“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop and I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will, and He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over and 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. And I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., April 3, 1968
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929, to Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King in Atlanta, Georgia. He had a brother, Alfred Daniel, also a pastor, and a sister, Christine. His maternal grandfather was a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, and his paternal grandparents were sharecroppers.
The younger King married Coretta Scott in Marion, Alabama on June 18, 1953. His father performed the service, and Rev. A. D. King, his brother, was his best man. The Kings had four children: Yolanda Denise (November 17, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama), Martin Luther III (October 23, 1957, Montgomery, Alabama), Dexter Scott (January 30, 1961, Atlanta, Georgia), and Bernice Albertine (March 28, 1963, Atlanta, Georgia).
King excelled in school and skipped the 9th and 12th grades. He scored high on college entrance exams and was admitted to Morehouse College at the age of 15 without having formally graduated from high school. In 1948, he graduated from Morehouse with a bachelor of arts in Sociology.
From there he entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. While there, he once again stood apart from his peers. He was elected class president and valedictorian and won scholarships and fellowships allowing him to attend the graduate school of his choice. With his bachelor of divinity degree, he set off to Boston University in 1951 to study systematic theology.
At BU, he completed his dissertation, entitled A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman, and won his doctorate in 1955.
Following his ordination in 1948, King began preaching at Ebenezer. Upon receiving his doctorate, he moved with his family to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama where he served as pastor from 1954 to 1959. In 1960 he began work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and remained a co-pastor at his father's church, Ebenezer, until his death in 1968.
To say that Dr. King was a central figure in the American civil rights movement would be an understatement. He was at the center of some of the movement's key struggles, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56, the 1963 anti-segregation sit-in protests in Birmingham, the 1963 March on Washington, the 1965 Selma march, and many more. At the core of his beliefs were a commitment to universal justice and non-violence. In fact, in 1959 he spent a month in India studying Gandhi’s techniques of nonviolence as guests of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. His work won him several honors including the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize and the 1963 Time Magazine's Man of the Year Award. His life and ideas continue to inspire people of all races and nationalities.
Dr. King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. He was in Memphis to campaign for the rights of sanitation workers. James Earl Ray was convicted of the crime on March 9, 1969, and was sentenced to a 99 years in Tennessee State Penitentiary.
Notable noded speeches and writings1
Publications
- Stride Toward Freedom, (New York: Harper & Row, 1958). The story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
- The Measure of a Man, (Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press, 1959). A selection of sermons.
- Why We Can’t Wait, (New York: Harper & Row, 1963). The story of the Birmingham Campaign.
- Strength to Love, (New York: Harper & Row, 1963). A selection of sermons.
- Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (New York: Harper & Row, 1967). Reflections on the problems of today’s world, the nuclear arms race, etc.
- The Trumpet of Conscience, (New York: Harper & Row, 1968). The Massey Lectures. Sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (Posthumously).
Sources:
http://www.thekingcenter.org
1 Please /msg me if you know of any more noded works and I will add them to the list. Thanx.