King of the World

Background and family

King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. (Name Birth records list as Michael King, apparently because of confusion in the family doctor regarding the true name of his father, who was known as Mike throughout his childhood.) Graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) in 1948, and Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania with a degree in theology in 1951. He received his doctorate in systematic theology at Boston University in 1955.
King married Coretta Scott, June 18, 1953. The ceremony took place at the home of his parents, Scott "in Marion, Alabama, and became the father of the king.
Rights of active citizenship
In 1954, King became pastor of the Baptist Church Dexter Avenue in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a leader of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, which began when Rosa Parks refused to obey the law, Jim Crow and give her seat to a white man. The boycott lasted 381 days. The situation became so tense that King's house was bombed. King was arrested during this campaign, which ended with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court banning racial segregation in interstate bus.
After the campaign, the king took part in the founding of the South Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, a group created to use the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests Law of public service reform. King continued to dominate the organization until his death. The principles of non-violence have been criticized by young blacks and more radical and challenged the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), then headed by James Foreman.
SCLC received their membership mainly black communities associated with Baptist churches. King was committed to the philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience used successfully in India, Mohandas Gandhi, and apply this philosophy to the protests organized by the SCLC.
rrectly found that organized the protest against the racist system of segregation in the south known as Jim Crow nonviolent struggle would lead to extensive media coverage of the voting rights and black alike. In fact, the press and television recording difficulties and daily humiliations suffered by blacks Souther, segregation and violence and harassment of civil rights and the procession led to a wave of public opinion that civil rights movement is the most important issue in American politics in 1960.
King organized and led marches for voting rights for blacks, segregation, fair employment and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights were successfully enacted into the law of the United States with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
King and the SCLC applied the principles of nonviolent protest with great success a strategic choice of the method of protest and the places in which protests were carried out in often dramatic confrontation with the separation of powers. Sometimes these confrontations turned violent. King and the SCLC were instrumental in the successful protest movement in Albany, 1961-1962, where divisions within the black community and the response cunning, discreet local government defeated efforts protests in Birmingham, summer of 1963, and demonstrations in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964. King and the SCLC joined SNCC in Selma, Alabama, in December 1964, where SNCC had been working on voter registration for several months.
March on Washington
The King and the SCLC partial collaboration with SNCC, then attempted to organize a March of Selma to Montgomery, the state capital, March 25, 1965. The first attempt March 07 March was canceled due to mob violence and police against protesters. This day has since become known as Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday was a turning point in efforts to get public support for the civil rights movement, a clear demonstration of this point the dramatic potential of the strategy of non-violence King. The king, however, did not. After meeting with President Lyndon Johnson, who tried to stop the March to 8 March, but March was held against her will and without the presence of local civil rights. Images of police brutality against the protesters was widely distributed throughout the country and led to a national sense of public outrage.
The second attempt ended марта March 9, when King stopped the procession at the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, actions that seem to have been negotiating with the city in advance. This unexpected action caused surprise and anger of many within the local movement. March finally went ahead while March 25, with the approval and support of President Johnson, and it was during this march that Willie Ricks coined the phrase "Black Power" (widely credited to Stokely Carmichael).
King, representing SCLC, was among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" human rights organizations who contributed to the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
Other leaders and organizations of the Big Six were: Roy Wilkins, NAACP, Whitney Young, Jr. Urban League A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car porters, John Lewis, SNCC, and James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). For King, this role was another which controversy because it was one of the key figures who acceded to the wishes of President John F. Kennedy to change the orientation of March. Kennedy initially opposed to directly in March because I was afraid it would interfere with the drive for passage of civil rights legislation, but the organizers were firm that the March will continue.
The march was originally conceived as an event to dramatize the situation of blacks in the South and a very public opportunity to place organizers of problems and complaints directly to the seat of power in the capital. The organizers seek to condemn and then challenge the federal government for failing to protect the civil rights and physical safety of civil rights workers and blacks, generally, in the South. However, the group decided to presidential pressure and influence, and the event ultimately took a less hard.
As a result, some civil rights activists felt it presented inaccurate parade, aseptic racial harmony, Malcolm X is called the "Farce of Washington," and members of the Nation of Islam, who participated in March 1 against the suspension.However, what are the requirements: to end racial segregation in public schools, the relevant legislation of civil rights, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment, the protection of citizens' rights by the brutality of the police at a $ 2 minimum wage for all workers, and self-government of the District of Columbia, then governed by congressional committee.
Despite tensions, the march was a resounding success. More than a quarter of a million people of different nationalities participated in the event, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall and around the reflecting pool. At that time, there was a protest meeting in the history of Washington. King "I Have a Dream electrified" the crowd. It is considered, with President Lincoln "Gettysburg Address" as one of the best speeches in the history of American oratory.
Throughout his career of service, King wrote and spoke often of his many years of experience as a preacher. His "Letter from Birmingham Jail", written in 1963, is a passionate statement of his crusade for justice. October 14, 1964, King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.
Controversial new call
In 1965, King began to express doubts about the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. April 4, 1967 € "exactly one year before his deathâ €" King said resolutely against the U.S. role in the war, insisting that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony" and asked the greatest purveyor of violence in the United States the modern world, "but said that the country needs a moral change.:
A true revolution of values ​​will soon look uncomfortable on the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth. With indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to have the benefits without much concern for social country, saying: "Not just. '
King long hated by many white southern segregation, but this speech in more traditional media against him. TIME called speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi (propaganda radio station run by the North Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War)" and the Washington Post, said the king, "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people. "
The speech was a reflection of the evolution of the propaganda of the king in his last years.
He started talking about the need for fundamental changes in the political and economic life of the country. At the end of his life, King more frequently expressed his opposition to the war and his desire to see a redistribution of resources to correct racial and economic injustice. Though his public language was guarded to prevent communism bound by his political enemies, in private he sometimes spoke of his support for democratic socialism
You can not talk about solving the economic problems of blacks not to mention billions of dollars. You can not talk about the arrest of slums without saying profit must be taken out of slums. You are really in touch and keep on dangerous ground because you are playing with people then. You play with captains of industry .... This now means that we are entering a difficult water, because it really means that we say that something is wrong with capitalism ... .... There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. (Frogmore, South Carolina November 14, 1966. Speaking at the computer).
In 1968, King and the SCLC organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. Campaign ended with a March in Washington, DC, demanding economic aid to the poorest people of the United States.
April 3, 1968, King prophetically told euphoric crowd: It is not really important what happens now .... some began to ... threats that have arisen - what would happen to me some of our sick white brothers .... Like everyone, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I'm not worried about it. I just want to do God's will. And He helped me climb the mountain. And I looked, and I saw the Promised Land. We can not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I fear no man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Murder
King was assassinated the next night, April 4, 1968 at 6:01 pm, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, as he prepared to lead a March in support of the local union very black Memphis sanitation . Friends in the apartment heard the shot and ran to the balcony to find King shot in the jaw. He was pronounced dead a few hours. Four days later, President Johnson declared a national day of mourning for the loss of the leader of the movement for civil rights. A crowd of 300,000 people attended his funeral on the same day.
James Earl Ray confessed to the murder and was sentenced, but retracted his confessions days later. In 1999, Coretta Scott King, widow of King (including the head of the civil rights movement), as well as other members of the King family won a wrongful death lawsuit against Loyd Jowers Civil, who claimed to have received 100,000 dollars to organize the murder of the king. The jury of six whites and six blacks found that "governmental agencies were parties" attempt.
Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was with King at the time of his death, said: "The fact that there were saboteurs to disrupt the March [And] within our own organization, we found a very important person who was on the payroll of both the government .. infiltration within, saboteurs from without and the press attacks .... I will never believe that James Earl Ray had the motive, the money and the mobility of myself. Our government was very involved in creating the conditions and I think the escape route for James Earl Ray. '
Heritage
After his death, the reputation of the king became one of the most respected names in the history of the United States, to the point where it is compared to Abraham Lincoln. Proponents observation that the two leaders have been credited with a major human rights of all the difficulties of the poor in a country divided against itself on the issue - and he died on the side of it thereof. Even posthumous accusations of marital infidelity and academic plagiarism is not seriously damaged his public image, but only reinforce the image of a very human hero and leader.
In 1980, King's childhood in Atlanta and several nearby buildings were declared site Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. In 1986, a national holiday in the United States was created in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin Luther King asked. It is celebrated on the third Monday of January each year at the time of the birth of the King. January 18, 1993, for the first time, Martin Luther King was officially observed in all 50 states. In addition, many U.S. cities officially changed the name of a street in honor of the king.
After his death, Coretta Scott King, followed her husband's footsteps and was active in social justice and civil rights. In the same year, Martin Luther King was assassinated, Mrs. King established the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, dedicated to preserving his legacy and the work of protecting the non-violent resolution of conflicts worldwide and tolerance. Dexter King is currently president and CEO. Yolanda King is a motivational speaker, author and founder of upper soil Productions organizations specializing in diversity training.
King was a prominent member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first Greek letter fraternity established for interscholastic African Americans.
The King and the FBI
King was competing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), especially its director, J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI began tracking King and the SCLC in 1961. His research was very superficial until 1962, when he learned that one of the most trusted advisers of King Stanley Levinson. Levinson is the man who was credited with the United States over alleged Communist Party, which was another key King lieutenant, Hunter Pitts O'Dell, also sworn testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (CAAC). The Bureau placed eavesdropping on phones Levison and King for the home and office, as well as microphones Hotel King room while traveling across the country. The agency also said the then Attorney General Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, both of whom unsuccessfully tried to persuade King to dissociate himself from Levinson. For his part, King adamantly denied having any links with communism, while stating that "there are many Communists in this freedom movement as there are Eskimos in Florida" â € "which Hoover responded by calling King "country's most famous liar."
Trying to discredit King as a communist is in line with the feeling that much of the segregation of blacks in the South were happy with their lot, but was caused by "communists" and "outside agitators."