Biography of Martin Luther King free essay sample

Early life and   For more details on this topic, see  Martin Luther King, Jr. authorship issues. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in  Atlanta, Georgia, the middle child of the Reverend  Martin Luther King, Sr. and  Alberta Williams King. [5]  King Jr. had an older sister,  Willie Christine King, and a younger brother,  Alfred Daniel Williams King. 6]:76  King sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie  Gone with the Wind. [7] King was originally skeptical of many of Christianitys claims. [8]  Most striking, perhaps, was his initial denial of the  bodily resurrection of Jesus  during  Sunday school  at the age of thirteen. From this point, he stated, doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly. [9]  However, he later concluded that the Bible has many profound truths which one cannot escape and decided to enter the  seminary. [8] Growing up in Atlanta, King attended  Booker T. Washington High School. A precocious student, he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered  Morehouse College  at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school. We will write a custom essay sample on Biography of Martin Luther King or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page [10]  In 1948, he graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts degree in  sociology, and enrolled in  Crozer Theological Seminary  in  Chester, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a  Bachelor of Divinity  degree in 1951. With assistance from the  Quaker  group the  American Friends Service Committee, and inspired by Gandhis success with non-violent activism, King visited  Gandhis birthplace in India in 1959. [6]:3  The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of  non-violent resistance  and his commitment to Americas struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation. [6]:135–6 African American civil rights activist  Bayard Rustin  had studied Gandhis teachings. [24]  Rustin counseled King to dedicate himself to the principles of non-violence,[25]  served as Kings main advisor and mentor throughout his early activism,[26]  and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. 27]  Rustins open homosexuality, support of  democratic socialism, and his former ties to the  Communist Party USA  caused many white and African-American leaders to demand King distance himself from Rustin. Public stance on political parties As the leader of the SCLC, King maintained a policy of not publicly endorsing a U. S. political party or candidate: I feel someone must remain in the position of non-alignment, so that he can look objectively at both parties and be the conscience of both—not the servant or master of either. [29] In a 1958 interview, he expressed his view that neither party was perfect, saying, I dont think the Republican party is a party full of the almighty God nor is the Democratic party. They both have weaknesses And Im not inextricably bound to either party. [30] King critiqued both parties performance on promoting racial equality: Actually, the Negro has been betrayed by both the Republican and the Democratic party. The Democrats have betrayed him by capitulating to the whims and caprices of the Southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans have betrayed him by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of reactionary right wing northern Republicans. And this coalition of southern Dixiecrats and right wing reactionary northern Republicans defeats every bill and every move towards liberal legislation in the area of civil rights. [31] Personal political advocacy Although King never publicly supported a political party or candidate for president, in a letter to a civil rights supporter in October 1956 he said that he was undecided as to whether he would vote for the  Adlai Stevenson  or  Dwight Eisenhower, but that In the past I always voted the Democratic ticket. [32] In his autobiography,