Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamt of breaking down barriers and ending discrimination based on skin color, religion, personal beliefs, and much more. Indeed, Dr. King was a visionary and a leader whose life was tragically cut short before he could see the many fruits of his labor.
Dr. King was a strong proponent of change, and his impact was felt from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Here is a chronology of major events in Dr. King’s life.
• January 15, 1929: Martin Luther King, Jr. is born to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr. in Atlanta, Georgia.
• September 20, 1944: After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School a few months earlier, King begins his freshman year at Morehouse College in Atlanta. King graduates from the college in 1948 with a degree in sociology.
• February 25, 1948: After time spent in Crozer Theological Seminary, King is ordained to the Baptist ministry at the age of 19.
• September 13, 1951: King begins graduate studies in theology at Boston University.
• June 18, 1953: Coretta Scott and King are married at the Scott home near Marion, Alabama.
• September 1, 1954: King begins his pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
• June 5, 1955: Boston University awards King a doctorate in systematic theology.
• December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. A few days later, the Montgomery Improvement Association is formed to lead a boycott of the segregated buses and King becomes the group’s president.
• January 30, 1956: King’s home is bombed while he is away at a speaking engagement. Later, he addresses an angry crowd that gathers outside his home, asking for nonviolence.
• November 13, 1956: The U.S. Supreme Court declares bus segregation laws unconstitutional.
• February 17, 1957: King appears on the cover of Time magazine.
• May 17, 1957: King delivers his first national address at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
• 1958: The U.S. Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction.
• September 17, 1958: King publishes a book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. During a book signing a few days later in Harlem, New York, King is stabbed by Izola Ware Curry and rushed to Harlem Hospital.
• February 3, 1959: King embarks on a visit to India to meet with many of Gandhi’s followers and study the philosophy of nonviolence.
• 1960: With his family, King relocates back to his native Atlanta and becomes co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. King devotes most of his time to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group he and other activists established in 1957.
• June 23, 1960: John F. Kennedy, the Democratic presidential candidate, meets privately with King in New York.
• October 19, 1960: King is arrested during a sit-in demonstration at a department store in Atlanta.
• October 16, 1961: King urges President John F. Kennedy to issue a second Emancipation Proclamation to end racial segregation.
• September 28, 1962: A member of the American Nazi Party assaults King during a closing session of the SCLC in Birmingham, Alabama.
• April 12, 1963: King and Ralph Abernathy are arrested in Birmingham. King pens his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” four days later.
• June 23, 1963: King leads 125,000 people on a Freedom Walk in Detroit, Michigan.
• August 28, 1963: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom takes place, attracting more than 200,000 demonstrators at the Lincoln Memorial. Here King delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech. Later in the day, King and other civil rights leaders meet with President Kennedy in the White House.
• January 18, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with King and seeks support for his War on Poverty initiative.
• March 26, 1964: King meets Malcom X in Washington, D.C. This was their first and only meeting.
• December 10, 1964: King receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
• August 12, 1965: King publicly opposes the Vietnam War at a rally in Birmingham.
• March 28, 1968: During a march of 6,000 protestors in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, King is rushed from the scene after violence and looting begins.
• April 3, 1968: King delivers his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in Memphis.
• April 4, 1968: King is fatally shot while standing on a balcony at the Lorraine Hotel.
• November 2, 1986: A national holiday is proclaimed in King’s honor.
