sparknotes
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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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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