Martin Luther King Jr.: life, activism, murder –

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist pastor who became internationally known for being one of the leaders who fought against racial segregation. He gained national prominence as one of the leaders of the boycott of racial segregation on buses in an Alabama town in the 1950s.

He was an advocate of civil disobedience and an advocate of non-violence as a way to fight racism. Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most famous political speeches in American history and was assassinated in 1968, aged 39, the victim of a heinous crime.

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Summary about Martin Luther King Jr.

• He was an American pastor who fought against racial segregation.

• It gained national prominence due to the boycott of the African-American population to the bus system of a city in Alabama in the 1950s.

• He was intensely persecuted, threatened by supremacists and defamed by the US government.

• He was an advocate of civil disobedience and non-violent protest.

• He was murdered on a hotel balcony in Memphis in 1968.

Video lesson: Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?

Youth of Martin Luther King Jr.

martin luther king junior was born on January 15, 1929 in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. He was the son of a Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Sr. (his birth name and registration was Michael King) and his mother was Alberta Williams, who worked as a children’s teacher. Martin also had two other siblings, Christine and Alfred.

Originally, Martin Luther King Jr.’s name was Michael King, just as his father gave him. This change took place in 1935, when the young man was about six years old, after Martin Sr. traveled to Germany, and it was done as a way of honoring the Protestant reformer Martin Luther.

Martin Luther King Jr. entered school at an early age, being enrolled in an exclusive school for African-American children. the young king grew up in a complex environment charged with the racism of the sul of the United Statesbut he saw in his father a great example of engagement against oppression.

Martin Luther King Jr. still grew up in a family of stable financial condition and saw his father attend the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, dedicated to the defense of the civil rights of the African-American population.

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Educational and religious background of Martin Luther King Jr.

At the age of 15, Martin Luther King Jr. was approved in a selection that allowed him to enroll in Morehouse College, an important university for African-American students. It was during this period that he also pursued his religious vocation and decided to follow the same path as his father,ingyourself a shepherd.

Martin Luther King Jr. graduated in sociology when he was just 19 years old, and in 1955 he managed to complete a doctorate in theology from Boston University. At age 19, he was ordained a minister, and at age 25, he was ordained a pastor, passwalk to perform at a church called Dexter Avenue Baptist Churchin Montgomery, Alabama.

Personal Life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. married Coretta Scott, whom he met while studying in Boston. The wedding took place on June 18, 1953, in Coretta’s hometown of Marion, Alabama. The couple had four children: Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter and Bernice.

King and Coretta’s wedding was marked by some controversies, such as the fact that the Baptist pastor limited his wife’s role in protests that fought for the civil rights of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.

As a protest leader in the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. was heavily monitored by the FBI. Because of this, the North American intelligence service discovered that the pastor kept several extramarital affairs. This information was heavily used by the FBI to blackmail him into abandoning his leadership.

Martin Luther King Jr Activism

The example set by Martin Luther King Jr.’s father in the fight against racism was followed by his son in his youth, because, in the 1950s, he joined The fight against racism in the United States. There were a number of limitations against people of color in that country, and the way initially found by the Baptist pastor was to join the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In the same decade, a case of great repercussion occurred in the United States, giving national prominence to the pastor. In Montgomery, where he resided, Rosa Parks, a black woman, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the leaders of large boycott of the black population to the bus service of that city, in order to end the segregation in that space. He was also one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group composed of black pastors who exercised strong activism.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate of civil disobedience and believed that the struggle should be carried out through non-violent protest. One of his great inspirations was Mahatma Gandhi. Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance was the opposite of leaders such as Malcolm X, who believed in the use of violence against racial segregation.

In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. held a series of peaceful protests and was marked by his speeches. In 1963, he led a large peaceful protest in Washington, capital of the United States, and at that moment he gave his best known speech, entitled I Have a Dream or I Have a Dream, in English.

He was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his performance, but his leadership caused him to be intensely persecuted. In addition to supremacist groups, he was persecuted by the US government, which promoted a smear campaign against the pastor, led, in particular, by J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI.

See too: Harriet Tubman — a woman who fled slavery and sought to combat that institution in the United States

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The widespread hatred against Martin Luther King Jr. made him the victim of a terrible crime that took his life. In April 4, 1968the pastor was in Memphis, Tennessee, to follow and support a workers’ strike. He he was on the balcony of a hotel when he was shotaround 6 pm.

About an hour later, his death was announced, and the United States was shocked by the pastor’s early end at the age of 39. The perpetrator of the crime was James Earl Ray, who confessed to the act, but later recanted his statement. Despite the retreat, the evidence points to the fact that he was the author of the crime.

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By Daniel Neves
History teacher