Newspaper Page Text
JANUARY 16, 2003
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A BRIEF LOOK AT THE HIGHLIGHTS IN THE 39-YEAR LIFETIME OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. conpied by Littian Wan
1929
January 15, noon
King is born at 501 Auburn Ave.,
N.E. in Atlanta, Georgia, to Rev. and
Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr.
1947
King is licensed to preach and
becomes assistant to his father, who
is pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist
Church of Atlanta.
1948
February 25
King is ordained to the Baptist min-
June
King receives his B.A. in sociology
from Morehouse College
September
King begins his studies at Crozer
Theological Seminary and, after
hearing sermons on Mohandas
Gandhi, begins to study Gandhi and
his philosophy.
1951
June
King graduates from Crozer with a
B.D..degree.
1953
June 18
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King addresses the media after
his arrest during the Mont
gomery bus boycott in 1956.
AP photo.
King weds Coret
ta Scott in Mari
on, Ala.
1954
May 17
The Supreme
Court, in Brown
v. Board of Edu
cation, rules seg
regation in public
schools is uncon
stitutional.
October 31
King is installed
as pastor of Dex
ter Avenue
church in Mont
gomery, Ala.
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In 1956, King is
y
arrested for his
;
part during
i
demonstrations
4
in Montgomery.
1955 |
June 5 '
King graduates from Boston Univer
sity with a Ph.D. degree in Systemat
ic Theology. |
December 1
Montgomery seamstress Rosa Parks
is arrested for refusing to give up her
bus seat to a white man. This inci
dent provokes King to lead a 381-day
bus boycott on Dec. 5 which touches
off a suspension of bus service in *
black neighborhoods by the Mont
] gflo;xery Bus Company, beginningon
10 :
1956
February 21
King is indicted with others
for their part in the Mont
gomery bus boycott on
charges of conspiring to pre
vent a business from opera
‘tion without “just or legal
cause.”
November 13
The Supreme Court
upholds a lower court ruling
that declares Alabama’s
legal segregation on buses
were unconstitutional.
Montgomery buses become
integrated Dec. 21.
1957
February ;
The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference
(SCLC) is founded. King is
oclected president. On Feb.
18, Time magazine features
AUGUSTA FOCUS
“Being a Negro in America is not T T
a comfortable existence. It S 8 =
pany of the bruised, the battered, | &*}
‘the scarred and the defeated. & e
Being a Negro in America means * f
trying to smile when you wantto @ e
cry. It means trying to hold on |l | 3;
to physical life amid psychologi- |
calp dZath. It means tl:)hz pain %f | ?T .
watching your children grow up -. ~ :
with clouds of inferiority in their
mental skies. It means having
your legs cut off, and then being i
condemned for being a cripple. It means seeing your moth
er and father spiritually murdered by the slings and arrows
of daily exploitation and then being hated for being an
orphan. Being a Negro in America means listening to sub
urban politicians talk eloquently against open housing while
arguing in the same breath that they are not racists. It
means being harried by day and haunted by night by a nag
ging sense of nobodiness and constantly fighting to be saved
from the poison of bitterness. It means the ache and
anguish of living in so many situations where hopes unborn
| have died.” '
King on its cover. He is later select
ed as one of the 10 most outstanding
personalities of the year.
May 17
King leads a mass march of 37,000
people to the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C. He gives a speech
entitled “Give Us the Ballot” in cel
ebration of the third anniversary of
the Supreme Court’s desegregation
decision. ;
September
Nine black students are escorted to
an all-white high school in Little
Rock by Arkansas National Guard
federalized by President Dwight
Eisenhower.
Partly in response to the march on
May 17, the US. Congress created
the Civil Rights Commission and the
Civil Rights Division of the Depart
ment of Justice on September 9, an
official body with the authority to
investigate voting irregularities.
1958
June 23
King and other top black leaders
meet with President Dwight Eisen
holber.
September
King publishes his first book, Stride
Toward Freedom: The Monigomery
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King is confronted by Albany, Geor
gia police chief Laurie Pritchett dur
ing nonviolent protests in 1961.
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King delivers his famous “I Have A Dream” speech to over
300,009 _mgrchers_in_Washington, D.C. in 1963.
Story, with Harper & Row, a story
about the Montgomery Bus Boycott..
1959
February
King and his wife studies Gandhi’s
techniques of non-violence during a
month’s stay in India.
King published a collection of his ser
mons for his second book, The Mea
sure of a Man (Philadelphia: Christ
ian Education Press).
1960
January 24
King joins with his father to co-pastor
Ebenezer Baptist Church.
1962
October 16
King meets with President John F.
Kennedy in a one-hour White House
conference. :
1963
King published his third and fourth
books this year: Why We Can’t Wait
and The Strength to Love, both by
Harper & Row Publishers.
April 16 :
King is arrested in Birmingham for
one of his sit-in demonstrations
against the segregation of eating
establishments in the city While
incarcerated, he pens the “Letter
From Birmingham Jail.”
August 28 -
King joins in the March on Washing
ton, the first large integrated protest
march that drew over 200,000 partic
ipants. At the Lincoln Memorial, he
delivers his “I Have a Dream”
speech. Afterward, King and other
civil rights leaders go to the White
House to meet with President
Kennedy.
He is selected as Time magazine’s
Man of the Year. i
1964 i
July 2 }
King attends the presidential signing
of the Public Accommodations Bill,
part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
by Lyndon B. Johnson. A
September 18
Dr. King attends an audience with
Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. >
December 10 '.-
King is. awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in Oslo, Norway. He divides the
$54,000 prize monies among several
civil rights organizations. %
1965 Y
March 21 i
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King in Birmingham, Alabama’
in 1963. rhoto by Ernest Haas.