King's Home And Church In Montgomery example essay topic

Martin Luther King Jr. King was born Michael Luther King in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. He was one of the three children of Martin Luther King Sr., pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Alberta (Williams) King, a former schoolteacher. He was renamed 'Martin' when he was about 6 years old. After going to local grammar and high schools, at the age of 15, he entered Morehouse College located in Atlanta, under a special program for gifted students in 1944. He wasn't planning to enter the ministry, but then he met Dr. Benjamin Mays, a scholar whose manner and behavior convinced him that a religious career could be academically satisfying as well.

After receiving his bachelor's degree in 1948, King attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, winning the Plafker Award as the outstanding student of the graduating class, and the J. Lewis Crozer Fellowship as well. He completed the coursework for his doctorate in 1953, and was granted the degree two years later upon achievement of his study. While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, from Marion, Alabama, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. They were married in 1953 and had four children.

King then became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery in 1954. He had been pastor slightly more than a year when the city's small group of civil-rights advocates decided to contest racial segregation on that city's public bus system. On Dec. 1, 1955, a black woman named Rosa Parks had refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and as a result had been arrested for disobeying the city's segregation law. Black activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to boycott the transit system and chose King as their leader. He had the advantage of being a young, well-trained man who was too new in town to have made enemies; he was normally respected, and his family links and professional standing would allow him to find another pastorate should the boycott not do well. In his first speech to the group as its president, King stated:" 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". These words introduced to the nation a bright voice, a skillful public speaking, an inspirational personality, and in time a forceful new principle of civil struggle. Although King's home was destroyed and his family's safety threatened, he continued to lead the boycott until, one year and a few weeks later, the blacks of Montgomery achieved their goal of desegregation of the city's buses.

King then began his relationship with Ralph Abernathy, a minister with whom he would work for the rest of his life. That was only the start of his journey of fighting for the rights of his people. In 1957 King and Abernathy were helpful in founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of several groups King helped start. On January 14 that year, King's home and church in Montgomery were bombed as violence against black protesters continued. After this bombing King began to reveal more of the double nature of his personality-the desire to live and fight for the rights of African Americans. Though always aware of the possibility of death, King was faithfully dedicated to nonviolence because of its power over violence.

'Nonviolence can touch men where the law cannot reach them,' he felt, because nonviolence allows the just ethics of the 'great decent majority' of people to shine through, as Gandhi had demonstrated. He knew black people would have to suffer while accepting the role of nonviolence. 'The Negro all over the South must come to the point that he can say to his white brother: 'We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we will not obey your evil laws. We will soon wear you down by pure capacity to suffer!' 'King continued fighting for the rights of African Americans.

Although he was later assassinated in 1968, King led a wonderful life. He perfectly defines "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" because of his strength and faith through the years fighting for liberty and equality of all people and of togetherness of white man and man of color. He still plays a big part in our government today. I believe he has made the world a great place to live, a world with Liberty, Equality, and Togetherness of all of God's children.