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Martin Luther King, Jr.

 
 

Timeline

 
January 15, 1929: ·Martin Luther King, Jr. is born
 
September 20, 1944: ·King enters Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia
 
June 1948: ·King graduates from Morehouse College with a Bachelor's Degree in sociology
 
September 1948: ·King enters Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania
 
June 1951: ·King graduates with a Bachelor's Degree in Divinity studies
 
September 1951: ·King enters Boston University
 
June 18, 1953: ·King marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Alabama
 
May 17, 1954: ·United States Supreme Court rules segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
 
October 31, 1954: ·King becomes pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama
 
June 5, 1955: ·King receives his PhD from Boston University
 
November 17, 1955: ·King's first child, Yolanda Denise, is born
 
December 1, 1955: ·Rosa Parks is arrested for disobeying segregationist policies on a Montgomery bus
 
December 5, 1955: ·Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
 
January 30, 1956: ·King's home is bombed
 
November 13, 1956: ·United States Supreme Court rules bus segregation unconstitutional
 
January 1957: ·Southern Christian Leadership Conference forms in Atlanta, electing King president
 
February 1957: ·King is featured on the cover of Time Magazine
 
October 23, 1957: ·King's second child, Martin Luther King III, is born
 
September 17, 1958: ·King's first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is published
 
September 20, 1958: ·A mentally ill black woman stabs King in at a Harlem book- signing
 
February 1959: ·King studies non-violent tactics during a trip to India
 
January 1960: ·King returns to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta
 
October 19, 1960: ·King is arrested in Atlanta, at one of hundreds of sit-ins that occur throughout the year
 
January 30, 1961: ·King's third child, Dexter Scott, is born
 
May 1961: ·King assists in negotiations for the Freedom Riders
 
December 1961: ·King goes to Albany Georgia, to aid a desegregation campaign, and is arrested
 
July 27, 1962: ·King is arrested again in Albany
 
March 28, 1963: ·King's fourth child, Bernice Albertina, is born
 
April 1963: ·King spends a week in a Birmingham, Alabama jail and writes a letter to the nation
 
May 3-5, 1963: ·Police attack protestors in Birmingham
 
June 1963: ·King's second book, a collection of sermons, Strength to Love is published
 
August 28, 1963: ·250,000 people march on Washington, and King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech
 
December 3, 1963: ·King meets with Lyndon Johnson to discuss civil rights legislation
 
January 1964: ·Time Magazine names King "Man of the Year"
 
June 1964: ·King's book Why We Can't Wait is published.
 
July 1964: ·The Civil Rights Act is signed into law
 
September 18, 1964: ·King meets with Pope Pius VI
 
December 10, 1964: ·King receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway
 
February 2, 1965: ·King arrested in Selma, Alabama, during voter-registration drive
 
February 21, 1965: ·Malcolm X is assassinated
 
March 1965: ·King leads a march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery
 
August 1965: ·President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law
 
August 1965: ·Massive rioting occurs in Watts, California
 
August 1965: ·King begins to speak out against the Vietnam War
 
February 1966: ·King moves to Chicago to commence a SCLC campaign there
 
June 1966: ·Stokely Carmichael popularizes Black Power as a civil rights rallying cry
 
July 1966: ·King leads demonstrations in Chicago
 
April 4, 1967: ·King delivers his first sermon devoted entirely to the issue of Vietnam
 
November 27, 1967: ·King announces his vision of a Poor People's March on Washington
 
March 28, 1968: ·King leads a march of black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee
 
April 4, 1968: ·King is assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis
 
April 1968: ·riots break out across the nation in reaction to King's death
 
November 2, 1983: ·King's birthday becomes a national holiday
 
 
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