Martin Luther King Jr., Timeline
When an individual is as famous as Martin Luther King Jr. there is sometimes a lot of information to go through to get a full biography; however, a timeline will help you get to the most important points of King's life, while still giving a firm foundation of knowledge about him.
Timeline of King's Life
Below, we have chronicled the life and times of Martin Luther King Jr. in a timeline with help from the online library at Louisiana State University.
1929
Martin Luther King Jr. is born on January 15 to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr. His birthplace was Atlanta, Georgia. At the time, the family had one other child - a daughter. Later, they would have another son.
1944
He graduates from high school at age 15 and begins attending Morehouse College. He was an extremely bright and intelligent man. He skipped over two grades in high school, which allowed him to start attending college when he was 15.
1948
Martin Luther King Jr. graduates from Morehouse College, and goes right on to study at the Crozer Theological Seminary in Atlanta. His father was a Reverend, and although King Jr. had doubts about Christianity early in life, he went on to fully embrace the mission of the religion and how it was connected to his goals.
On February 25 of this year, he was ordained into the Baptist ministry at the age of 19.
1951
He begins attending Boston University for graduate work. He studied systematic theology and received a Doctor of Philosophy.
1953
Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King were married. They established their residency in Montgomery, Alabama.
1955
He completed his Doctorate degree in Systematic Theology from Boston University.
He joined the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1 for refusing to give up her bus seat.
On December 5 King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and he became the official spokesperson for the boycott, which became one of the most prominent events of the civil rights movement.
1957
Martin Luther King Jr. created the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with 60 black ministers from Atlanta. The group's mission was to fight against segregation and racism.
On May 17th he gives a speech to 15,000 people in Washington D.C.
1958
Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act.
He was stabbed in Harlem while signing his newly-published, first book Stride Toward Freedom.
1959
He had been the pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. However during this year, he decided to leave that position so that he could focus on the civil rights movement full time.
He moves back to Atlanta to lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Mr. and Mrs. King traveled to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharial Nehru to study the nonviolence techniques of Mohandas Gandhi.
1960
He returned with his family to Atlanta and became co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.
He was arrested during one of the lunch counter sit-ins which occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was supposed to spend four months in jail; however, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy were able to get him released from jail.
1961
Martin Luther King Jr. convinces the Interstate Commerce Commission to prohibit segregation on public transportation going between states.
The Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) started their first Freedom Ride in a bus through the southern states.
1962
He is arrested in Albany, Georgia and jailed.
1963
Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in April with Ralph Albernathy in Birmingham Alabama for demonstrating without a permit. He spent eleven days in jail during which he wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail.
The Birmingham campaign becomes a major turning point for the civil rights movement resulting in desegregation of the schools and retail establishments.
In June King led over 125,000 people on the Freedom Walk in Detroit in June.
The March on Washington occurs in August, and he makes the extremely famous I Have a Dream speech to 250,000 people.
King is declared Man of the Year by Time magazine.
1964
King attends the July 2 signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at the White House in Washington.
On December 10, at the age of 35, King becomes the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
1965
King is arrested in February while he is demonstrating for voting rights in Selma, Alabama.
Governor George Wallace refuses to grant a permit to the 500 marchers in King's march from Selma to Montgomery designed to show the need for voter rights and to support the Voting Rights Bill which was unsigned. The march continued and over 10,000 started the march with King, joined by another 25,000 in Montgomery.
1966
In January King moves into a Chicago slum tenement in order to bring to light the housing problems that the black community faced.
In June Martin Luther King Jr., along with other individuals, starts the March Against Fear in the south.
1967
The Supreme Court upholds the 1963 Birmingham conviction and King spends four days in the the Birmingham jail.
In November the Poor People's Campaign begins and is targeted at people who were facing poverty.
1968
King announces that the Poor People's Campaign will march on Washington to demand support of the $12 billion Economic Bill of Rights which guaranteed employment, income to those who are unable to work and the end of discrimination.
King marches in support of sanitation workers in Memphis.
He delivers the I've Been to the Mountaintop speech in Memphis.
On April 4, he is shot while standing on the balcony at his hotel, and later dies. His death is followed by riots in 130 U.S. cities. His funeral was on April 9th and had international attendance.
1983
On November 2, Martin Luther King Day was proclaimed as a federal holiday by President Ronald Reagan.
1986
Martin Luther King Day first observed.
2000
Martin Luther King Day observed nationwide for the first time.
2011
Martin Luther King Jr. memorial dedicated in Washington D.C.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s life ended in tragedy. However, he will always be remembered, and people across the nation continue to work to make his work and vision live on.
This was a wealth of information for me concerning Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life.
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