boycotts, protests, and marches, demanding an end to discriminatory practices. These protests lasted for over a year and resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1956 that declared segregated seating on buses unconstitutional.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference:
In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr. co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which was a nonviolent civil rights organization aimed at facilitating and supporting efforts to end segregation and discrimination through nonviolent means. King’s role as the president of the SCLC provided him with a platform to address a broader audience and mobilize communities across the nation.
He organized more sit-in protests, especially one where he was arrested and 33 black college students protested against racial segregation at a lunch counter in an Atlanta department store.
Birmingham Campaign and “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: In 1963, Martin Luther King jr decided to take his demonstrations to the racial and segregation capital of the United States, the city of Birmingham. He, however, met great resistance, as the black clergies did not show support for him, nor did the whites. The white clergymen reported drafting letters informing the black community of Birmingham not to join in the protests of Martin Luther King, but they were not convincing enough (in my opinion).
The planned demonstrations were held, and although it was peaceful in the most Gandhi-like manner, the police department of Birmingham used assaulting measures to try to disperse the crowd where schoolchildren were abundant.
Arrested during the protests, King penned his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in which he defended the strategy of nonviolent resistance and criticized the complacency of white moderates. The letter became a manifesto for the Civil Rights Movement, articulating the moral imperative to confront injustice.
March on Washington and the “I Have a Dream” Speech:
The peak of Luther King’s activism came with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. He addressed a crowd of over 200,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial. King delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. In it, he passionately spoke about his vision for a racially integrated and harmonious America, where individuals would be judged by their character rather than the color of their skin.
ASSASSINATION
Despite the love and fame that Martin Luther King enjoyed from his activism, he could not control the hate that was building up in the hearts of conservative Americans who did not want to see the end of segregation but wanted to continue in the normal status quo and social cancer.
Luther King told a crowd at Memphis Temple Church a night before he died that he might be like Moses, promising them that their fight for equality and liberalism would be attained, but he may not get into the promised land with them.
On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of the second-story Lorraine Motel with his associates, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a sniper shot. His assassination led to massive protests and riots in over 100 cities across the United States.
The killer was caught; he was a white male, James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to murder in 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years in jail. His sentence was cut short, though, as he died of a kidney complication on April 23, 1998, aged 70.
Despite his early demise, Martin Luther King Jr. was still able to carve a legacy for himself. His fight against racial injustices, although not perfect in totality, has seen tremendous success since the times when blacks had to stand in buses for whites to sit. He has been a beacon of light for many generations, and people can learn a lot just by reading his biography, whites and Africans alike.