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Letter from a Birmingham Jail | US government and civics | Khan Academy

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Picture of MLK in Mississippi, after presenting one of his greatest speeches. 

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The speech, "I have a dream", was a message for his people to protests stronger and harder in order to make the state safe for his 4 daughters.

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MLK is tryng to say how if we dont speak up about things, then we lose our meaning and purpose. Therefore, he encourages people to take action no matter what.

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Dr. King was especially fond of spirituals, and one of his favorites was “Balm in Gilead”,

This was one of his favorites because of the hopeful lyrics it contained

“Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.”

According to his wife, Coretta Scott King, Dr. King would quote the song when he needed a lift.

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"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

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One of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Most Inspiring Motivational Quote

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One of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Most Inspiring Motivational Quote

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"Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude."

I think that saying this is a way of forgiving the whites for their actions but also giving them a sort of comfort that it's something that we permanently are and stay. Making forgiving a very powerful act and mindset.

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Above is an interesting article about MLK Jr. and his rise as an influential figure in the fight for equality.

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No figure is more closely identified with the mid-20th century struggle for civil rights than Martin Luther King, Jr. His adoption of nonviolent resistance to achieve equal rights for Black Americans earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. King is remembered for his masterful oratorical skills, most memorably in his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Early Life and Education

Born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, King was heavily influenced by his father, a church pastor, who King saw stand up to segregation in his daily life. In 1936, King's father also led a march of several hundred African Americans to Atlanta's city hall to protest voting rights discrimination.

As a member of his high school debate team, King developed a reputation for his powerful public speaking skills, enhanced by his deep baritone voice and extensive vocabulary. King left high school at the age of 15 to enter Atlanta's Morehouse College, an all-male historically Black university attended by both his father and maternal grandfather.

After graduating in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in sociology, King decided to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in a seminary in Pennsylvania before pursuing a doctorate in theology at Boston University. While studying for King served as an assistant minister at Boston's Twelfth Baptist Church, which was renowned for its abolitionist origins. In Boston, he met and married Coretta Scott, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Joining the Civil Rights Movement

After finishing his doctorate, King returned to the South at the age of 25, becoming pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Shortly after King took up residence in the town, Rosa Parks made history when she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a Montgomery bus.

Starting in 1955, Montgomery's Black community staged an extremely successful bus boycott that lasted for over a year. King, played a pivotal leadership role in organizing the protest. His arrest and imprisonment as the boycott's leader propelled King onto the national stage as a lead figure in the civil rights movement.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.... We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

With other Black church leaders in the South, King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to mount nonviolent protests against racist Jim Crow laws. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's model of nonviolent resistance, King believed that peaceful protest for civil rights would lead to sympathetic media coverage and public opinion. His instincts proved correct when civil rights activists were subjected to violent attacks by white officials in widely televised episodes that drew nationwide outrage. With King at its helm, the civil rights movement ultimately achieved victories with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Nonviolent protest gains traction

In 1959, King returned to Atlanta to serve as co-pastor with his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. His involvement in a sit-in at a department 1960 presidential election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Pressure from Kennedy led to King's release.

Working closely with NAACP, King and the SCLC turned their sights on Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, organizing sit-ins in public spaces. Again, the protests drew nationwide attention when televised footage showed Birmingham police deploying pressurized water jets and police dogs against peaceful demonstrators. The campaign was ultimately successful, forcing the infamous Birmingham police chief Bull Connor to resign and the city to desegregate public spaces.

"There is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It's worth going to jail for. It's worth losing a job for. It's worth dying for. My friends, go out this evening determined to achieve this freedom which God wants for all of His children." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the campaign, King was once again sent to prison, where he composed his legendary "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in response to a call from white sympathizers to address civil rights through legal means rather than protest. King passionately disagreed, saying the unjust situation necessitated urgent action. He wrote: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.... We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

History-making marches

In 1963, King and the SCLC worked with NAACP and other civil rights groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which attracted 250,000 people to rally for the civil and economic rights of Black Americans in the nation's capital. There, King delivered his majestic 17-minute "I Have a Dream" speech.

Along with other civil rights activists, King participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. The brutal attacks on activists by the police during the march were televised into the homes of Americans across the country. When the march concluded in Montgomery, King gave his "How Long, Not Long" speech, in which he predicted that equal rights for African Americans would be imminently granted. His legendary words are widely quoted today: "How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Less than six months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act banning disenfranchisement of Black Americans.

Death and legacy

Over the next few years, King broadened his focus and began speaking out against the Vietnam War and economic issues, calling for a bill of rights for all Americans.

In the spring of 1968, King visited Memphis, Tennessee, to support Black sanitary workers who were on strike. On April 4, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray in his Memphis hotel. President Johnson called for a national day of mourning on April 7. In 1983, Congress cemented King's legacy as an American icon by declaring the third Monday of every January Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

King was honored with dozens of awards and honorary degrees for his achievement throughout his life and posthumously. In addition to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, King was awarded the NAACP Medal in 1957 and the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Committee in 1965. After his death, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1994 with his wife, Coretta.

King's legacy has inspired activists fighting injustice anywhere in the world. NAACP has carried on King's work on behalf of Black Americans and strives to keep his dream alive for future generations. We take inspiration from his closing remarks at the NAACP Emancipation Day Rally in 1957: "I close by saying there is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It's worth going to jail for. It's worth losing a job for. It's worth dying for. My friends, go out this evening determined to achieve this freedom which God wants for all of His children."

No figure is more closely identified with the mid-20th century struggle for civil rights than Martin Luther King, Jr. His adoption of nonviolent resistance to achieve equal rights for Black Americans earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. King is remembered for his masterful oratorical skills, most memorably in his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Early Life and Education

Born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, King was heavily influenced by his father, a church pastor, who King saw stand up to segregation in his daily life. In 1936, King's father also led a march of several hundred African Americans to Atlanta's city hall to protest voting rights discrimination.

As a member of his high school debate team, King developed a reputation for his powerful public speaking skills, enhanced by his deep baritone voice and extensive vocabulary. King left high school at the age of 15 to enter Atlanta's Morehouse College, an all-male historically Black university attended by both his father and maternal grandfather.

After graduating in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in sociology, King decided to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in a seminary in Pennsylvania before pursuing a doctorate in theology at Boston University. While studying for King served as an assistant minister at Boston's Twelfth Baptist Church, which was renowned for its abolitionist origins. In Boston, he met and married Coretta Scott, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Joining the Civil Rights Movement

After finishing his doctorate, King returned to the South at the age of 25, becoming pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Shortly after King took up residence in the town, Rosa Parks made history when she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a Montgomery bus.

Starting in 1955, Montgomery's Black community staged an extremely successful bus boycott that lasted for over a year. King, played a pivotal leadership role in organizing the protest. His arrest and imprisonment as the boycott's leader propelled King onto the national stage as a lead figure in the civil rights movement.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.... We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

With other Black church leaders in the South, King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to mount nonviolent protests against racist Jim Crow laws. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's model of nonviolent resistance, King believed that peaceful protest for civil rights would lead to sympathetic media coverage and public opinion. His instincts proved correct when civil rights activists were subjected to violent attacks by white officials in widely televised episodes that drew nationwide outrage. With King at its helm, the civil rights movement ultimately achieved victories with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Nonviolent protest gains traction

In 1959, King returned to Atlanta to serve as co-pastor with his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. His involvement in a sit-in at a department 1960 presidential election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Pressure from Kennedy led to King's release.

Working closely with NAACP, King and the SCLC turned their sights on Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, organizing sit-ins in public spaces. Again, the protests drew nationwide attention when televised footage showed Birmingham police deploying pressurized water jets and police dogs against peaceful demonstrators. The campaign was ultimately successful, forcing the infamous Birmingham police chief Bull Connor to resign and the city to desegregate public spaces.

"There is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It's worth going to jail for. It's worth losing a job for. It's worth dying for. My friends, go out this evening determined to achieve this freedom which God wants for all of His children." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the campaign, King was once again sent to prison, where he composed his legendary "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in response to a call from white sympathizers to address civil rights through legal means rather than protest. King passionately disagreed, saying the unjust situation necessitated urgent action. He wrote: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.... We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

History-making marches

In 1963, King and the SCLC worked with NAACP and other civil rights groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which attracted 250,000 people to rally for the civil and economic rights of Black Americans in the nation's capital. There, King delivered his majestic 17-minute "I Have a Dream" speech.

Along with other civil rights activists, King participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. The brutal attacks on activists by the police during the march were televised into the homes of Americans across the country. When the march concluded in Montgomery, King gave his "How Long, Not Long" speech, in which he predicted that equal rights for African Americans would be imminently granted. His legendary words are widely quoted today: "How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Less than six months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act banning disenfranchisement of Black Americans.

Death and legacy

Over the next few years, King broadened his focus and began speaking out against the Vietnam War and economic issues, calling for a bill of rights for all Americans.

In the spring of 1968, King visited Memphis, Tennessee, to support Black sanitary workers who were on strike. On April 4, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray in his Memphis hotel. President Johnson called for a national day of mourning on April 7. In 1983, Congress cemented King's legacy as an American icon by declaring the third Monday of every January Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

King was honored with dozens of awards and honorary degrees for his achievement throughout his life and posthumously. In addition to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, King was awarded the NAACP Medal in 1957 and the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Committee in 1965. After his death, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1994 with his wife, Coretta.

King's legacy has inspired activists fighting injustice anywhere in the world. NAACP has carried on King's work on behalf of Black Americans and strives to keep his dream alive for future generations. We take inspiration from his closing remarks at the NAACP Emancipation Day Rally in 1957: "I close by saying there is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It's worth going to jail for. It's worth losing a job for. It's worth dying for. My friends, go out this evening determined to achieve this freedom which God wants for all of His children."

March on Washington, August 28, 1963

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Working closely with NAACP, Martin Luther King, Jr. helped win civil rights victories through his embrace of nonviolent resistance and unforgettable speeches.

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"I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."

Martin Luther King was an advocate for peace and wanted to bring righteousness to his people.

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"Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."

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In the following link above you can find old news articles about MLK. The articles talk about all kinds of movements and things he did.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a leading figure in the American civil rights movement noted for his support of non-violence and civil disobedience .

King was born in Atlanta , Georgia, in 1929. In 1955, while working as a Baptist minister in Montgomery , Alabama, he led a successful year-long of the city's segregated bus lines. In 1957, King became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which worked to provide coordination and leadership for the civil rights movement.

1963 saw King take part in a desegregation campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. He was at the March for Jobs and Freedom, also called the jailed for his involvement and during this time penned his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Later that year, he gave his renowned "I Have a Dream" speech March on Washington. In 1964, at age 35, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize .

Starting around 1965, King began to focus on issues beyond civil rights , such as poverty and opposition to the Vietnam War . On April 4, 1968, King was shot and assassination . King's was held on April 9. killed at a motel in Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to the

Since 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been celebrated as a U.S. birthday national holiday on the third Monday in January to commemorate King's .

Learn more about Martin Luther King Jr. through historical newspapers from our archives. Explore newspaper articles, headlines, images, and other primary sources below.

Articles and Clippings about Martin Luther King Jr.

Topics Black History, Civil Rights, Famous People
The views and opinions expressed in these newspaper articles and clippings are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Newspapers.com or Ancestry.

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Martin Luther King Jr. - Topics on Newspapers.com

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a leading figure in the American civil rights movement noted for his support of non-violence and civil disobedience. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. In 1955, while working as a Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama, he led a successful year-long boycott of the city's...

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This was MLK's final speech before he was assassinated by James Earl Ray over 50 years ago at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. King called for unity, economic actions, boycotts, and nonviolent protests while challenging the US to live up to its ideals. In the speech, he talks about the possibility of an untimely death

His final words before being shot "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord"

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Martin Luther King’s final speech: 'I've been to the mountaintop'

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In your life’s blueprint by LMK, he wants toconvey how you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You’re going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life’s work will be. Set out to do it well.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., "What Is Your Life's Blueprint?"

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Here, MLK is announcing one of speeches. This picture

shows a great determination in MLK's speech and that he is announcing everything from his heart. A great influence.

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Martin Luther King Jr. had 4 children with his wife Coretta Scott King: Yolanda Denise King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice Albertine King.

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The video talks about MLK and how he contributed to the civil rights movement. He spoke, rose, and encouraged people not just black to fight for whats right.

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Martin Luther King Jr: Risked Life for Civil Rights Movement | Biography

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In this article, you will find a gigantic list of quotes from MLK over his years of activism. An example of one of these quotes is the following: "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."

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Quotations - Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)

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Here it shows where and the aftermath of MLKS assasination.

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Martin Luther King: Assassination & Aftermath Preview

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"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

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To know he was not just using this for fame, popularity, or social status. He referred to Ghandi as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.". He was really doing this because he cares about his people and wanted eqality.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.—facts and information

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A civil rights legend, Dr. King fought for justice through peaceful protest—and delivered some of the 20th century’s most iconic speeches.

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The well known Martin Luther King Jr. takes a stand for his people, and makes them realize how important it is to work together to stand for their own rights. He explains that if they work together, there will be a better America, and a better future for MLK and his community. One of his many speeches attracted thousands of people into his great words and courage.

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I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King .Jr HD (subtitled)