Martin Luther King, whose biography deserves a place on the pages of the world history of the last century, embodied a vivid image of the fundamental struggle and resistance to injustices. Fortunately, this man is not at all unique in his own way. The biography of Martin Luther King is to some extent comparable with the biographies of other famous freedom fighters: Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. However, the life of our hero was in many ways special.
Biography of Martin Luther King: childhood and youth
The future preacher was born in January 1929 in Atlanta , Georgia. His father was a priest of a Baptist church. The family lived in the Atlanta area, inhabited mainly by black people, but the boy went to the lyceum at the city university. So from an early age he had to feel the discrimination of blacks in the USA in the middle of the 20th century.
Already at a young age, Martin showed remarkable talent in oratory, winning at the age of fifteen at the corresponding competition held by the African-American organization of the state of Georgia. In 1944, the young man enters Morehouse College. Already in his first year, he joins the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It is during this period that worldview beliefs are formed and the further biography of Martin Luther King is laid.
In 1947, the guy became a clergyman, starting
his spiritual career as a paternal assistant. And a year later, he enters seminary in Pennsylvania, where in 1951 he graduated with a doctorate in theology. In 1954, he became a priest of a Baptist church in Montgomery,
Alabama. And a year later, the entire African American community literally explodes in unprecedented protests. The biography of Martin Luther King is also changing dramatically. And the event that gave impetus to the demonstrations is connected precisely with the town of Montgomery.
Martin Luther: biography of an equal rights fighter for blacks
Such an event was the refusal of a black woman, Rosa Parks, to give way to a white passenger on the bus, for which she was arrested and fined. This action of the authorities deeply outraged the Negro population of the state. An unprecedented boycott of all bus lines has begun. Very soon, an African-American protest against racial segregation was led by priest Martin Luther King. The bus line boycott lasted more than a year and led to the success of the action. Under pressure from demonstrators, the US Supreme Court was forced to declare unconstitutional segregation in Alabama.
In 1957, the Conference of the Southern Christians was created to fight for equal civil rights for African Americans throughout the country. The organization was led by Martin Luther King. In 1960, he visited India, where he adopted the best practices from Jawaharlal Nehru. The speeches of the Baptist priest, in which he called for relentless and non-violent resistance, echoed the hearts of people throughout the country. His speeches literally filled the activists of the civil rights movement with energy and enthusiasm. The country was swept by marches, mass imprisonment, economic demonstrations, and so on. The most famous was Luther's speech in Washington in 1963, beginning with the words "I have a dream ...". She was listened to live by more than 300 thousand Americans.
In 1968, Martin Luther King led his next protest march in the center of Memphis. The purpose of the demonstration was to support the strike of workers. However, this campaign was never completed by him, becoming the last in the life of the idol of millions. A day later, on April 4, at exactly 6 p.m., the priest was wounded by a sniper, who was located on the balcony of one of the hotels in the city center. Martin Luther King died that day without regaining consciousness.