Martin Luther King Jr example essay topic
He was a prime mover of the Montgomery bus boycott, a key speaker at the March on Washington, and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner. Martin Luther King was known as a nonviolent protester and a dominant force in the civil rights movement during the decade of 1957 to 1968. King was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929. He was one of three children of Martin Luther King Sr. His father was a pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church. His mother was Alberta (William's) King.
She was a school teacher. He was born Michael Luther King but was renamed "Martin" when he was six years old. After King graduated from high school he enrolled in Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1944. King received his bachelor's degree in 1948. He then attended Crosier Theological Seminary in Chester, PA. There he won the Placer Award as the outstanding student of the graduating class and the J. Lewis Crozier fellowship.
He completed his education with a doctorate in 1953. King was married when he returned to the South to become pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. Here he made his first mark in the civil rights movement by mobilizing the black community during the 382 day boycott of the city's bus lines. True to his belief, he overcame violent harassment including the bombing of his home. The end result was the U.S. Supreme Court declaring bus segregation unconstitutional. King became a national hero and a civil-rights leader.
King gathered black leaders in 1957 and formed the organization now known as Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was elected President and soon began helping other communities organize protest against discrimination. King wrote his first book and returned from India to the United States in 1960 and became the co-pastor, with his father, of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Three years later, King's nonviolent tactic were tested in Birmingham, during a protest for fair hiring and desegregation of department store bathrooms. King was arrested, but his voice was not silence. Later that year, King was a key speaker at the historic March on Washington.
That speech got him the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. King was involved with many other domestic issues. He was planning a nonviolent boycotts involving camp-ins to protect the poor. Unfortunately Martin was shot in the neck, by a rifle bullet on April 4, 1968. While standing outside with Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy. His death caused a wave of violence in major cities across the country.