Martin Luther King Day is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States on the Monday closest to his birthday. The day recognises the significant
contribution Dr. Martin Luther King Jr made to African-American civil rights.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was born on January 15th, 1929. He was an American activist and leader of the African-American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. He ultimately became a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1964 for his effort to end racial segregation and discrimination in the United States.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Bio timeline:
January 15, 1929 – Born Michael Luther King Jr (changing his name later from Michael to Martin)
1944 – Having attended segregated Georgia state schools, Martin Luther King graduates from High School at the age of 15.
1948 – Receives a B.A. Degree from Morehouse College. Morehouse College in Atlanta is the same college that Martin Luther King Jr’s father and grandfather both attended. Ordained to the Baptist ministry.
1948 to 1951 – Studies at the Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, becomes president of his senior class, graduates with a B.D in 1951.
1951- 1953 – Enrols in graduate studies at Boston University and completes his residence for a doctorate in 1953.
1953 – Marries Coretta Scott whom he met in Boston, they settle in Alabama.
1954 – Becomes Dexter Avenue Baptist Church pastor.
1955 – Receives doctorate degree from Boston University. Joins the bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested. He is elected president of Montgomery improvement Association, becoming the official boycott spokesperson.
1956 – Boycott victory is claimed when the Supreme Court rules that bus segregation is illegal.
1957 – King forms the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to fight segregation and achieve civil rights. King speaks to a crowd of 15 000 in Washington.
1958 – King’s first book Stride Toward Freedom is published. King is stabbed in Harlem while on a speaking tour. King meets with Dwight D. Eisenhower to discuss problems affecting African Americans.
1959 – Studies Gandhi’s non-violence philosophy in India. Resigns from the Dexter Ave Baptist Church as pastor. Focuses on civil rights full time.
1960 – Becomes co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Arrested during a “sit-in” waiting to be served in a restaurant. Sentenced to four months in jail but is released with an intervention by John and Robert Kennedy.
1961 – Segregation is banned in interstate travel due to Martin Luther King Jr’s work. Congress on Racial Equality began first Freedom Ride through the South in a Greyhound bus following the ban on segregation.
1962 – Martin Luther King Jr is arrested and jailed during a freedom movement in Georgia.
1963 – Martin Luther King Jr is arrested again, this time for demonstrating without a permit. He spends eleven days in jail during which time he writes the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The Birmingham agreement is announced resulting in desegregation of stores, restaurants as well as employing blacks. Martin Luther King Jr leads 125 000 people on a Freedom Walk in Detroit. The March on Washington is attended by almost 250 000 people, the largest demonstration for civil rights. During the March, Martin Luther King Jr. makes the famous “I have A Dream Speech”.
1964 – King is Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. Signing ceremony of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at the White House is attended by Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr is stoned by Black Muslims in Harlem. He is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35.
1965 King is once again arrested during a voting rights demonstration in Selma, Alabama. Following the signing of the Voting Rights Act, Martin Luther King Jr. focuses on socioeconomic challenges.
1966 – Martin Luther King Jr. moves to a Chicago slum to attract attention to the living conditions. He and others begin the March Against Fear through the South. Launches a campaign to end discrimination in housing, employment and education in Chicago.
1967 – King announces the inception of the Poor People’s Campaign focusing on jobs and freedom for all races of poor people.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr announces that the Poor People’s Campaign will culminate in a March on Washington demanding a 12 billion dollar economic bill of rights guaranteeing employment to the able bodied, income for those unable to work and an end to housing discrimination. King Jr. marches in support of sanitation workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee. For the first time he leads a march which turns violent. He delivers the speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”.
April 4, 1968 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots breakout in 130 American cities. Twenty thousand people are arrested.
1968 – Within a week of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, the Opening Housing Act is passed in congress.
1986 – A US national holiday in honour of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is proclaimed.
