Zofia kulik biography of martin luther king

King then enrolled in a graduate program at Boston University, completing his coursework in and earning a doctorate in systematic theology two years later. The King family had been living in Montgomery for less than a year when the highly segregated city became the epicenter of the burgeoning struggle for civil rights in America, galvanized by the landmark Brown v.

Board of Education decision of Activists coordinated a bus boycott that would continue for days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott placed a severe economic strain on the public transit system and downtown business owners. They chose Martin Luther King Jr. By the time the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating on public buses unconstitutional in NovemberKing—heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and the activist Bayard Rustin —had entered the national spotlight as an inspirational proponent of organized, nonviolent resistance.

King had also become a target for white supremacists, who firebombed his family home that January. Emboldened by the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in he and other civil rights activists—most of them fellow ministers—founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference SCLCa group committed to achieving full equality for African Americans through nonviolent protest.

In King and his family moved to Atlanta, his native city, where he joined his father as co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This new position did not stop King and his SCLC colleagues from becoming key players in many of the most significant civil rights battles of the s. His lengthy absences became a way of life for their children, but Martin III remembered his father returning from the road to join the kids playing in the yard or bring them to the local YMCA for swimming.

Leery of accumulating wealth as a high-profile figure, Martin Jr. However, he was known to splurge on good suits and fine dining, while contrasting his serious public image with a lively sense of humor among friends and family. Due to his relationships with alleged Communists, King became a target of FBI surveillance and, from late until his death, a campaign to discredit the civil rights activist.

Edgar Hooverwhich urged King to kill himself if he wanted to prevent news of his dalliances from going public. Inhistorian David Garrow wrote of explosive new allegations against King following his review of recently released FBI documents. Among the discoveries was a memo suggesting that King had encouraged the rape of a parishioner in a hotel room as well as evidence that he might have fathered a daughter with a mistress.

The original surveillance tapes regarding these allegations are under judicial seal until From late throughKing expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. He was met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young Black power leaders. To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War.

He sought to broaden his base by forming a multiracial coalition to address the economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people. Bythe years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on King. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress of civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from other African American leaders.

In the spring ofa labor strike by Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade. Longevity has its place.

Zofia kulik biography of martin luther king: Criticism · Notes ·

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. In SeptemberKing survived an attempt on his life when a woman with mental illness stabbed him in the chest as he signed copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom in a New York City department store. King died at age The shocking assassination sparked riots and demonstrations in more than cities across the country.

The shooter was James Earl Raya malcontent drifter and former convict. He initially escaped authorities but was apprehended after a two-month international manhunt. InRay pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Another complicating factor is the confession of tavern owner Loyd Jowers, who said he contracted a different hit man to kill King.

In Junemore than two years after Ray died, the U. Years after his death, he is the most widely known Black leader of his era.

Zofia kulik biography of martin luther king: Lives in Beirut and Berlin)

His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington D. Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible, and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

The Biography. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site.

Marcus Garvey. Malcolm X. Ethel Kennedy.

Zofia kulik biography of martin luther king: Zofia Kulik. The Venice

Huey P. Dred Scott. Benjamin Banneker. Madam C. Legacy Quotes. Date: May 17, Six years before he told the world of his dream, King stood at the same Lincoln Memorial steps as the final speaker of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.

Date: December 10, Speaking at the University of Oslo in Norway, King pondered why he was receiving the Nobel Prize when the battle for racial justice was far from over, before acknowledging that it was in recognition of the power of nonviolent resistance. Date: March 25, At the end of the bitterly fought Selma-to-Montgomery march, King addressed a crowd of 25, supporters from the Alabama State Capitol.

King is arrested at an Albany, Georgia prayer vigil and jailed.

Zofia kulik biography of martin luther king: Dictionary of National Biography, Volume

After spending two weeks in jail, King is released. Conflict in Birmingham reaches its peak when high-pressure fire hoses force demonstrators from the business district. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom attracts more than two hundred thousand demonstrators to the Lincoln Memorial. Organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustinthe march is supported by all major civil rights organizations as well as by many labor and religious groups.

After the march, King and other civil rights leaders meet with President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House. Carole Robertson, the fourth victim, was buried in a separate ceremony. President Lyndon B. Robert Haylingleader of the movement in St. King meets Malcolm X in Washington, D. As America still grapples with the legacy of slavery and the persistence of discrimination, this revealing account offers a vital, vivid contribution to the literature of the Civil Rights Movement.

A private citizen who transformed the world around him, Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, after more than thirty years, few people understand how truly radical he was. One of the most revealing books on Martin Luther King, Jr. That day Clayborne Carson, a year-old black student from a working-class family in New Mexico who had hitched a ride to Washington, heard Dr.

It was a life-changing occasion for the author as it launched him on a career to become one of the most important chroniclers of the civil rights era. King picked Dr. Taking the reader on a journey of rediscovery of the King legend, he draws on new archives as well as unpublished letters. Carson examines his decades-long quest to understand Martin Luther King, Jr.

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. In this concise biography, Harvard Sitkoff presents a stunningly relevant King. But these are not treated as predetermined high points in a life celebrated for its role in a civil rights struggle too many Americans have quickly relegated to the past.