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Martin Luther King Throughout the twentieth century many people have had a profound impact on society. On January 15, 1929, one of the greatest men who ever lived was born. His name is Martin Luther King Jr. As a young child, Martin Luther King was very involved in the church, and helping people.
When he was eight years old, he started working delivering newspapers for the Atlanta Journal. That really paid off, because in 1942, when Martin Luther King was just 13 years old, the newspaper delivery station promoted him to the position of assistant manager. He was the youngest worker ever to be put in this position. Throughout his high school and college years Martin Luther King participated in many oratorical contests. Some, he placed first, others second, but he never placed less than third. During the summer after his senior year in high school, Martin Luther King worked picking tobacco in Simsbury, Connecticut, for a Morehouse College work program.
The next year, he was admitted as an early admissions student at Morehouse College. From looking at the classes Martin Luther King took in college (i. e. Sociology, Psychology, Contemporary Social Problems), you can tell that Martin Luther King has a real interest in people, even more so, helping them. Martin Luther King accompanied his father to many Baptist Church conventions, and often dreamed of preaching himself.
While working as a laborer at Atlanta Railway Express, in the summer of 1945 a co-worker called him a Niger for absolutely no reason. Martin Luther King could not understand how someone could so cruel. He wrote a letter to The Atlanta Constitution, an important newspaper, stating that blacks are entitled to the basic rights and opportunities of American citizens. This was the very first time Martin Luther King ever spoke out publicly for civil rights.
On March 12, 1947 Martin Luther King is elected chair of the membership committee of the Atlanta NAACP Youth Council. Later that year, Martin Luther King gives his first trial sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church. A few months later, Martin Luther King is ordained and appointed assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church. In June of 1948, Martin Luther King receives his Bachelors of Arts degree in Sociology from Morehouse College. After he graduated, he decided to enroll at Crozer Theological Seminary.
In 1950, Martin Luther King was elected president of the student body at Crozer. Also in 1950, Martin Luther King goes to Queens, New York to serve as a student pastor at the First Baptist Church. That December Martin Luther King is accepted as a student in the Post-Graduate School of the Faculty of Divinity at Edinburg University. In May of 1951, Martin Luther King graduates from Crozer with a bachelor of divinity degree. That summer, he served as pastor in charge at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
On June 18, 1953, Martin Luther King marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Alabama. A few years later on June 5, 1955, Martin Luther King receives a Ph. D. degree in Systematic Theology from Boston University. A couple of months after that trouble arise. On December 5, 1955 the Montgomery bus boycott is started, and Martin Luther King is unanimously elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association.
After this day, Martin Luther King would begin to go public on a routine basis, to make people aware of the Civil Rights movement. The next year someone throws a bomb onto Martin Luther Kings porch, at his home in Montgomery Alabama. Mrs. King, the baby, and a friend were all at the house, luckily no one was injured. On February 18, 1957 Dr. Martin Luther King is featured on the cover of Time magazine, for his efforts towards the civil rights movement.
In September of 1958, Dr. Martin Luther King publishes his first book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. This would be the first of many books that King will publish throughout his life. On September 20, 1958, at a book signing in Harlem, New York, a Mrs.
Iowa Curry stabs Dr. Martin Luther King in the chest. He is seriously hurt, but his condition is not critical. On February 17, 1960 a warrant is issued for Dr. Martin Luther Kings arrest on charges that he had falsified his 1956 and 1958 Alabama State income tax returns. In an attempt to discredit Martin Luther King and destroy his movement, the FBI had been engaged in an ongoing program of harassment on him.
J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director, had characterized Dr. Martin Luther King to journalists as the most notorious liar in America, and one of the lowest characters in the country. J. Edgar Hoovers operatives attempted to blackmail Martin Luther King into relinquishing leadership of the movement, by threatening to make public evidence of his alleged extramarital sexual activity. An even better alternative for Martin Luther King, the FBI suggested, was to commit suicide.
Of course the great Martin Luther King would do nothing of the sort. On May 28, 1960 an all white jury in Montgomery, Alabama acquits Dr. Martin Luther King of the tax evasion charge. In October of that year, Martin Luther King is arrested at an Atlanta sit-in, and is jailed on a charge of violating the states trespassing laws. All charges were later dropped. In April of 1963, a sit-in demonstration is held in Birmingham, Alabama, to protest segregation of eating facilities.
Dr. Martin Luther King is again arrested at yet another demonstration, and put in jail. While Martin Luther King is in jail he writes the famous Letter From the Birmingham Jail; this letter touched the hearts of many Americans. In June of 1963 Dr. Martin Luther Kings second book is published. It is called Strength to Love.
On August 28, 1963, The March on Washington, the first large-scale integrated protest march, is held in Washington, D. C. Dr. Martin Luther King delivers his I Have A Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
This speech had, and still does have a great impact on American society. In June of 1964, Martin Luther Kings third book, Why We Cant Wait, is published. On December 10, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, at just thirty-five years of age, is the youngest recipient ever of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Somewhere between March 21 - 25, 1965, over three thousand protest marchers leave Selma for a march to Montgomery, Alabama, protected by U. S. federal troops. They are joined along the way by a total of twenty-five thousand marchers.
Upon reaching the capital, the marchers hear a speech by the infamous Dr. Martin Luther King. On August 5, 1966, Martin Luther King is stoned in Chicago as he leads a march through crowds of angry whites in the Gage Park Section of Chicago's southwest side. In January of 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King writes his fourth book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, while visiting Jamaica. On February 12, 1968 sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee.
Dr. Martin Luther King leads six thousand protesters on a march through downtown Memphis in support of striking workers. On April 3, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King gives his last speech ever, titled Ive Been to the Mountain Top at the Memphis Masonic Temple. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King is assassinated as he stands talking on the balcony of his of his second floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
There are not many people that have devoted their entire life to the good of mankind, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is definitely one of those people. This paper has showed you an insight into the man who lead the civil rights movement, and that is why he is influential in society in the twentieth century. web web 1. htm Dolan, Susan.
Pursuing the dream. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. Inc. , 1995 Grow, David J. The Mont. Bus Boycott and the Women who Started it.
The University of Tennessee: 1987.
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Research essay sample on Martin Luther King Luther King Jr
