Free Martin Luther King Essay Sample

Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta (southern Georgia) in the family of the priest of Baptist Church. Despite the fact that it was the period of the Great Depression in America, which led to the fact that 65% of the colored population of Atlanta was forced to receive unemployment benefits, economic difficulties have not affected rich, bourgeois priest family. Martin spent his childhood quite comfortable.
Occupation of King Sr. largely determined the life of his son. From an early age, Martin attended a church that was closer than the school and where his father served as a pastor’s assistant. The boy passionately and enthusiastically sang psalms, giving the impression to parishioners that are especially for that invited him to religious meetings.
The first encounter with racism injustice happened at the age of six years when Martin went to school. Among his friends, there were two white friends, who, though living on the opposite side of the street began to go to another school. King Jr. did not pay attention to it and resorted to his friends, but their mother became to send him back. Eventually she told him bluntly that blacks and whites children should not play together. The boy complained to his mother, and she – for the first time - told him about the system of racial relations, which have developed in America.
At school, Martin was a good student. Examinations for the 9th and 12th classes, he passed the external and in fifteen years, in 1944, was enrolled in Morehouse College. For Martin the priest profession was not attractive and the study of theology did not seem to him valuable; he was choosing between medicine and jurisprudence.
Later - already towards the end of college - he realized that it would be difficult to get away from the pursuits of the priest, and began to feel his vocation. In addition, the college teachers began to influence his choice. They began to convince him that the speech of the Christian preacher give ideas for thoughts and raise serious social problems. Martin realized that the pastor must be intellectually developed, and its service must be devoted not to seek otherworldly spiritual seekers and immediate struggle between good and evil.
In 1948, Martin Luther King entered the Crozer Theological Seminary. Study in it was marked for the King, Jr. as a spiritual quest. In 1951, Martin became a bachelor of theology, and he read a farewell speech at the graduation. In addition, he received a scholarship of $ 1200, which allowed him to complete the training in any university of the country. In Atlanta, father and friends urged him to become a preacher, but he insisted and chose Boston University.
This period of life was associated not only with the academic activities. One day he asked his friend Mary Powell to introduce him to a girl, from the US south, as he considered Boston girls are stiff. Powell has proposed two candidates, one of whom he knew. A second - named Coretta Scott studied at the Conservatory. Their acquaintance soon grew into a relationship. Coretta Scott pondered long whether she married or not go. However, she agreed; in 1953, the wedding took place.
After graduating Boston University, the couple moved to Montgomery in Alabama. King was a pastor of the church, which was located in front of the local Capitol.
Martin Luther began the frantic activity - in particular, has created committees for assistance to the poor and support for high school graduates. In addition, he joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) - the largest public organization of the United States, which is still fighting for the civil rights of the black population.
In 1955, King firstly became the witness and the direct organizer of the protest action. It was associated with an ordinary event for American in those days - bus conflict: sitting black have to give their seats to white; some blacks refused to comply with this requirement.
In March-April 1963, King led mass demonstrations in Birmingham. The demonstrators were disbanded, and King - for violating the ban on demonstrations - was arrested for five days. Sitting under arrest, he wrote a "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in response to accusations of unreasonable and untimely action. It Martin Luther expressed his philosophy concerning God and social life - in particular, he claimed progress has nothing to do with the inevitability, and is the result of the tireless efforts of the people, those who do the will of God.
Of particular prominence acquired speech of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream", which he delivered during the March on Washington in 1963 at the foot of the monument to Lincoln in a time when the US Congress discussed the civil rights legislation. It was a day of triumph of Martin Luther King. He was broadcasted on TV and heard on the radio the tens of millions of Americans and millions of Europeans.
In May 1964, King participated in demonstrations for housing integration, held in St. Augustine (Florida). A month later, President Lyndon B. Johnson invited him to the White House, where the King was present at the signing of the Bill of dwellings, which became part of the law of the 1964 Civil Rights. The law forbade segregation in public places and at work, labor and wage conditions.
At the end of the same year, Martin Luther was awarded the Nobel Prize. In his speech, he once again expressed the principle of non-resistance to evil.
In the last years of life, King's attention was drawn not only to racism, but also to the problem of unemployment, hunger and poverty in America. King was aware that racial discrimination is closely related to poverty. Nevertheless, he did not create a program on this subject, which explains the failure of efforts to improve living conditions in the slums of Chicago in 1966. However, in November 1967, King announced the launch of the Campaign of the poor, which was completed in April 1968 collection of white black and poor people in Washington.
March 28, 1968 King led a protest march in Memphis (Tennessee). Its purpose was to support the striking workers. April 3 Martin Luther gave a powerful speech. The next day, he stood on the balcony in Memphis hotel and was wounded by a sniper. His assassin, James Earl Ray, received 99 years in prison. Officially, it was recognized that he was a lone assassin, but still tense debate that King was killed in a conspiracy.