an essay about martin luther king jr

Martin Luther King Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on martin luter king.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an African-American leader in the U.S. He lost his life while performing a peaceful protest for the betterment of blacks in America. His real name was Michael King Jr. He completed his studies and attained a Ph.D. After that, he joined the American Civil Right Movement. He was among one of the great men who dedicated their life for the community.

Reason for Martin Luther King to be famous

There are two reasons for someone to be famous either he is a good man or a very bad person. Martin Luther King was among the good one who dedicated his life to the community. Martin Luther King was also known as MLK Jr. He gained popularity after he became the leader and spokesperson of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Martin Luther King was an American activist, minister, and humanitarian. Also, he had worked for several other causes and actively participated in many protests and boycotts. He was a peaceful man that has faith in Christian beliefs and non-violence. Also, his inspiration for them was the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. For his work in the field of civil rights, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was a great speaker that motivated the blacks to protest using non-violence. Also, he uses peaceful strategies like a boycott, protest march , and sit-ins, etc. for protests against the government.

Impact of King

King is one of the renowned leaders of the African-American who worked for the welfare of his community throughout his life. He was very famous among the community and is the strongest voice of the community. King and his fellow companies and peaceful protesters forced the government several times to bend their laws. Also, kings’ life made a seismic impact on life and thinking of the blacks. He was among one of the great leaders of the era.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Humanitarian and civil rights work

As we know that King was a civic leader . Also, he has taken part in many civil right campaigns and boycotts like the Bus Boycott, Voting Rights and the most famous March on Washington. In this march along with more than 200,000 people, he marched towards Washington for human right. Also, it’s the largest human right campaign in U.S.A. history. During the protest, he gave a speech named “I Have a Dream” which is history’s one of the renowned speeches.

Death and memorial

During his life working as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement he makes many enemies. Also, the government and plans do everything to hurt his reputation. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. Every year the US celebrates his anniversary as Martin Luther King Jr. day in the US. Also, they honored kings’ memory by naming school and building after him and a Memorial at Independence Mall.

Martin Luther King was a great man who dedicated his whole life for his community. Also, he was an active leader and a great spokesperson that not only served his people but also humanity. It was due to his contribution that the African-American got their civil rights.

Essay Topics on Famous Leaders

• Mahatma Gandhi
• APJ Abdul Kalam
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Swami Vivekananda
• Mother Teresa
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
• Subhash Chandra Bose
• Abraham Lincoln
• Martin Luther King

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and major leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After his assassination, he was memorialized by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.

In Focus: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Days after his 1968 assassination , a campaign for a holiday in King’s honor began. U.S. Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan first proposed a bill on April 8, 1968, but the first vote on the legislation didn’t happen until 1979. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King , led the lobbying effort to drum up public support. Fifteen years after its introduction, the bill finally became law.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan ’s signature created Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service as a federal holiday. It’s celebrated annually on the third Monday in January. The only national day of service, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986. The first time all 50 states recognized the holiday was in 2000.

See Martin Luther King Jr.’s life depicted onscreen in the 2018 documentary I Am MLK Jr. or the Oscar-winning movie Selma .

Quick Facts

Where did martin luther king jr. go to school, philosophy of nonviolence, civil rights accomplishments, "i have a dream" and other famous speeches, wife and kids, fbi surveillance, later activism, assassination, who was martin luther king jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist who had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Through his nonviolent activism and inspirational speeches , he played a pivotal role in ending legal segregation of Black Americans, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray and died on April 4, 1968, at age 39. King continues to be remembered as one of the most influential and inspirational Black leaders in history.

FULL NAME: Martin Luther King Jr. BIRTHDAY: January 15, 1929 DIED: April 4, 1968 BIRTHPLACE: Atlanta, Georgia SPOUSE: Coretta Scott King (1953-1968) CHILDREN: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice King ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Martin Luther King Jr. was born as Michael Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. His birthday was January 15, 1929.

His parents were Michael Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The Williams and King families had roots in rural Georgia. Martin’s maternal grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist Church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks, and they had one child who survived, Alberta.

Michael Sr. came from a family of sharecroppers in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D.’s home in Atlanta. Michael stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931. He, too, became a successful minister and adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther . In due time, Michael Jr. followed his father’s lead and adopt the name himself to become Martin Luther King Jr.

A middle child, Martin Jr. had an older sister, Willie, and a younger brother, Alfred. The King children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while Alberta’s gentleness easily balanced out their father’s strict hand.

Although they undoubtedly tried, Martin Jr.’s parents couldn’t shield him completely from racism. His father fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but also because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God’s will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children, which left a lasting impression on Martin Jr.

Growing up in Atlanta, King entered public school at age 5. In May 1936, he was baptized, but the event made little impression on him.

In May 1941, King was 12 years old when his grandmother Jennie died of a heart attack. The event was traumatic for the boy, more so because he was out watching a parade against his parents’ wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young King jumped from a second-story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.

King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades and, at age 15, entered Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but largely unmotivated, floating through his first two years.

Influenced by his experiences with racism, King began planting the seeds for a future as a social activist early in his time at Morehouse. “I was at the point where I was deeply interested in political matters and social ills,” he recalled in The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr . “I could envision myself playing a part in breaking down the legal barriers to Negro rights.”

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time, King felt that the best way to serve that purpose was as a lawyer or a doctor. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, King questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort had continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father’s dismay.

But in his junior year, King took a Bible class, renewed his faith, and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision, and he was ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church in February 1948.

Later that year, King earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and began attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, was elected student body president, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study.

Even though King was following his father’s footsteps, he rebelled against Martin Sr.’s more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became romantically involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the relationship.

During his last year in seminary, King came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays, who influenced King’s spiritual development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change.

After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, King enrolled at Boston University. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his doctorate and earned his degree in 1955 at age 25.

Decades after King’s death, in the late 1980s, researchers at Stanford University’s King Papers Project began to note similarities between passages of King’s doctoral dissertation and those of another student’s work. A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University determined that King was guilty of plagiarism in 1991, though it also recommended against the revocation of his degree.

First exposed to the concept of nonviolent resistance while reading Henry David Thoreau ’s On Civil Disobedience at Morehouse, King later discovered a powerful exemplar of the method’s possibilities through his research into the life of Mahatma Gandhi . Fellow civil rights activist Bayard Rustin , who had also studied Gandhi’s teachings, became one of King’s associates in the 1950s and counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of nonviolence.

As explained in his autobiography , King previously felt that the peaceful teachings of Jesus applied mainly to individual relationships, not large-scale confrontations. But he came to realize: “Love for Gandhi was a potent instrument for social and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis on love and nonviolence that I discovered the method for social reform that I had been seeking.”

It led to the formation of King’s six principles of nonviolence :

• Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.
• Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.
• Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.
• Nonviolence holds that suffering for a just cause can educate and transform.
• Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.
• Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

In the years to come, King also frequently cited the “ Beloved Community ”—a world in which a shared spirit of compassion brings an end to the evils of racism, poverty, inequality, and violence—as the end goal of his activist efforts.

Led by his religious convictions and philosophy of nonviolence, King became one of the most prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement . He was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and played key roles in several major demonstrations that transformed society. This included the Montgomery Bus Boycott that integrated Alabama’s public transit, the Greensboro Sit-In movement that desegregated lunch counters across the South, the March on Washington that led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches in Alabama that culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

King’s efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 when he was 35.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

King’s first leadership role within the Civil Rights Movement was during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956. The 381-day protest integrated the Alabama city’s public transit in one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

The effort began on December 1, 1955, when 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the “colored” section in the middle of the bus. As the bus traveled its route, all the seats in the white section filled up, then several more white passengers boarded the bus.

The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other Black passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated.

The driver asked her again to give up her seat, and again she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her trial a week later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and assessed $4 court fee.

The local NAACP chapter had been looking to challenge Montgomery’s segregated bus policy and had almost made 15-year-old Claudette Colvin the face of the campaign months earlier. She similarly refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on March 2, 1955, but after organizers learned Colvin was pregnant, they feared it would scandalize the deeply religious Black community and make Colvin, along with the group’s efforts, less credible in the eyes of sympathetic white people. Parks’ experience of discrimination provided another opportunity.

On the night Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon , head of the local NAACP chapter, met with King and other local civil rights leaders to plan a Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained, and had solid family connections and professional standing. He was also new to the community and had few enemies, so organizers felt he would have strong credibility with the Black community.

In his first speech as the group’s president, King declared:

“We have no alternative but to protest. For many years, we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.”

King’s skillful rhetoric put new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began December 5, 1955, and for more than a year, the local Black community walked to work, coordinated ride sharing, and faced harassment, violence, and intimidation. Both King’s and Nixon’s homes were attacked.

In addition to the boycott, members of the Black community took legal action against the city ordinance that outlined the segregated transit system. They argued it was unconstitutional based on the U.S. Supreme Court ’s “separate is never equal” decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Several lower courts agreed, and the nation’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling in a November 13, 1956, decision that also ruled the state of Alabama’s bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.

After the legal defeats and large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law that mandated segregated public transportation. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy , and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of Black churches. The SCLC helped conduct nonviolent protests to promote civil rights reform.

King’s participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The SCLC felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern cities to register Black voters. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

That September, King 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. Saved by quick medical attention, King expressed sympathy for his assailant’s condition in the aftermath .

In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, King visited Gandhi ’s birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a profound way, increasing his commitment to America’s civil rights struggle.

Greensboro Sit-In

By 1960, King was gaining national exposure. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church but also continued his civil rights efforts. His next activist campaign was the student-led Greensboro Sit-In movement.

In February 1960, a group of Black students in Greensboro, North Carolina , began sitting at racially segregated lunch counters in the city’s stores. When asked to leave or sit in the “colored” section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse.

The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. That April, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, with local sit-in leaders. King encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests. Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed and, for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By August 1960, the sit-ins had successfully ended segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities. But the movement wasn’t done yet.

On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested. Realizing the incident would hurt the city’s reputation, Atlanta’s mayor negotiated a truce, and charges were eventually dropped.

Soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction. The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Martin’s wife, Coretta Scott King . Kennedy expressed his concern over the harsh treatment Martin received for the traffic ticket, and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon released.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In the spring of 1963, King organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. With entire families in attendance, city police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. King was jailed, along with large numbers of his supporters.

The event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally criticized by Black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration.

In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail , King eloquently spelled out his theory of nonviolence: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue.”

1963 March on Washington

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, King and his supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation’s capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change. The demonstration was the brainchild of labor leader A. Philip Randolph and King’s one-time mentor Bayard Rustin .

On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom drew an estimated 250,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It remains one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in American history. During the demonstration, King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech .

The rising tide of civil rights agitation that had culminated in the March on Washington produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation’s Jim Crow laws and the near-century of second-class treatment of African American citizens since the end of slavery. This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities.

Selma March

Continuing to focus on voting rights, King, the SCLC, SNCC, and local organizers planned to march peacefully from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery.

Led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams , demonstrators set out on March 7, 1965. But the Selma march quickly turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The attack was televised, broadcasting the horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured to a wide audience. Of the 600 demonstrators, 58 were hospitalized in a day that became known as “ Bloody Sunday .” King, however, was spared because he was in Atlanta.

Not to be deterred, activists attempted the Selma-to-Montgomery march again. This time, King made sure he was part of it. Because a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order on another march, a different approach was taken.

On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both Black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer, then they turned back. This became known as “Turnaround Tuesday.”

Alabama Governor George Wallace continued to try to prevent another march until President Lyndon B. Johnson pledged his support and ordered U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard to protect the protestors.

On March 21, 1965, approximately 2,000 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery. On March 25, the number of marchers, which had grown to an estimated 25,000 gathered in front of the state capitol where King delivered a televised speech. Five months after the historic peaceful protest, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act .

Along with his “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speeches, King delivered several acclaimed addresses over the course of his life in the public eye.

“I Have A Dream” Speech

Date: august 28, 1963.

King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington. Standing at the Lincoln Memorial, he emphasized his belief that someday all men could be brothers to the 250,000-strong crowd.

Notable Quote: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

“Give Us the Ballot” Speech

Date: may 17, 1957.

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. Dismayed by the ongoing obstacles to registering Black voters, King urged leaders from various backgrounds—Republican and Democrat, Black and white—to work together in the name of justice.

Notable Quote: “Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights. 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.”

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Date: december 10, 1964.

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. He then compared the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement to the ground crew at an airport who do the unheralded-yet-necessary work to keep planes running on schedule.

Notable Quote: “I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners—all those to whom beauty is truth and truth, beauty—and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”

“Our God is Marching On (How Long? Not Long)” Speech

Date: march 25, 1965.

At the end of the bitterly fought Selma-to-Montgomery march, King addressed a crowd of 25,000 supporters from the Alabama State Capitol. Offering a brief history lesson on the roots of segregation, King emphasized that there would be no stopping the effort to secure full voting rights, while suggesting a more expansive agenda to come with a call to march on poverty.

Notable Quote: “I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” Speech

Date: april 4, 1967.

One year before his assassination, King delivered a controversial sermon at New York City’s Riverside Church in which he condemned the Vietnam War. Explaining why his conscience had forced him to speak up, King expressed concern for the poor American soldiers pressed into conflict thousands of miles from home, while pointedly faulting the U.S. government’s role in escalating the war.

Notable Quote: “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Speech

Date: april 3, 1968.

The well-known orator delivered his final speech the day before he died at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. King reflected on major moments of progress in history and his own life, in addition to encouraging the city’s striking sanitation workers.

Notable Quote: “I’ve seen the promised land. 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.”

While working on his doctorate at Boston University, King met Coretta Scott , an aspiring singer and musician at the New England Conservatory school in Boston. They were married on June 18, 1953, and had four children—two daughters and two sons—over the next decade. Their oldest, Yolanda, was born in 1955, followed by sons Martin Luther King III in 1957 and Dexter in 1961. The couple welcomed Bernice King in 1963.

Although she accepted the responsibility to raise the children while King travelled the country, Coretta opened their home to organizational meetings and served as an advisor and sounding board for her husband. “I am convinced that if I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength, and calmness of Corrie, I could not have withstood the ordeals and tensions surrounding the movement,” King wrote in his autobiography.

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. King also fostered discussions at mealtimes to make sure everyone understood the important issues he was seeking to resolve.

Leery of accumulating wealth as a high-profile figure, King insisted his family live off his salary as a pastor. 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 1963 until his death, a campaign to discredit the civil rights activist. While FBI wiretaps failed to produce evidence of Communist sympathies, they captured the civil rights leader’s engagement in extramarital dalliances. This led to the infamous “suicide letter” of 1964, later confirmed to be from the FBI and authorized by then-Director J. Edgar Hoover , which urged King to kill himself if he wanted to prevent news of his affairs from going public.

In 2019, historian 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. Other historians questioned the veracity of the documentation, especially given the FBI’s known attempts to damage King’s reputation. The original surveillance tapes regarding these allegations are under judicial seal until 2027.

From late 1965 through 1967, King expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young Black power leaders. King’s patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated many Black militants who considered his methods too weak, too late, and ineffective.

To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War . He felt America’s involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the government’s conduct in the war was discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a multiracial coalition to address the economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people. To that end, plans were in the works for another march on Washington to highlight the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement intended to pressure the government into improving living and working conditions for the economically disadvantaged.

By 1968, the 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 of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis, Tennessee, sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade. On April 3, 1968, he gave his final and what proved to be an eerily prophetic speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in which he told supporters, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now… I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

While standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper’s bullet on April 4, 1968. King died at age 39. The shocking assassination sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the country.

The shooter was James Earl Ray , a malcontent drifter and former convict. He initially escaped authorities but was apprehended after a two-month international manhunt. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

The identity of King’s assassin has been the source of some controversy. Ray recanted his confession shortly after he was sentenced, and King’s son Dexter publicly defended Ray’s innocence after meeting with the convicted gunman in 1997. Another complicating factor is the 1993 confession of tavern owner Loyd Jowers, who said he contracted a different hit man to kill King. In June 2000, the U.S. Justice Department released a report that dismissed the alternative theories of King’s death. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998.

King’s life had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known Black leader of his era.

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.C.

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.

• But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.
• There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.
• Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.
• The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
• Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.
• We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools.
• Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.
• I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
• The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but with no morals.
• I’ve seen the promised land. 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.
• Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
• A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.
• At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
• Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. 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. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

Civil Rights Activists

30 Civil Rights Leaders of the Past and Present

Benjamin Banneker

Marcus Garvey

Madam C.J. Walker

Maya Angelou

17 Inspiring Martin Luther King Quotes

Bayard Rustin

Colin Kaepernick

W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington’s Clash

BBC World Service

Listen live.

Morning Edition

NPR's Morning Edition takes listeners around the country and the world with two hours of multi-faceted stories and commentaries that inform, challenge and occasionally amuse. Morning Edition is the most listened-to news radio program in the country.

• Pennsylvania
• Social Justice

60 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech at Cheltenham High School

King visited as part of the cheltenham township adult school’s 5-star forum series on april 15, 1964. other speakers included art buchwald, ruby dee and ossie davis..

• Kenny Cooper

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., at the end of a rainy civil rights march in Chicago, Aug. 22, 1966, and the outside of Cheltenham Township Adult School's 1964 Spring Term catalog, which previews a visit from King. (AP Photo/Larry Stoddard / Kenny Cooper/WHYY News)

Related Content

Philly native and friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shares memories, life and legacy in candid conversation with WHYY News

Dr. Clarence Jones, one of King’s friends and supporters, was born in Philadelphia and raised in South Jersey.

3 months ago

What is CTAS?

‘No work is insignificant’: When community service is what you’re called to do, you do it every day

Philly City Councilmember Kendra Brooks reflects on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and encourages people to show up for their community, in whatever way they can.

Although details of King’s more mysterious visit to Cheltenham are sparse, Scott is “proud” that CTAS brought King to the township.

“The importance of remembering and paying homage to those people to these very historical events is very important, not only from a historical perspective, but also to let all people — but I believe very importantly young Black students and scholars — to realize that they come from greatness and that our people overcame some of the most incredible obstacles along the way, being the conscience of America and actually, in many ways, building America with our blood, sweat and tears,” Scott said.

Saturdays just got more interesting.

Busy week? Our weekend newsletter will catch you up on the best local stories of the week. Sign up for the WHYY News Wrap-Up today.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

You may also like

How to get involved in Philly’s 2024 MLK Day of Service

Here’s a look at some MLK Day volunteer and engagement opportunities, from panel discussions to community cleanups.

‘Not just a birthday celebration’: Philly’s 2024 MLK Day of Service to focus on civil rights

The event has many service projects, including the creation of a mural to celebrate the history of the civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King’s legacy lives on through Palmyra graduate Dr. Clarence B. Jones

When asked what MLK would think of today’s gun violence, Jones said: “He would put his head in his arms, and he would just weep.”

7 months ago

About Kenny Cooper

Kenny Cooper is WHYY’s suburban reporter covering Chester and Delaware counties. He joined WHYY in November 2020.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 15, 2023 | Original: January 28, 2010

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among Black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.

King Assassination: Background

In the last years of his life, Dr. King faced mounting criticism from young African American activists who favored a more confrontational approach to seeking change. These young radicals stuck closer to the ideals of the Black nationalist leader Malcolm X ( himself assassinated in 1965 ), who had condemned King’s advocacy of nonviolence as “criminal” in the face of the continuing repression suffered by African Americans.

As a result of this opposition, King sought to widen his appeal beyond his own race, speaking out publicly against the Vietnam War and working to form a coalition of poor Americans—Black and white alike—to address such issues as poverty and unemployment.

Did you know? Among the witnesses at King's assassination was Jesse Jackson, one of his closest aides. Ordained as a minister soon after King's death, Jackson went on to form Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and to run twice for U.S. president, in 1984 and 1988.

In the spring of 1968, while preparing for a planned march to Washington to lobby Congress on behalf of the poor, King and other SCLC members were called to Memphis, Tennessee , to support a sanitation workers’ strike. On the night of April 3, King gave a speech at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis.

In his speech, King seemed to foreshadow his own untimely passing, or at least to strike a particularly reflective note, ending with these now-historic words: “I’ve seen the promised land. 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. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

In fact, King had already survived an assassination attempt in the shoe section of a Harlem department store on September 20, 1958. The incident only affirmed his belief in non-violence.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

At 6:05 p.m. the following day, King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he and his associates were staying, when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39.

Shock and distress over the news of King’s death sparked rioting in more than 100 cities around the country, including burning and looting. Amid a wave of national mourning, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Americans to “reject the blind violence” that had killed King, whom he called the “apostle of nonviolence.”

He also called on Congress to speedily pass the civil rights legislation then entering the House of Representatives for debate, calling it a fitting legacy to King and his life’s work. On April 11, Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act , a major piece of civil rights legislation that prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin or sex. It is considered an important follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 .

King Assassination Conspiracy

On June 8, authorities apprehended the suspect in King’s murder, a small-time criminal named James Earl Ray , at London’s Heathrow Airport . Witnesses had seen him running from a boarding house near the Lorraine Motel carrying a bundle; prosecutors said he fired the fatal bullet from a bathroom in that building. Authorities found Ray’s fingerprints on the rifle used to kill King, a scope and a pair of binoculars.

On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. No testimony was heard in his trial. Shortly afterwards, however, Ray recanted his confession, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (who also investigated the assassination of JFK ) maintained that Ray’s shot killed king.

Ray later found sympathy in an unlikely place: Members of King’s family , including his son Dexter, who publicly met with Ray in 1977 and began arguing for a reopening of his case. Though the U.S. government conducted several investigations into the trial—each time confirming Ray’s guilt as the sole assassin—controversy still surrounds the assassination.

At the time of Ray’s death in 1998, King’s widow Coretta Scott King (who in the weeks after her husband’s death had courageously continued the campaign to aid the striking Memphis sanitation workers and carried on his mission of social change through nonviolent means) publicly lamented that “America will never have the benefit of Mr. Ray’s trial, which would have produced new revelations about the assassination…as well as establish the facts concerning Mr. Ray’s innocence.”

Impact of the King Assassination

Though Black and white people alike mourned King’s passing, the killing in some ways served to widen the rift between Black and white Americans, as many Black people saw King’s assassination as a rejection of their vigorous pursuit of equality through the nonviolent resistance he had championed.

His murder, like the killing of Malcolm X in 1965, radicalized many moderate African American activists, fueling the growth of the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

King has remained the most widely known African American leader of his era, and the most public face of the civil rights movement , along with its most eloquent voice.

A campaign to establish a national holiday in his honor began almost immediately after his death, and its proponents overcame significant opposition—critics pointed to FBI surveillance files suggesting King’s adultery and his influence by Communists—before President Ronald Reagan signed the King holiday bill into law in 1983.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault.

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

National Historical Publications & Records Commission

The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Stanford University

Additional information:   https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/publications/king-papers

A comprehensive edition of the papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 –1968) clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. This edition of speeches, sermons, correspondence, and other papers of America’s foremost leader of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The project was initiated by the King Center in Atlanta before moving to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford.

Seven completed volumes of a planned 14-volume edition

Martin Luther King, Jr. addresses the crowd at the Civil Rights March, August 28, 1963. National Archives.

Previous Record   |    Next Record   |    Return to Index  

Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay

Martin Luther King Jr

Simmons 1 Gabrielle Simmons Mrs. Fitzgerald Social Studies 8A 4/27/10 Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a well known and an inspiring man to all cultures of the world. King was and still is one of the most influential heroes. King 's views and believes helped African Americans through the 50 's and 60 's to the rights and liberties that was their right. King faced many obstacles on his journey, things like jail and even assassination attempts. Despite these obstacles, he became a

Martin Luther King Jr.

people, one of them is Martin Luther King Jr. He made the world a better place for black citizens by doing non-violence movements and marched the way to freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta Georgia as Michael King Jr., but changed his name to Martin Luther King Jr. in honor of Protestant Martin Luther. Through his activism, King played a pivotal role in ending the legal discrimination of African American citizens. During his childhood, Martin Jr.’s father strongly

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist, who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. IN THESE GROUPS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNERS FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO DIED IN 1968 FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO WENT TO PRISON FAMOUS CAPRICORNS Show All Groups 1 of 19 « » QUOTES “But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a very strong person, constantly fighting for what he believed in, which was equality for African Americans. He was not scared to stand up and tell the world what he wanted for society. He was fearless and did everything in his power to prove a point. Martin Luther King, Jr., was the strongest individual of his time, for he fought until death, which proves how much he was willing to risk his life to make the world an equal place. Growing up, he had a very interesting

Martin Luther King Jr Influence

We all know the famous speech “I have a dream” spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. but do we really know why this speech was so powerful? Well, Martin Luther King was known for his protest style as well as his speaking ability on the social issues of racism causing quite a stir in the United States on social justice leading to major turning points to equality. Martin luther did not create civil disobedience. However, he was able to receive major results, had the greatest leadership of peaceful protest

Martin Luther King Jr. Essay

• 6 Works Cited

but the content of the character,” (Martin Luther King Jr,1963) Martin Luther King Jr. was a smart child and had a good childhood. He learned values from his parents, and Martin Luther King Jr was a man of much wisdom during his time. He was a major contributor to the civil rights movement, and those contributions have profound effect even today. Michael Luther King was Martin Luther King Jr’s name when was born. His parents changed his name to Martin Luther King when he was just a young boy. They

Martin Luther King Jr. was a very influential man in the life of many people. He transformed the lives of blacks and whites as a whole and should be viewed by people as a hero. He stood up for what he believed in, and helped change the America into how we know it today. Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong man and never let anything stand in his way of accomplishing the goal he set out to do, which was to get blacks their freedom/equal rights. Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929 in

Martin Luther King Jr Leader

An Amazing Leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of many men in history that have impacted the lives of many around the world. He helped fought to bring awareness to help abolish segregation within the United States and within the hearts and minds of many. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 and was laid to rest April 4, 1968. His father and grandfather were both pastors which therefore bestowed values such as integrity and compassion to him. Transformational leadership qualities

Martin Luther King Jr Accomplishments

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the world for the better. He contributed to a serious case in America, segregation. King felt something was wrong, so he had to step in and help those affected, including himself. He faced many obstacles during his struggle to gain justice and equal rights, but he overcame them and won. King is a very important historical figure, voted as one of the most important black leaders of his time. King protested against racial discrimination

Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream Speech” Martin Luther King, Jr: the name that will forever be known through out the generations. The man who changed history for the better. The man who led a march to demolish segregation, and changed thousands of African American lives. The man who gave a speech that was forever going to be remembered by thousands of people around the world. He was appreciated greatly that in honor for him and what he has done they created a holiday, which is known as Martin

Popular Topics

• Essay on Marxist Theory
• Mary Rowlandson Essay
• Mary Wollstonecraft Essay
• Mascots Essay
• Masculinity Essay
• Mask of the Red Death Essay
• Maslow Essay
• Essay on Mass Communication
• Mass Media Essay Topics
• Mass Murderers Essay

An Experiment in Love: Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Six Pillars of Nonviolent Resistance and the Ancient Greek Notion of ‘Agape’

By maria popova.

Nowhere does he transmute spiritual ideas from various traditions into secular principles more masterfully than in his extraordinary 1958 essay “An Experiment in Love,” in which he examines the six essential principles of his philosophy of nonviolence, debunks popular misconceptions about it, and considers how these basic tenets can be used in guiding any successful movement of nonviolent resistance. Penned five years before his famous Letter from Birmingham City Jail and exactly a decade before his assassination, the essay was eventually included in the indispensable A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. ( public library ) — required reading for every human being with a clicking mind and a ticking heart.

In the first of the six basic philosophies, Dr. King addresses the tendency to mistake nonviolence for passivity, pointing out that it is a form not of cowardice but of courage:

It must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one uses this method because he is afraid or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly nonviolent. This is why Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight… The way of nonviolent resistance … is ultimately the way of the strong man. It is not a method of stagnant passivity… For while the nonviolent resister is passive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, his mind and his emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade his opponent that he is wrong. The method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually. It is not passive non-resistance to evil, it is active nonviolent resistance to evil.

He turns to the second tenet of nonviolence:

Nonviolence … does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that these are not ends themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.

In considering the third characteristic of nonviolence, Dr. King appeals to the conscientious recognition that those who perpetrate violence are often victims themselves:

The attack is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is the evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the persons victimized by the evil. If he is opposing racial injustice, the nonviolent resister has the vision to see that the basic tension is not between the races… The tension is, at bottom, between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness…. We are out to defeat injustice and not white persons who may be unjust.

Out of this recognition flows the fourth tenet:

Nonviolent resistance [requires] a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation, to accept blows from the opponent without striking back… The nonviolent resister is willing to accept violence if necessary, but never to inflict it. He does not seek to dodge jail. If going to jail is necessary, he enters it “as a bridegroom enters the bride’s chamber.”

That, in fact, is precisely how Dr. King himself entered jail five years later . To those skeptical of the value of turning the other cheek, he offers:

Unearned suffering is redemptive. Suffering, the nonviolent resister realizes, has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.

The fifth basic philosophy turns the fourth inward and arrives at the most central point of the essay — the noblest use of what we call “love”:

Nonviolent resistance … avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him. At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. The nonviolent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.

Here, Dr. King turns to Ancient Greek philosophy, pointing out that the love he speaks of is not the sentimental or affectionate kind — “it would be nonsense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense,” he readily acknowledges — but love in the sense of understanding and redemptive goodwill. The Greeks called this agape — a love distinctly different from the eros , reserved for our lovers, or philia , with which we love our friends and family. Dr. King explains:

Agape means understanding, redeeming good will for all men. It is an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless, and creative. It is not set in motion by any quality or function of its object… Agape is disinterested love. It is a love in which the individual seeks not his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people, or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes . It is an entirely “neighbor-regarding concern for others,” which discovers the neighbor in every man it meets. Therefore, agape makes no distinction between friends and enemy; it is directed toward both. If one loves an individual merely on account of his friendliness, he loves him for the sake of the benefits to be gained from the friendship, rather than for the friend’s own sake. Consequently, the best way to assure oneself that love is disinterested is to have love for the enemy-neighbor from whom you can expect no good in return, but only hostility and persecution.

This notion is nearly identical to one of Buddhism’s four brahmaviharas , or divine attitudes — the concept of Metta , often translated as lovingkindness or benevolence. The parallel speaks not only to Dr. King’s extraordinarily diverse intellectual toolkit of influences and inspirations — a high form of combinatorial creativity necessary for any meaningful contribution to humanity’s common record — but also to the core commonalities between the world’s major spiritual and philosophical traditions.

In a sentiment that Margaret Mead and James Baldwin would echo twelve years later in their spectacular conversation on race — “In any oppressive situation both groups suffer, the oppressors and the oppressed,” Mead observed, asserting that the oppressors suffer morally with the recognition of what they’re committing, which Baldwin noted is “a worse kind of suffering” — Dr. King adds:

Another basic point about agape is that it springs from the need of the other person — his need for belonging to the best in the human family… Since the white man’s personality is greatly distorted by segregation, and his soul is greatly scarred, he needs the love of the Negro. The Negro must love the white man, because the white man needs his love to remove his tensions, insecurities, and fears.

At the heart of agape , he argues, is the notion of forgiveness — something Mead and Baldwin also explored with great intellectual elegance . Dr. King writes:

Agape is not a weak, passive love. It is love in action… Agape is a willingness to go to any length to restore community… It is a willingness to forgive, not seven times, but seventy times seven to restore community…. If I respond to hate with a reciprocal hate I do nothing but intensify the cleavage in broken community. I can only close the gap in broken community by meeting hate with love.

With this, he turns to the sixth and final principle of nonviolence as a force of justice, undergirded by the nonreligious form of spirituality that Dani Shapiro elegantly termed “an animating presence” and Alan Lightman described as the transcendence of “this strange and shimmering world.” Dr. King writes:

Nonviolent resistance … is based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice. Consequently, the believer in nonviolence has deep faith in the future. This faith is another reason why the nonviolent resister can accept suffering without retaliation. For he knows that in his struggle for justice he has cosmic companionship. It is true that there are devout believers in nonviolence who find it difficult to believe in a personal God. But even these persons believe in the existence of some creative force that works for universal wholeness. Whether we call it an unconscious process, an impersonal Brahman, or a Personal Being of matchless power of infinite love, there is a creative force in this universe that works to bring the disconnected aspects of reality into a harmonious whole.

A Testament of Hope is an absolutely essential read in its totality. Complement it with Dr. King on the two types of law , Albert Einstein’s little-known correspondence with W.E.B. Du Bois on racial justice , and Tolstoy and Gandhi’s equally forgotten but immensely timely correspondence on why we hurt each other .

— Published July 1, 2015 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/07/01/martin-luther-king-jr-an-experiment-in-love/ —

www.themarginalian.org

PRINT ARTICLE

Email article, filed under, activism culture history love martin luther king philosophy politics psychology, view full site.

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy . (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)

• Skip to global NPS navigation
• Skip to this park navigation
• Skip to the main content
• Skip to this park information section
• Skip to the footer section

Exiting nps.gov

Alerts in effect, park footer, contact info, mailing address:.

1100 Ohio Drive SW Washington, DC 20242

202 426-6841

Stay Connected

About  Search

Joseph R. Biden

Statement on the 56th anniversary of the assassination of martin luther king, jr..

Fifty-six years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his last breath in the cause to redeem the soul of our Nation. He was in Memphis to march with sanitation workers rightly demanding safer working conditions, fairer wages, and basic dignity as part of the larger quest to make real the promise of America for all Americans.

But then, an extremist, armed with a rifle in his hands and fueled by the poison of White supremacy in his heart, shot and killed a great American who loved his country so deeply to make it better—even greater—even when it didn't always love him back. Dr. King and generations of foot soldiers known and unknown embody a patriotism that continues to inspire generations of Americans, including me.

Dr. King is one of my political heroes. I was just out of law school when my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, was among the many cities engulfed in turmoil in the wake of his assassination. His unfinished mission inspired me to leave a prestigious law firm to become a public defender and begin a career in public service.

Since then, I've seen the push and pull and progress and setback on everything he stood for, from voting rights to jobs and justice for all Americans. I've had the greatest honor to serve as Vice President to the first Black President and now President with the first woman Vice President, as we carry forward his vision of a beloved community.

But, on this day, and in this time, we all do well to remember another essential lesson about Dr. King's life and legacy. All Americans—regardless of party or background—should be able to reject political violence and hate-fueled violence in any form. We must condemn it, not condone it. We must confront it, not whitewash it. As we do, we must teach history and make history, not erase history. We must choose community over chaos.

Jill and I send our love to the entire King family. We especially keep in our hearts the legacy of Mrs. Coretta Scott King, who we all miss dearly and who did so much in her own right to redeem the soul of our Nation.

May God bless Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

NOTE: The statement referred to former President Barack Obama.

Joseph R. Biden, Statement on the 56th Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/371077

Filed Under

Simple search of our archives, report a typo.

How did Childhood Influence Martin Luther King Jr’s Childhood

This essay about MLK’s childhood illuminates the early life of Martin Luther King Jr. and how it shaped him into a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Born into a family committed to faith, activism, and education, King encountered racism from a young age, experiences that ignited his resolve to fight racial injustices through nonviolent means. His intellectual curiosity and exposure to civil rights advocacy during his education further molded his approaches to activism. The essay emphasizes the significance of King’s upbringing, family values, and early experiences with segregation in developing his vision for social change. It portrays how King’s formative years were pivotal in shaping his commitment to equality, justice, and the power of nonviolence, serving as a testament to the profound impact of early life experiences on an individual’s path to becoming a transformative figure in society.

How it works

The childhood narrative of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) offers profound insights into the formative years of one of the most iconic figures in the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, into a family deeply entrenched in faith and activism, King’s early years were immersed in the complexities of segregation and the quest for parity. This discourse delves into the ramifications of his upbringing, familial milieu, and premature encounters with racism on his evolution as a leader and proponent of nonviolent resistance.

From a tender age, King was exposed to the tenets of Christian ministry and societal equity, chiefly under the tutelage of his father, Martin Luther King Sr., a prominent Baptist preacher and civil rights luminary in his own right. This milieu not only fostered his spiritual maturation but also laid the groundwork for his future in activism. King Sr.’s staunch advocacy for parity and his unabashed defiance of segregationist policies were pivotal in shaping MLK’s perspectives on racial inequity and his resolve to rectify it.

Nevertheless, MLK’s upbringing was not shielded from the harsh realities of racism. A seminal juncture occurred when he was abruptly barred from socializing with his white peers due to the hue of his skin. This premature encounter with the acrid sting of segregation left an indelible mark on him, sowing the seeds of his determination to combat racial injustices. It was these formative episodes that kindled his enduring dedication to realizing parity through nonviolent means.

King’s scholastic odyssey also played a seminal role in his evolution. A precocious scholar, he skipped two grades in high school and matriculated into Morehouse College at a mere 15, where he was introduced to the writings of civil rights champions and theologians who profoundly influenced his philosophical outlook. His intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge were emblematic of his persona, evincing an early grasp of the potency of erudition and dialogue in the struggle for civil rights.

Despite the privileges of erudition and a supportive family, King’s formative years were underscored by an unwavering cognizance of the societal confines imposed by racial segregation. This awareness was juxtaposed with the realization that change was imperative and attainable through collective action and moral fortitude. His upbringing in a household that esteemed dignity, reverence for all humanity, and the efficacy of love and nonviolence as instruments for societal metamorphosis was pivotal. These principles profoundly informed King’s approach to civil rights activism, shaping his vision for a more equitable and just society.

In retrospection, MLK’s childhood was a mosaic of experiences interweaving faith, familial bonds, education, and premature encounters with racial discrimination. These facets molded his identity as a leader and sculpted his modus operandi in civil rights advocacy. His formative years epitomize how profound personal experiences and familial influences can engender a commitment to societal equity and justice. King’s journey from a youthful lad in Atlanta to a vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement underscores the transformative potential of education, faith, and the indomitable spirit to confront and rectify societal injustices.

In essence, the childhood narrative of Martin Luther King Jr. epitomizes the influence of upbringing and premature encounters in shaping an individual’s trajectory toward catalyzing change. Through his chronicle, we are reminded of the significance of instilling values of equity, compassion, and nonviolence in young minds. King’s legacy, rooted in his formative years, continues to inspire and impel us to aspire for a world where justice and parity are not mere ideals but tangible realities for all.

Cite this page

How Did Childhood Influence Martin Luther King Jr's Childhood. (2024, Apr 14). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/how-did-childhood-influence-martin-luther-king-jrs-childhood/

"How Did Childhood Influence Martin Luther King Jr's Childhood." PapersOwl.com , 14 Apr 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/how-did-childhood-influence-martin-luther-king-jrs-childhood/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). How Did Childhood Influence Martin Luther King Jr's Childhood . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/how-did-childhood-influence-martin-luther-king-jrs-childhood/ [Accessed: 18 Apr. 2024]

"How Did Childhood Influence Martin Luther King Jr's Childhood." PapersOwl.com, Apr 14, 2024. Accessed April 18, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/how-did-childhood-influence-martin-luther-king-jrs-childhood/

"How Did Childhood Influence Martin Luther King Jr's Childhood," PapersOwl.com , 14-Apr-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/how-did-childhood-influence-martin-luther-king-jrs-childhood/. [Accessed: 18-Apr-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). How Did Childhood Influence Martin Luther King Jr's Childhood . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/how-did-childhood-influence-martin-luther-king-jrs-childhood/ [Accessed: 18-Apr-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

We need an economic bill of rights

An abridged version of the civil rights leader’s 1968 essay published in Look magazine shortly after his assassination

T here is a literal depression in the Negro community. When you have mass unemployment in the Negro community, it’s called a social problem; when you have mass unemployment in the white community, it’s called a depression. The fact is, there is a major depression in the Negro community.

We need an economic bill of rights. This would guarantee a job to all people who want to work and are able to work. It would also guarantee an income for all who are not able to work. Some people are too young, some are too old, some are physically disabled, and yet in order to live, they need income.

We feel that much more building of housing for low-income people should be done. On the educational front, the ghetto schools are in bad shape in terms of quality. Often, they are so far behind that they need more and special attention, the best quality education that can be given.

These problems, of course, are overshadowed by the Vietnam war. We’ll focus on the domestic problems, but it’s inevitable that we’ve got to bring out the question of the tragic mix-up in priorities. We are spending all of this money for death and destruction, and not nearly enough money for life and constructive development.

We hear all this talk about our ability to afford guns and butter, but we have come to see that this is a myth, that when a nation becomes involved in this kind of war, when the guns of war become a national obsession, social needs inevitably suffer.

And we hope that as a result of our trying to dramatize this and getting thousands and thousands of people moving around this issue, that our government will be forced to re-evaluate its policy abroad in order to deal with the domestic situation.

We need to put pressure on Congress to get things done. We will do this with first amendment activity. If Congress is unresponsive, we’ll have to escalate in order to keep the issue alive and before it. This action may take on disruptive dimensions, but not violent in the sense of destroying life or property: it will be militant non-violence. Riots tend to intensify the fears of the white majority while relieving its guilt, and so open the door to greater repression. We’ve seen no changes in Watts, no structural changes have taken place as the result of riots. We are trying to find an alternative that will force people to confront issues without destroying life or property. We plan to build a shantytown in Washington, patterned after the bonus marches of the 30s, to dramatize how many people have to live in slums in our nation.

Demonstrations have served as unifying forces in the movement; they have brought blacks and whites together in very practical situations, where philosophically they may have been arguing about Black Power. It’s a strange thing how demonstrations tend to solve problems.

Anytime we’ve had demonstrations in a community, people have found a way to slough off their self-hatred, and they have had a channel to express their longings and a way to fight non-violently – to get at the power structure, to know you’re doing something, so you don’t have to be violent to do it.

We need this movement. We need it to bring about a new kind of togetherness between blacks and whites. We need it to bring allies together and to bring the coalition of conscience together.

I think we have come to the point where there is no longer a choice now between non-violence and riots. It must be militant, massive non-violence, or riots. The discontent is so deep, the anger so ingrained, the despair, the restlessness so wide, that something has to be brought into being to serve as a channel through which these deep emotional feelings, these deep angry feelings, can be funneled.

There has to be an outlet, and I see this campaign as a way to transmute the inchoate rage of the ghetto into a constructive and creative channel. It becomes an outlet for anger.

Even if I didn’t deal with the moral dimensions and question of violence versus non-violence, from a practical point of view, I don’t see riots working. But I am convinced that if rioting continues, it will strengthen the right wing of the country, and we’ll end up with a kind of rightwing take-over in the cities and a Fascist development, which will be terribly injurious to the whole nation.

I don’t think America can stand another summer of Detroit-like riots without a development that could destroy the soul of the nation, and even the democratic possibilities of the nation.

I’m committed to non-violence absolutely. I’m just not going to kill anybody, whether it’s in Vietnam or here. I’m not going to burn down any building. If non-violent protest fails this summer, I will continue to preach it and teach it. I plan to stand by non-violence because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice but also my dealings with people, with my own self. I will still be faithful to non-violence.

But I’m frank enough to admit that if our non-violent campaign doesn’t generate some progress, people are just going to engage in more violent activity, and the discussion of guerrilla warfare will be more extensive.

In any event, we will not have been the ones who will have failed. We will place the problems of the poor at the seat of government of the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind. If that power refuses to acknowledge its debt to the poor, it will have failed to live up to its promise to insure “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to its citizens.

If this society fails, I fear that we will learn very shortly that racism is a sickness unto death.

There is an Old Testament prophecy of the “sins of the Fathers being visited upon the third and the fourth generations”. Nothing could be more applicable to our situation. America is reaping the harvest of hate and shame planted through generations of educational denial, political disfranchisement and economic exploitation of its black population.

Now, almost a century removed from slavery, we find the heritage of oppression and racism erupting in our cities, with volcanic lava of bitterness and frustration pouring down our avenues.

Black Americans have been patient people, and perhaps they could continue patient with but a modicum of hope; but everywhere, “time is winding up”, in the words of one of our spirituals, “corruption in the land, people take your stand; time is winding up”.

In spite of years of national progress, the plight of the poor is worsening. Jobs are on the decline as a result of technological change, schools north and south are proving themselves more and more inadequate to the task of providing adequate education and thereby entrance into the mainstream of the society. Medical care is virtually out of reach of millions of black and white poor. In Mississippi, children are actually starving.

White America has allowed itself to be indifferent to race prejudice and economic denial. It has treated them as superficial blemishes, but now awakes to the horrifying reality of a potentially fatal disease. The urban outbreaks are “a fire bell in the night”, clamorously warning that the seams of our entire social order are weakening under strains of neglect.

The American people are infected with racism – that is the peril. Paradoxically, they are also infected with democratic ideals – that is the hope.

While doing wrong, they have the potential to do right. But they do not have a millennium to make changes. Nor have they a choice of continuing in the old way.

The future they are asked to inaugurate is not so unpalatable that it justifies the evils that beset the nation. To end poverty, to extirpate prejudice, to free a tormented conscience, to make a tomorrow of justice, fair play and creativity – all these are worthy of the American ideal.

We have, through massive non-violent action, an opportunity to avoid a national disaster and create a new spirit of class and racial harmony. We can write another luminous moral chapter in American history.

All of us are on trial in this troubled hour, but time still permits us to meet the future with a clear conscience.

• Reprinted and abridged by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr, c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor, New York, NY.
• Martin Luther King

Most viewed

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

What Martin Luther King Jr. Knew About Crime and Mental Illness

By Alvin L. Bragg Jr.

Mr. Bragg Jr. is the Manhattan district attorney.

In September 1958, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was stabbed with a seven-inch steel letter opener. He had been autographing copies of his first book in Blumstein’s department store in Harlem. The woman who stabbed him was named Izola Ware Curry .

When Dr. King found out she was schizophrenic, he harbored no ill will toward her , saying instead, “I know that we want her to receive the necessary treatment so that she may become a constructive citizen in an integrated society where a disorganized personality need not become a menace to any man.”

Dated description aside, King recognized that people in crisis need mental health care to be healthy and safe. The many Izola Ware Currys in New York today are far more likely to find themselves in jail, or relegated to street corners and subway stations, than they are to receive comprehensive treatment. This disconnect can set the stage for people with mental illness to be both victims and perpetrators of real violence.

Mental illness isn’t a crime, and jail isn’t the answer for those experiencing it. We must meet the needs of people in crisis with treatment and support. In order to do so, we need more funding.

Lawmakers in Albany right now are in the final stages of negotiating our state budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly must make good on their earlier support for significant investments in mental health care — especially for New Yorkers who have been struggling, posing potential dangers to themselves and others. Doing so now can reduce assaults in our city by people experiencing mental health crises. They can also ensure that when those people do commit crimes, they are held accountable in a manner that reduces recidivism.

Around half of people in New York City jails — some 3,000 men and women — have been diagnosed with some degree of mental illness. On any given day, hundreds await evaluations or beds at dwindling and overwhelmed state psychiatric hospitals . On a typical day at Manhattan Criminal Court, you’ll witness the churn of people struggling with mental illness, caught up in a cycle of recidivism and incarceration instead of receiving the therapy, medication and other services that would help them lead healthy, productive lives.

And it’s not only New York. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, in the United States, people with serious mental illness are more likely to encounter law enforcement than they are to receive treatment . Since the 1950s, around the time King barely dodged death, the number of state hospital psychiatric beds has decreased by around 94 percent. In many cases, jails and prisons filled the void. While large-scale psychiatric institutionalization was far from perfect — to say the very least — meaningful community-based alternatives never materialized.

Today, corrections facilities double as de facto mental health hospitals across the nation — and about 63 percent of those with a history of mental illness do not receive treatment while incarcerated in state and federal prison.

But it is in New York City where the failed mental health system seems to be on starkest display.

Desperate scenes of people in clear distress on subway platforms, in city parks and on bustling street corners, are commonplace. And although overall crime is down , the city has witnessed terrifying acts of violence and alarming incidents of disorder. Innocent people shoved in front of oncoming trains is a citywide nightmare. Women fear being randomly punched while walking down the street. This is a humanitarian disaster, and a public health and safety crisis.

We must do better — for those with real and complex mental health needs, and for all New Yorkers who currently fear for their safety. But attaining a comprehensive mental health system won’t happen overnight.

In the past few years, I’ve committed $9 million to two programs, Neighborhood Navigators and Court Navigators . In both programs, individuals with lived experience — designated “navigators”— help guide our struggling neighbors through the complex landscape of social services. It’s a start, but so much more is needed.

This year’s state budget is another opportunity to continue to build New York’s mental health infrastructure. My office submitted a detailed proposal to Albany leaders outlining mental health investments that are urgently needed this year. If we fail to take systemic action, New Yorkers will continue to confront daily scenes of desperation, and risk falling victim to shocking — but not surprising — acts of arbitrary violence.

Most directly related to the work of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, I’ve asked Albany to invest at least $25 million to expand and strengthen New York’s problem-solving courts. Such courts provide precisely the kind of treatment options that King may have wanted for his attacker, but that did not exist then. In exchange for pleading guilty, participants are offered court-supervised treatment instead of incarceration.

If they comply with their treatment plan and avoid rearrest (typically for 18 to 24 months), their felony plea can be reduced to a misdemeanor or dismissed. One mental health court found that it reduced the likelihood of rearrest by 46 percent.

I also urged Albany leaders to fund community-based mental health treatment, investing $16.3 million to fund 20 new teams to provide support to justice-involved individuals with serious mental illness. Similar initiatives have been shown to reduce overall recidivism .

For those who cannot be safely diverted from incarceration to treatment in the community, Hope House , which recently broke ground in the Bronx, will soon offer a safe and humane alternative to the Rikers Island jail complex, with 24-hour security and therapeutic treatment. The state should commit $30 million in capital funding to scale up the Hope House model.

Supportive housing provides essential stability to those with mental illness who have been justice-involved. Thousands of individuals returning to New York City from state prison go straight to shelters. Homelessness increases the risk of incarceration, which in turn increases the risk of homelessness. To break this vicious cycle, Albany should invest in building 500 new re-entry apartments over the next three years, and should expand an existing housing program for people leaving city jails.

Since I took office, we have made substantial progress in driving down murders and shootings in Manhattan, but the rise in felony assaults remains a persistent challenge. To reverse the post-Covid rise in random assaults of and by people with untreated mental illness, prevention-oriented investments are critical; enforcement has little deterrence value for crimes committed by those experiencing a mental health crisis.

Following his brush with death at the hands of Izola Ware Curry, King recognized treatment as the best path to keep those with mental illness, and those around them, safe. With assaults like the one King suffered becoming more common, our leaders in Albany must heed his call today and invest in a comprehensive mental health network.

Now is the time for action to address our mental health emergency.

Alvin L. Bragg Jr. is the Manhattan district attorney.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

Martin Luther King Jr Research Paper

Martin Luther King Jr. stands as an icon of courage, equality, and justice in the annals of history. Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, King emerged as a towering figure in the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. His unwavering commitment to nonviolent protest and his powerful oratory skills propelled the movement forward, igniting a fire of change that reverberated not only across the United States but throughout the world. Central to King's philosophy was the concept of nonviolent resistance, deeply influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King believed that love and peaceful protest were potent weapons in the fight against injustice and discrimination. His leadership during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and the subsequent …show more content…

Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King articulated his vision of a nation where individuals would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. His impassioned plea for racial harmony and equality resonated deeply with millions, galvanizing support for the civil rights movement and inspiring generations to come. Yet, King's quest for equality extended beyond racial boundaries. He staunchly opposed the Vietnam War, viewing it as a moral and humanitarian issue. His courageous stance against the war, despite facing criticism and backlash, exemplified his commitment to justice and peace on a global scale. Tragically, King's life was cut short on April 4, 1968, when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His death sent shockwaves around the world, but his legacy endured. His contributions to the civil rights movement paved the way for landmark legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which dismantled institutionalized segregation and

More about Martin Luther King Jr Research Paper

Three Essays on Religion

Author:  King, Martin Luther, Jr.

Date:  September 1, 1948 to May 31, 1951 ?

Location:  Chester, Pa. ?

Genre:  Essay

Topic:  Martin Luther King, Jr. - Education

In the following three essays, King wrestles with the role of religion in modern society. In the first assignment, he calls science and religion “different though converging truths” that both “spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.” King emphasizes an awareness of God’s presence in the second document, noting that religion’s purpose “is not to perpetuate a dogma or a theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.” In the final handwritten essay King acknowledges the life-affirming nature of Christianity, observing that its adherents have consistently “looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.”

"Science and Religion"

There is widespread belief in the minds of many that there is a conflict between science and religion. But there is no fundamental issue between the two. While the conflict has been waged long and furiously, it has been on issues utterly unrelated either to religion or to science. The conflict has been largely one of trespassing, and as soon as religion and science discover their legitimate spheres the conflict ceases.

Religion, of course, has been very slow and loath to surrender its claim to sovereignty in all departments of human life; and science overjoyed with recent victories, has been quick to lay claim to a similar sovereignty. Hence the conflict.

But there was never a conflict between religion and science as such. There cannot be. Their respective worlds are different. Their methods are dissimilar and their immediate objectives are not the same. The method of science is observation, that of religion contemplation. Science investigates. Religion interprets. One seeks causes, the other ends. Science thinks in terms of history, religion in terms of teleology. One is a survey, the other an outlook.

The conflict was always between superstition disguised as religion and materialism disguised as science, between pseudo-science and pseudo-religion.

Religion and science are two hemispheres of human thought. They are different though converging truths. Both science and religion spring from the same seeds of vital human needs.

Science is the response to the human need of knowledge and power. Religion is the response to the human need for hope and certitude. One is an outreaching for mastery, the other for perfection. Both are man-made, and like man himself, are hedged about with limitations. Neither science nor religion, by itself, is sufficient for man. Science is not civilization. Science is organized knowledge; but civilization which is the art of noble and progressive communal living requires much more than knowledge. It needs beauty which is art, and faith and moral aspiration which are religion. It needs artistic and spiritual values along with the intellectual.

Man cannot live by facts alone. What we know is little enough. What we are likely to know will always be little in comparison with what there is to know. But man has a wish-life which must build inverted pyramids upon the apexes of known facts. This is not logical. It is, however, psychological.

Science and religion are not rivals. It is only when one attempts to be the oracle at the others shrine that confusion arises. Whan the scientist from his laboratory, on the basis of alleged scientific knowledge presumes to issue pronouncements on God, on the origin and destiny of life, and on man's place in the scheme of things he is [ passing? ] out worthless checks. When the religionist delivers ultimatums to the scientist on the basis of certain cosomologies embedded in the sacred text then he is a sorry spectacle indeed.

When religion, however, on the strength of its own postulates, speaks to men of God and the moral order of the universe, when it utters its prophetic burden of justice and love and holiness and peace, then its voice is the voice of the eternal spiritual truth, irrefutable and invincible.,

"The Purpose of Religion"

What is the purpose of religion? 1  Is it to perpetuate an idea about God? Is it totally dependent upon revelation? What part does psychological experience play? Is religion synonymous with theology?

Harry Emerson Fosdick says that the most hopeful thing about any system of theology is that it will not last. 2  This statement will shock some. But is the purpose of religion the perpetuation of theological ideas? Religion is not validated by ideas, but by experience.

This automatically raises the question of salvation. Is the basis for salvation in creeds and dogmas or in experience. Catholics would have us believe the former. For them, the church, its creeds, its popes and bishops have recited the essence of religion and that is all there is to it. On the other hand we say that each soul must make its own reconciliation to God; that no creed can take the place of that personal experience. This was expressed by Paul Tillich when he said, “There is natural religion which belongs to man by nature. But there is also a revealed religion which man receives from a supernatural reality.” 3 Relevant religion therefore, comes through revelation from God, on the one hand; and through repentance and acceptance of salvation on the other hand. 4  Dogma as an agent in salvation has no essential place.

This is the secret of our religion. This is what makes the saints move on in spite of problems and perplexities of life that they must face. This religion of experience by which man is aware of God seeking him and saving him helps him to see the hands of God moving through history.

Religion has to be interpreted for each age; stated in terms that that age can understand. But the essential purpose of religion remains the same. It is not to perpetuate a dogma or theology; but to produce living witnesses and testimonies to the power of God in human experience.

[ signed ] M. L. King Jr. 5

"The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry"

Basically Christianity is a value philosophy. It insists that there are eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good. This value content is embodied in the life of Christ. So that Christian philosophy is first and foremost Christocentric. It begins and ends with the assumption that Christ is the revelation of God. 6

We might ask what are some of the specific values that Christianity seeks to conserve? First Christianity speaks of the value of the world. In its conception of the world, it is not negative; it stands over against the asceticisms, world denials, and world flights, for example, of the religions of India, and is world-affirming, life affirming, life creating. Gautama bids us flee from the world, but Jesus would have us use it, because God has made it for our sustenance, our discipline, and our happiness. 7  So that the Christian view of the world can be summed up by saying that it is a place in which God is fitting men and women for the Kingdom of God.

Christianity also insists on the value of persons. All human personality is supremely worthful. This is something of what Schweitzer has called “reverence for life.” 8  Hunan being must always be used as ends; never as means. I realize that there have been times that Christianity has short at this point. There have been periods in Christians history that persons have been dealt with as if they were means rather than ends. But Christianity at its highest and best has always insisted that persons are intrinsically valuable. And so it is the job of the Christian to love every man because God love love. We must not love men merely because of their social or economic position or because of their cultural contribution, but we are to love them because  God  they are of value to God.

Christianity is also concerned about the value of life itself. Christianity is concerned about the good life for every  child,  man,  and  woman and child. This concern for the good life and the value of life is no where better expressed than in the words of Jesus in the gospel of John: “I came that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” 9  This emphasis has run throughout the Christian tradition. Christianity has always had a concern for the elimination of disease and pestilence. This is seen in the great interest that it has taken in the hospital movement.

Christianity is concerned about increasing value. The whole concept of the kingdom of God on earth expressing a concern for increasing value. We need not go into a dicussion of the nature and meaning of the Kingdom of God, only to say that Christians throughout the ages have held tenaciouly to this concept. They have looked forward for a time to come when the law of love becomes the law of life.

In the light of all that we have said about Christianity as a value philosophy, where does the ministry come into the picture? 10

1.  King may have also considered the purpose of religion in a Morehouse paper that is no longer extant, as he began a third Morehouse paper, “Last week we attempted to discuss the purpose of religion” (King, “The Purpose of Education,” September 1946-February 1947, in  Papers  1:122).

2.  “Harry Emerson Fosdick” in  American Spiritual Autobiographies: Fifteen Self-Portraits,  ed. Louis Finkelstein (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 114: “The theology of any generation cannot be understood, apart from the conditioning social matrix in which it is formulated. All systems of theology are as transient as the cultures they are patterned from.”

3.  King further developed this theme in his dissertation: “[Tillich] finds a basis for God's transcendence in the conception of God as abyss. There is a basic inconsistency in Tillich's thought at this point. On the one hand he speaks as a religious naturalist making God wholly immanent in nature. On the other hand he speaks as an extreme supernaturalist making God almost comparable to the Barthian ‘wholly other’” (King, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” 15 April 1955, in  Papers  2:535).

4.  Commas were added after the words “religion” and “salvation.”

5.  King folded this assignment lengthwise and signed his name on the verso of the last page.

6.  King also penned a brief outline with this title (King, “The Philosophy of Life Undergirding Christianity and the Christian Ministry,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951). In the outline, King included the reference “see Enc. Of Religion p. 162.” This entry in  An Encyclopedia of Religion,  ed. Vergilius Ferm (New York: Philosophical Library, 1946) contains a definition of Christianity as “Christo-centric” and as consisting “of eternal values of intrinsic, self-evidencing validity and worth, embracing the true and the beautiful and consummated in the Good.” King kept this book in his personal library.

7.  Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-ca. 483 BCE) was the historical Buddha.

8.  For an example of Schweitzer's use of the phrase “reverence for life,” see Albert Schweitzer, “The Ethics of Reverence for Life,”  Christendom  1 (1936): 225-239.

9.  John 10:10.

10.  In his outline for this paper, King elaborated: “The Ministry provides leadership in helping men to recognize and accept the eternal values in the Xty religion. a. The necessity of a call b. The necessity for disinterested love c. The [ necessity ] for moral uprightness” (King, “Philosophy of Life,” Outline, September 1948-May 1951).

Source:  CSKC-INP, Coretta Scott King Collection, In Private Hands, Sermon file.

©  Copyright Information

Martin Luther King III honors his father's legacy: 'This nation must come together'

The son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the National Civil Rights Museum Thursday on the 56th anniversary of his father's assassination.

Standing at the exact point where King was shot on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King III honored his father's legacy and lamented the connection that was taken from him.

"The loss of a parent can be transformative," King said, visibly emotional. It was his first time speaking at the annual event in Memphis. "At the age of 10 years old, I didn't get to have adult conversations with my father. He did not see me graduate from high school, or his beloved Morehouse College. He didn't get to meet my wife and our daughter."

King spoke during the "Remembering MLK: The Man. The Movement. The Moment.", a free public event organized by the National Civil Rights Museum to honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Hundreds congregated Thursday on the Memphis museum's courtyard.

Beyond his own personal loss, King spoke of the progress he believed the nation lost as well.

"Had my father lived, we would be on a totally different trajectory," he said. "We may have some issues to address, but they wouldn't be these. These have been repetitive, we keep going 'round and 'round."

King continued, addressing many problems he said the country and the world face today: warfare, a flawed democracy, a broken justice system and systemic poverty, to name a few. But ultimately, the central message he spoke echoed that of his father — one of unity and non-violence.

"This nation must come together, to live out the true promises of who it says it is," King said. "In life, we must decide whether we're... going to go along to get along, or whether we're going to create the climate for change and justice and righteousness and peace. We as human beings can do that. History has shown us that time and time again."

King's wife, Arndrea Waters King, also spoke during Thursday's event. Like her husband, she reaffirmed that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream did not die with him.

"Here we are today. In some ways it seems even farther from [King's] dream," she said. "But what we know as a family, and why we decided to be here today, as difficult as it is, for us to stand here, is that there is something that man cannot ever destroy. And that love, faith and vision that lived inside of Martin Luther King Jr. now lives inside each and every one of us.

"He did not make it all the way to the mountaintop. But he ignited a vision and a dream, and now in 2024 it is up to each one of us to do our part... History is not about collective guilt. It's about collective responsibility."

Various city and state political leaders could be seen at the ceremony. Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Tennessee state Sen. Raumesh Akbari gave brief opening statements. State Rep. Justin Pearson, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and the parents of Tyre Nichols, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, attended as well.

The ceremony was interspersed with performances from the W. Crimm Singers of Tennessee State University, music from gospel singer Deborah Manning Thomas, and audio from the many speeches King gave over his lifetime. Members of King's fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, presented their own wreath to honor their brother. Winners of the museum's Youth Poetry and Spoken Word Competition performed as well.

The event closed, as it does every year, with the exchanging of the balcony wreath, during a moment of silence at 6:01 p.m., the exact time when King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. As the Kings and others lowered the massive wreath onto its resting place moments later, audio of King's final speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," rang out in an otherwise respectfully silent crowd.

Though it was a difficult day for Martin Luther King III, he ended his speech on a hopeful note, referencing the James Cleveland song "I Don't Feel Noways Tired."

"Do not get noways tired as the song says," King said. "Because we've come too far from where we started. No one ever told any of use that our roads would be easy. But I know our God... didn't bring any of us this far to leave us."

Jacob Wilt is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at [email protected] .