Who is Martin Luther King? Life story

When we look at the history of the United States, we see that it started with the slavery system. Later, this slavery system was ended by the 16th President Abraham Lincoln. Thanks to this event, African Americans, who played an important role in American history, were liberated. Of course it was an important step, but it didn’t stop there. Racist discourses and inequalities continued for years. At this point the scene Martin Luther King output.

King, African-American Baptist minister and American civil rights activist He introduced himself to the world.

Who is Martin Luther King?

In order to make sense of the things that Martin Luther King pioneered, we first need to talk about his life. Martin Luther Kingis an African American who was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, the largest city in the state of Georgia. Those were the times when racial segregation and discrimination were a part of daily life in Atlanta.

While continuing his education at Morehouse College, The impact of religion on social changes He noticed it and followed it carefully. He continued his interest during his doctorate period. After receiving his doctorate from Boston University’s Department of Theology, he served as a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama. It cannot be said that he had difficulty because he came from a family that had been priests for generations.

Martin Luther King was serving as priest at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama. He could not remain unresponsive to incidents of racism. It was at this point that the struggle for human rights began.

The Montgomery bus boycott launched Martin Luther King’s civil rights campaign.

While Martin Luther King and his family were living in Montgomery, a civil rights activist named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Following this incident, King helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott. As the leader and official spokesperson of the protest Martin Luther King was elected.

This boycott lasted 382 days and the situation became so tense that King’s house was bombed. Martin Luther King was arrested during the boycott. The boycott came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that interstate buses and other means of transportation should be banned. It ended with him outlawing racial discrimination.

Martin Luther King played an important role in establishing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

After this incident, supporters of peaceful civil rights actions and nonviolent protest in the south Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established. King, on the other hand, managed the Montgomery Bus Boycott with extreme meticulousness and success. Due to this success, he became the president of the newly established conference.

As president of the conference, Martin Luther King was a leader who traveled the country and the world. He gave many lectures on non-violent protests and civil rights. He also met with religious figures, activists and political leaders. He also stated that he was impressed by them. Most of all Mahatma Gandhi He adopted the philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience and tried to apply it in the demonstrations he pioneered.

Martin Luther King paved the way for future developments with his manifesto called “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.

When King moved back to his hometown of Atlanta, he served as pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, but continued to address society with the aim of ending racial segregation and inequality. In the 1960s in the states of Alabama, Florida and Georgia nonviolent protests He was arrested many times while doing it. However, these arrests could not stop him.

He was last arrested again in 1963 during the Birmingham campaign and held in Birmingham Prison. Here is a reference to the white clergy who criticized him. A civil rights manifesto called “Letter from Birmingham Jail” published. This manifesto paved the way for the great march on Washington that would take place the same year.

The Washington march, attended by more than 200,000 people, made a big impact in the country.

Nobody predicted that events would escalate this much, led by a manifesto written from Birmingham Prison. But after all the events, there were still Americans who were exposed to racism. This level of racism was not acceptable. Therefore, from different ethnic groups more than 200,000 peoplegathered under the leadership of civil rights advocates and started protests in Washington.

These protests made such a splash that they were considered a turning point in the history of the American civil rights movement. Later Civil Rights Act of 1964 was instrumental in its acceptance.

Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream.” (I have a dream.) speech changed the laws.

“I have a dream,” he said during the march on Washington. King, who started his speech by saying, deeply touched the hearts of the people who participated. Another aspect that made this speech effective was the point where the speech was made. Martin Luther King speech, which destroyed the slavery system in the USA President Abraham LincolnHe performed it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, built in memory of . This vision, which conveyed the views that all people were created equal, was adopted and nothing was ever the same again.

The speech and this great march significantly increased Martin Luther King’s reputation at home and abroad. Even in the same year by TIME magazine He was chosen as “Person of the Year”. Not only that, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the same year.

Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream.” If you want to listen to his speech in his own voice, you can click here.

After his death, he left many values ​​to society that are still relatively preserved.

Martin Luther King, like many leaders before him, died as a result of assassination. After his death, “Testament of Hope” He also published an article called. In this article, he wrote his advice for black Americans to continue their struggle for equality in civil rights, and touched upon issues such as the possibility of protests without violence, the need to fight prejudices, and social justice.

Little known facts about Martin Luther King:

• “I have a dream.” of his speech it was improvised It is said. “I have a dream. My four children will live in a country where they are judged not by their color but by their character.” After uttering this sentence, his speech began to be called by the same name.
• When he was born, he was given the name Michael King, after his father. Later, when his father went to Germany leader of the protestant reformation He learned about Martin Luther and was very impressed by his story. When he returned, he changed both his and his son’s names to “Martin Luther King”.
• While leading protests for civil rights equality, he was detained 30 times in 13 years.
• There were characters that Martin Luther King was also a fan of. King was a fan of Nichelle Nichols, who starred in Star Trek, and supported her in her acting career.
• He was assassinated in 1958, which seriously threatened his life. He was stabbed by a mentally ill woman. your knife passing next to the aorta It was a great miracle.
• In 1974, Martin Luther King’s mother was assassinated. The criminal received the death penalty, but King and his familyBecause they are against the death penalty The sentence was converted into a prison sentence.
• Julia Roberts was a close friend of the King family. In fact, Julia Roberts mentions in an interview that the King family covered her birth expenses.
• “I have a dream.” King’s monument was built at the place where he gave his speech.
• Every year, on the 3rd Monday of January, in honor of his birth on January 15. “Martin Luther King day” It is celebrated as. This special day is considered a federal holiday in America.

In this content ”“Who is Martin Luther King?” We answered his question and touched upon the important points in his life and his work. Don’t forget to express your opinions in the comments.

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