Martin Luther King - biography, information, personal life. M
Martin Luther King is America's greatest figure, a fighter for human rights and freedom. A natural speaker, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and his ideas of equality became the basis for a modern decent society. This man became a national icon of the fight against segregation in the United States, and most people around the world agree with his opinion.
Childhood and youth
20th century in Europe. Although slavery was abolished in December 1865 due to the Civil War, the attitude of a prejudiced society towards people of color did not change, because the state did nothing at the legislative level to protect dark-skinned people.
People of color were discriminated against and considered second-class citizens. They could not get a normal job and were deprived of the right to choose. In America after the Civil War, unofficial John Crow laws were in force, according to which the colored minority could not stand on an equal footing with white people. People with at least a small share of black blood were classified as the colored population.
During this time of social strife, Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in the city of Atlanta, located in the state of Georgia, in the southern part of America. Most of the black middle class population was concentrated in the south.
The boy's father, Martin Luther King Sr., was a pastor in a Baptist church, and his mother, Alberta Williams King, worked as a teacher before her marriage. The head of the family was originally named Michael, but he changed his name and the name of his son when he was 6 years old.
Martin Jr. was the second child in the family, and it cannot be said that the Kings lived poorly: the family of the future fighter for equality belonged to the upper-middle class and lived in abundance.
King was brought up in a strict and religious atmosphere; his parents sometimes used physical punishment for misdeeds. But Martin Sr. and Alberta Williams tried to protect their son from the flourishing racist hatred.
When the boy was 6 years old, his friend, who was playing with him in the yard, unexpectedly announced that his mother would not allow him to be friends with Martin anymore because he was black. After the incident, Alberta Williams tried to console the boy and said that Martin was no worse than others.
When King was 10 years old, he sang in the choir of a Baptist church. At the time, the film Gone with the Wind was premiering in Atlanta, and the choir participated in the event.
The future politician was precocious; Martin Luther King studied with honors in a black school. The boy did not have to finish grades 9 and 12, as he independently studied the school curriculum and entered Morehouse University as an external student at the age of 15. In 1944, Martin won a public speaking competition held in Georgia among people of color.
At his new place of study, King joins the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and learns that both blacks and some whites are opposed to racism.
In 1948, Martin graduated from the university and received a bachelor's degree in sociology. As a student, Martin Luther King helps his father at Ebenezer Church. At King Sr.’s workplace, the future public figure was a frequent visitor: in 1947, the guy accepted the rank of assistant in the church.
The politician continues his studies at Crowser Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. There, the future revolutionary received a Doctor of Theology degree in 1951, but continued his studies at Boston graduate school and in 1955 received a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
Activity
Martin Luther King followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, and in 1954 the politician became a pastor in the Baptist church. Throughout his life, the man was motivated by the ideas of freedom and equality of people. King had extraordinary oratory skills, which he channeled in the right direction.
Martin was active in the NAACP, but in 1955 he became director of the Montgomery Improvement Association.
Martin Luther King led the Montgomery bus boycott. By unofficial agreement, non-white transport passengers were not allowed to occupy the first four rows of the bus, which were reserved for white citizens. Also, some bus drivers behaved uncivilly and made insults towards African Americans. Black public figure Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a “privileged” man, for which she was arrested by local police. And this is not the first case of public outrage; in the United States there was a frequent practice of arresting innocent black people. The bus driver was in no danger even if he shot an African-American passenger.
Martin Luther King, who disagreed with this social problem, organized a nonviolent boycott of transportation, in which blacks participated. The protest lasted more than a year, 382 days. People of color refused to travel by public transport and walked on foot calling for freedom and equality. Sometimes African-American car drivers gave rides to the boycotters, but they absolutely did not use public transport. About 6 thousand people took part in the action.
The long-term campaign was successful; in 1957, the supreme US government ruled that infringement of the rights of other segments of the population in the state of Alabama was contrary to the US Constitution, and Time published a photo and interview with Martin on the cover.
Not all people supported King; during the protest, there were multiple attempts on his life, and they also tried to blow up his house. Martin Luther King became an idol of people of color, as well as a symbol of the struggle for equality of freedom and rights. Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his method of nonviolent opposition.
King also organized demonstrations for any manifestation of segregation. So, in 1962, Martin joined the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights community. King encouraged university students to take part in the demonstrations and attend rallies. Although Martin Luther King's "movements" were not violent, the police interfered with the demonstrators, for example, by unleashing police dogs on protesting students. Martin King himself was arrested several times.
In 1962, Mississippi State University admitted black student James Meredith, who became the first person of color to enroll at the institution. In the USA there were special schools for people of color, who did not have the right to study on an equal basis with whites.
This was progress in American society, but not everyone agreed with the enrollment of African Americans in universities, for example, Alabama Governor George Wallace agreed with racial prejudice and blocked the path to the university for two black students.
Martin defended the honor and dignity of those violated in human rights and continued the long-term struggle against segregation.
But the greatest fame for the black figure was brought by another action, which took place in 1963 and expanded Martin’s political biography. About 300 thousand American residents gathered at the “March on Washington” rally. King gave his most memorable speech, which begins with the words: “I have a dream.” Martin praised racial reconciliation and said that it doesn’t matter what nationality a person is, it’s what’s inside that matters. The march leaders met with the US President and discussed socially important issues. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, which prohibited racial discrimination against people of color.
Ideas and views
King's focus was not limited to the issue of segregation. This politician advocated equality and freedom for all citizens of the United States of America; he was dissatisfied with the level of unemployment and hunger.
Martin often traveled and spoke, encouraging people to fight for the rights that should be guaranteed to every person from birth. Moreover, according to Martin Luther King, any social struggle should be non-violent, because it is possible to reach an agreement with the help of language, and not with the help of riots and wars. Luther wrote many books that became the basis for his doctrine of law and order in society.
Personal life
During his lifetime, Martin Luther was a cheerful man with a surprisingly kind look; he set an example of a family man, a decent husband and father who loved four children. Scott Martin met conservatory student Coretta in 1952 while in Boston.
His parents liked King’s chosen one, and they agreed to the marriage. In the summer of 1953, King and Coretta got married at the girl's mother's house. Martin King Sr. married the lovers.
In the fall of 1954, the King family moved to the city of Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther's active work began.
Death
In February 1968, a strike by African-American garbage workers was organized in Memphis, Tennessee. Workers were dissatisfied with non-payment of wages, as well as with the conditions and attitude of management, which was similar to segregation: whites had a number of privileges and could not work due to bad weather, unlike blacks, who had to collect garbage even in a thunderstorm.
People turned to civil rights activist Martin Luther King, the only champion of people of color.
On April 3, King went to Tennessee again, but the politician had to change his flight because a bomb threat was discovered on the plane. In town, a civic leader booked room 306 at the Lorraine Motel.
A day later, Martin Luther King stood on the balcony of his hotel room while white-skinned criminal James Earl Ray aimed a rifle at the politician. James fired once: the bullet hit Martin Luther King in the jaw. The politician died at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 p.m. On the eve of his death, Martin gave his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. Listeners remembered this quote from the speech:
“Like anyone, I would like to live a long life. Longevity matters. But I don't think about it now. I just want to do the will of the Lord."
James was caught by the police: the young man wrote a sincere confession. The guy believed that if he admitted guilt, the punishment would be reduced. In court, the criminal was given 99 years in prison. Then Ray stated that he did not commit murder, but the court insisted on the defendant’s guilt.
However, there are many unclear and murky circumstances in the King murder case. For example, it remains unknown what weapon the sniper used for the murder, and there is no clear evidence of James’s involvement in the assassination attempt on King. Martin's wife was dissatisfied with the court's decision because, in her opinion, it was not a criminal who escaped from prison for theft, but a political conspiracy, that was to blame for her husband's death. Therefore, Coretta was saddened by the news of the death of Ray, the only witness.
Who killed Martin King and with what rifle is a mystery that has not yet been solved.
In memory of the political figure in America, every third Monday of January is celebrated as the federal “Martin Luther King Day”. The holiday finally took root only in 2000.
Also, in memory of Martin, documentaries were shot about his activities. The grave is located at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.
Quotes
Martin Luther King is famous for his statements not only about human rights, but also about morality. Courage, boldness, perseverance and nobility are perhaps a small part of the characteristics that the American politician possessed.
- Love is the only force that can turn any enemy into a friend.
- If a person has not discovered something for himself that he is ready to die for, he is not able to live fully
- If they told me that the world would end tomorrow, I would plant a tree today.
- Scientific research has overtaken spiritual development. We have guided missiles and unguided people.
- The ultimate measure of a person's worth is not how he behaves in times of comfort and convenience, but how he carries himself in times of struggle and controversy.
- Cowardice asks - is it safe? Expediency asks - is it prudent? Vanity asks - is this popular? But conscience asks - is this right? And the time comes when you have to take a position that is neither safe, nor prudent, nor popular, but it must be taken because it is right.
KING, Martin Luther (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) - American minister and civil rights activist Martin (originally Michael) Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of a Baptist church pastor. eldest son. When the boy was six years old, his father changed his name and his to Martin. King's mother, Alberta Christina Williams, taught school before her marriage. King's childhood occurred during the Great Depression, but he grew up in a prosperous middle-income family. While studying at David T. Howard Elementary School and Booker T. Washington Middle School, King was well ahead of his peers, i.e., he completed the program on his own. In 1944, without graduating from high school, he passed the exams and entered Morehouse College for Colored People in Atlanta. At the same time, he became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAPAC). In 1947, King was ordained and became his father's assistant in the church. After graduating from college with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1948, King attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor's degree in divinity in 1951. The scholarship awarded to him allowed him to enroll in graduate school at Boston University, where in 1955 King defended his dissertation on “A Comparative Analysis of the Concepts of God in the Systems of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wyman,” becoming a Doctor of Philosophy. King was deeply influenced during these years by the writings of the priest and reformist Walter Rauschenbusch, Georg Hegel, Henry Thoreau, Edgar Brightman, Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr. “The effort to create a social gospel,” King said, “is a testimony to the Christian life.” In 1953, King married student Coretta Scott, and they had two sons and two daughters. King became a minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954, serving there until January 1960, when he reunited with his father at Ebenezer Church. In Montgomery, King organized social action committees and raised funds for the NAACP, serving on the association's local executive committee. After the Rosa Parke incident (a seamstress was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger), the Improvement Association was created in Montgomery in December 1955, and King became its president. Remaining doubtful about the justification of the colored boycott of the Montgomery bus system, King hesitated whether he should accept the post and agreed, recalling a quote from Thoreau: “Cooperation with a vicious system is no longer possible.” On the evening of December 5, King gave what he later recalled was the decisive speech of his life. “There is no alternative to resistance,” King told the crowd and expressed confidence that protest will help to renounce “the patience that forces us to settle for less than freedom and justice.” Under King's leadership, the black community boycotted Montgomery transportation for 382 days. In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Alabama's segregation law unconstitutional. In December, blacks and whites shared buses for the first time. King gained national fame; in February 1957, his portrait appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, which King joined, had its roots in the pre-war years. The NRA and the Congress of Racial Equality, and labor leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, took a number of steps in favor of equal rights for blacks. Their achievements culminated in 1954's Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. The Supreme Court ended segregation in education by ruling that separate education for whites and blacks created inequality and therefore violated the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. King's unique contributions to the cause of human rights were made possible by his commitment to the principles of Christian philosophy. King considered the activities of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the passive resistance movement, thanks to whom India was freed from British rule, to be an example for himself. "Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance," King once declared, "is the only method justifiable in the struggle
for freedom." The Montgomery boycott, during which King's house was bombed and he was arrested, made him a hero of the black community in the United States. In January 1957, black leaders of the south created an alliance of church organizations for civil rights called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference "(KRHU), where King was elected president. At the same time, King, a recognized defender of the rights of people of color, wrote the book "Step to Freedom. "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story". In September 1958, while signing autographs in Harlem, he was stabbed in the chest by a mentally ill woman. Using the CRHU as a base, King organized a series of civil rights campaigns. rights aimed at eliminating segregation in transport, theaters, restaurants, etc. He traveled throughout the country, giving lectures, and was arrested 15 times. In 1960, at the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he spent a month in India. where he deepened his acquaintance with Gandhi's activities. In March - April 1963, K. led mass demonstrations in Birmingham (Alabama) against segregation in work and at home, one of the slogans was the creation of committees of citizens of different races. The police dispersed the demonstrators (among whom were. many children) with the help of dogs, water cannons and batons. For violating the ban on demonstrations, King was arrested for 5 days. At this time, he wrote a “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to white religious leaders of the city, who reproached him for his “unwise and untimely actions.” “In fact, time has no meaning,” King wrote. “The progress of mankind does not roll on the wheels of inevitability. It comes as a result of the tireless efforts of people doing God’s will, without which time becomes an ally of the forces of stagnation in society.” Despite periodic flare-ups, tensions in Birmingham eased when white and black leaders reached an agreement on desegregation. In 1963, King, along with his deputy Ralph Abernathy, the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality Bayard Rustin and other leaders, organized the largest civil rights demonstration in US history. On August 28, about 250 thousand whites and blacks gathered in Washington as civil rights legislation was discussed in the US Congress. That same day, black leaders conferred with President John F. Kennedy. Later, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King gave a speech that expressed his belief in the brotherhood of man; the speech became widely known as “I have a dream” - these words sound like a refrain in the text of the speech. King's book "Why We Can't Wait" was published in 1964. In May and June of that year, King participated in housing integration demonstrations in St. Augustine with members of the HRC. (Florida) A month later, President Lyndon B. Johnson invited him to the White House, where King was present at the signing of the Housing Bill, which became part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law prohibited segregation in public places and workplaces. labor and wages. At the end of the year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In his opening speech, the representative of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Gunnar Jahn, noted: “Although Martin Luther King was not involved in international affairs, his struggle served the cause of peace... In the Western world, he was the first who showed that struggle does not necessarily mean violence." In his Nobel lecture, King said: "Nonviolence means that my people have endured suffering patiently all these years without inflicting it on others... It means that we no longer experience fear. But it does not follow from this that we want to frighten certain people or even the society of which we are a part. The movement does not seek to free the blacks at the expense of the humiliation and enslavement of the whites. It does not want victory over anyone. It desires the liberation of American society and participation in the self-liberation of all the people." In March 1965, King organized a march from Selma (Alabama) to Montgomery under the slogan of granting voting rights, but he did not participate in the march. After the demonstration
Welts were attacked by traffic police, King called for a new march. More than 3 thousand white and black demonstrators took part, and more than 25 thousand joined them along the way. King addressed the crowd at the Capitol in Montgomery. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, and King was invited to Washington and attended the signing ceremony. Remaining a controversial figure, King had many enemies - not only in the south, but also in other parts of the country. King's most influential critic was apparently Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edgar Hoover, who called him a communist, a traitor, and a deeply immoral man. When King accused FBI agents of failing to act on complaints in Albany, Georgia, citing their Southern origins, Hoover did not hesitate to call the Negro figure "the most notorious liar in the country." The FBI tapped King's and KRHJ's phones and compiled an extensive dossier on King's personal and public life. It, in particular, reflected King's extramarital affairs during his trips around the country. In 1967, King published Where Do We Go From Here? (“Where do We go from here?”). In April, he openly spoke out against the Vietnam War. King addressed a large anti-war rally in Washington; became co-chairman of the organization “Priests and Laity Alarmed by the Events in Vietnam.” In the last years of his life, King's attention was drawn not only to racism, but also to the problem of unemployment, hunger and poverty throughout America. Expansion of horizons necessitated the need to support radical circles of black youth during the riots in the ghettos of Watts, Newark, Harlem and Detroit, which contradicted the principles of nonviolence. King began to recognize that racial discrimination was closely linked to the problem of poverty. But he did not have time to create a program on this issue, which explains the failure of efforts to improve living conditions in the Chicago slums in 1966. However, in November 1967, King announced the launch of the Poor People's Campaign, which was supposed to end in April 1968 with a white rally and poor blacks in Washington. On March 28, 1968, King led a 6,000-strong protest march in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking workers. A few days later, speaking in Memphis, King said: "We have difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter. Because I've been to the mountaintop... I've looked ahead and seen the Promised Land. Maybe I won't be there with you, but I want you to know now - all of us, all the people will see this Earth." The next day, King was wounded by a sniper while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He died of his wound at St. Joseph's Hospital and was buried in Atlanta. King's activities are studied and continued by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. In 1983, the US Congress rejected the proposal to celebrate K.'s birthday on the third Monday of January. However, on January 16, 1986, a bust of King was installed in the Great Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington - the first time a black American had received such an honor. On January 20, 1986, the nation celebrated the first Martin Luther King Day.
Preachers, King, while still in college, became a supporter of nonviolent methods of struggle for civil rights of blacks. Ordained as a Baptist minister (1954), he became pastor of a church in Montgomery, Alabama. The following year, King received his Ph.D. from Boston University. As head of the Montgomery Negro Improvement Association, King organized a boycott of public transportation by blacks in December 1955. This action led to a decision by the US Supreme Court to ban segregation on public transportation. In 1957, King organized and headed the black organization Southern Christian Leadership Conference and began giving lectures throughout the country, calling for active nonviolent action for the civil rights of blacks. His trip to India (1959) was of great importance for King. Influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he developed tactics for mass nonviolent action in the struggle for civil rights, including acts of civil disobedience.
In 1960, King returned to Atlanta, where he became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church and was arrested during one of the protests against segregation. King's arrest attracted the attention of wide circles of the American public; presidential candidate John Kennedy petitioned for his release. In 1963, King co-organized the March on Washington, which drew more than 200,000 participants and during which he gave the “I Have a Dream” speech. This march contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964), and King himself was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1964). In 1965, King organized a march from Selma to Montgomery (Atlanta) in an attempt to achieve housing desegregation, but was forced to retreat before state National Guardsmen. This failure led to King's criticism from other civil rights leaders, who viewed his tactics as too soft and half-hearted. From that time on, King began to speak out in a more harsh form, calling for a joint struggle of the social lower classes of the white and colored population for social change. King was one of the first black leaders to speak out against US aggression in Vietnam. In the spring of 1968, he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support a plumbers' strike and was assassinated on April 4 by racist James Earl Ray. After the murder, mass black riots broke out - the “April riots”, which were brutally suppressed by the authorities.
The Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta, where Martin Luther King was born, has been designated a national memorial. It is the cultural center of the city's black community. This is where King was born, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he and his father preached, the Interfaith Peace Chapel, and King's grave with an eternal flame and the inscription "Free At Last" on the headstone. ), a community center and King Memorial Museum - Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Martin Luther King's mother was fatally shot in Sweet Auburn in 1974. January 15 in the United States is a national holiday - Martin Luther King Day. In a number of southern states it is celebrated on the third Monday of January along with Robert E. Lee Day.
King Martin Luther (1929-1968), American priest and public figure, one of the leaders of the struggle for civil rights of African Americans.
At age 15, he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, graduated from Crowser Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1951, and received a Doctor of Theology degree from Boston University in 1955. In 1954, he became the minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and became widely known as a fighter for black civil rights.
In January 1957, King took part in the creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the purpose of which was to coordinate the efforts of civil rights groups. He moved to Atlanta (1960) and devoted himself fully to work in this organization.
In 1960-1961 King initiated sit-ins and freedom marches; was arrested several times for violating laws that he considered discriminatory. He was a highly educated man and saw racial segregation as the most pressing moral and social problem in America.
In 1963, King wrote a letter from a Birmingham prison in Alabama, calling on clergy to support the fight for equal rights for all citizens. In 1964, the United States passed the Black Civil Rights Act, and a year later the Voting Rights Act.
King's role in the nonviolent struggle to pass legislation that eliminated the remnants of racial discrimination in the United States was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize (1964). Having begun his activities as a bourgeois liberal, King in the last years of his life came to understand the social essence of the racial problem and the need for social reforms; called on African Americans to unite with white workers. In 1968, he created the Poor People's Campaign to unite poor people of all races in the fight against poverty.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, by racist James Earl Ray.
Mass black unrest - the "April riots" (April riots), which broke out after King's assassination, were brutally suppressed by the authorities.
in computer science
"Martin Luther King"
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He who accepts evil without resistance becomes its accomplice
It is this statement that best characterizes everything that is associated with the name of M.L. King. He was an ordinary man, an ordinary man who changed the world.
Biography
Born into the family of a Baptist priest. In 1944, King entered Morehouse College. During this period he became a member National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1947, King was ordained as a priest, becoming his father's assistant in the church. After receiving a bachelor's degree in sociology from college in 1948, he attended Crowther Theological Seminary in Chester, where he received a bachelor's degree in divinity in 1951. In 1955 Boston University he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Theology.
In 1954, King became a minister of the Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In Montgomery, he led a major black protest against racial segregation in public transport, where in December 1955 an incident occurred with Rosa Parks. Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted more than 380 days, despite the resistance of the authorities and racists, led to the success of the action - the US Supreme Court declared segregation in Alabama unconstitutional.
In January 1957, King was elected head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization created to fight for civil rights for the black population.
In September 1958 he was wounded with a knife in Harlem. In 1960, King was invited Jawaharlal Nehru visited India, where he studied activities Mahatma Gandhi.
With his speeches (some of them are now considered classics of oratory), he called for achieving equality through peaceful means. His speeches gave energy to the civil rights movement in society - marches began, economic boycotts, mass departures to prison, and so on. As a result, it was created Act of Rights, approved and accepted Congress.
Martin Luther King's speech " I have a dream” (“I have a dream”), which during the march on Washington V year at the foot of the monument Lincoln About 300 thousand Americans listened.
King's role in the nonviolent struggle to pass legislation that destroyed the remnants racial discrimination, was noted Nobel Peace Prize.
^ Information about his activities
King became a minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954, serving there until January 1960, when he reunited with his father at Ebenezer Church. In Montgomery, King organized social action committees and raised funds for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), serving on the association's local executive committee. After the Rosa Parks incident (a seamstress was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger), the Improvement Association was created in Montgomery in December 1955, and King became its president. Remaining doubtful about the justification of the colored boycott of the Montgomery bus system, King hesitated whether he should accept the post and agreed, recalling a quote from Thoreau: “Cooperation with a vicious system is no longer possible.” On the evening of December 5, King gave what he later recalled was the decisive speech of his life. “There is no alternative to resistance,” King told the crowd and expressed confidence that protest will help to renounce “the patience that forces us to settle for less than freedom and justice.” Under King's leadership, the black community boycotted Montgomery transportation for 382 days. In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Alabama's segregation law unconstitutional. In December, blacks and whites shared buses for the first time. King gained national fame; in February 1957, his portrait appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, which King joined, had its roots in the pre-war years. The NRA and the Congress of Racial Equality, and labor leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, took a number of steps in favor of equal rights for blacks. Their achievements culminated in 1954's Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. The Supreme Court ended segregation in education by ruling that separate education for whites and blacks created inequality and therefore violated the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. King's unique contributions to the cause of human rights were made possible by his commitment to the principles of Christian philosophy. King considered the activities of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the passive resistance movement, thanks to whom India was freed from British rule, to be an example for himself. “Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance,” King once declared, “is the only method justifiable in the struggle for freedom.” The Montgomery boycott, during which King's house was bombed and he was arrested, made him a hero of the black community in the United States. In January 1957, southern black leaders formed an alliance of church civil rights organizations called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), where King was elected president. At the same time, King, a recognized defender of the rights of people of color, wrote the book “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story”. In September 1958, while signing autographs in Harlem, he was stabbed in the chest by a mentally ill woman. Using the CRC as a base, King organized a series of civil rights campaigns aimed at eliminating segregation in transportation, theaters, restaurants, and the like. He traveled throughout the country, giving lectures, and was arrested 15 times. In 1960, at the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, he spent a month in India, where he deepened his acquaintance with Gandhi's work. In March - April 1963, King led mass demonstrations in Birmingham (Alabama) against segregation at work and at home, one of the slogans was the creation of committees of citizens of different races. The police dispersed the demonstrators (including many children) using dogs, water cannons and batons. For violating the ban on demonstrations, King was arrested for 5 days. During this time, he wrote a "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to white religious leaders in the city, who reproached him for his "unwise and untimely actions." “In fact, time has no meaning,” King wrote. “The progress of mankind does not roll on the wheels of inevitability. It comes as a result of the tireless efforts of people doing God’s will, without which time becomes an ally of the forces of stagnation in society.” Despite periodic flare-ups, tensions in Birmingham eased when white and black leaders reached an agreement on desegregation. In 1963, King, along with his deputy Ralph Abernathy, the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality Bayard Rustin and other leaders, organized the largest civil rights demonstration in US history. On August 28, about 250 thousand whites and blacks gathered in Washington as civil rights legislation was discussed in the US Congress. That same day, black leaders conferred with President John F. Kennedy. Later, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King gave a speech that expressed his belief in the brotherhood of man; the speech became widely known as “I have a dream” - these words sound like a refrain in the text of the speech. King's book "Why We Can't Wait" was published in 1964. In May and June of the same year, King, along with members of the KRHU, participated in demonstrations for housing integration held in St. Augustine, Florida. A month later, President Lyndon B. Johnson invited him to the White House, where K. was present at the signing of the Housing Bill, which became part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The law prohibited segregation in public places and at work, in working conditions and wages. At the end of the year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In his opening speech, Gunnar Jahn, a representative of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, noted: “Although Martin Luther King was not involved in international affairs, his struggle served the cause of peace... In the Western world, he was the first to show that struggle does not necessarily imply violence.” In his Nobel lecture, King said: “Nonviolence means that my people have endured suffering patiently all these years without inflicting it on others... It means that we no longer feel fear. But it does not mean that we want to frighten those or others or even the society of which we are a part. The movement does not seek to liberate the blacks at the expense of the humiliation and enslavement of the whites. It does not want victory over anyone. It wants the liberation of American society and participation in the self-liberation of the entire people." In March 1965, King organized a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery under the slogan of voting rights, but did not participate in the march himself. After demonstrators were attacked by traffic police, King called for another march. More than 3 thousand white and black demonstrators took part, and more than 25 thousand joined them along the way. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, and King was invited to Washington and attended the signing ceremony. While traveling around the country. In 1967, King published Where Do We Go From Here? (“Where do We go from here?”). In April, he openly spoke out against the Vietnam War. King addressed a large anti-war rally in Washington; became co-chairman of the organization “Priests and Laity Alarmed by the Events in Vietnam.” In the last years of his life, King's attention was drawn not only to racism, but also to the problem of unemployment, hunger and poverty throughout America. Expansion of horizons necessitated the need to support radical circles of black youth during the riots in the ghettos of Watts, Newark, Harlem and Detroit, which contradicted the principles of nonviolence. King began to recognize that racial discrimination was closely linked to the problem of poverty. But he did not have time to create a program on this issue, which explains the failure of efforts to improve living conditions in the Chicago slums in 1966. However, in November 1967, King announced the launch of the Poor People's Campaign, which was supposed to end in April 1968 with a white rally and poor blacks in Washington. On March 28, 1968, King led a 6,000-strong protest march in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking workers. A few days later, speaking in Memphis, he said: "We have difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter. Because I've been to the mountaintop... I've looked ahead and seen the Promised Land. Maybe I won't be there with you, but I want you to know now - all of us, all the people will see this Earth." The next day, King was wounded by a sniper while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He died of his wound at St. Joseph's Hospital and was buried in Atlanta. King's activities are studied and continued by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. In 1983, the US Congress rejected the proposal to celebrate K.'s birthday on the third Monday of January. However, on January 16, 1986, a bust of Martin Luther King was installed in the Great Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington - the first time a black American had received such an honor. On January 20, 1986, the nation celebrated the first Martin Luther King Day
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List of works
Book “The Path to Freedom”, 1958
Martin's book "Why We Can't Wait", 1963
"Love your enemies..."
"Dr. King's Dictionary of Nonviolence"
"Words of Wisdom"
“Pilgrimage to non-violence” Ethical thought. Scientific and journalistic readings.
Sources
Martin Luther King // People's History http://www.peoples.ru/state/priest/m_l_king/index.htmlMartin Luther King – Biography // The Nobel Foundation http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html
Racial segregation // Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. // Information Please Database http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mlkbiospot.html
Children's encyclopedia "I explore the world"
Robert Miller - Martin Luther King. Life, suffering and greatness