Martin Luther King, Jr. [1] American pastor of the Baptist Church who did crucial work in the United States at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans and who also participated as an activist in numerous protests against the Vietnam War and poverty in general.
For this activity aimed at ending American Apartheid and racial discrimination through non-violent means, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize [2] in 1964 .
Luther King is remembered as one of the greatest leaders and heroes in American history, and in the modern history of nonviolence. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and the United States Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.
King was assassinated prior to the April 4 , 1968 march on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis , Tennessee , as he prepared for a peaceful public demonstration. King was spied on and harassed by the FBI . The former director of that agency, J. Edgar Hoover , expressed that King was a dangerous man, ” an instrument in the hands of subversive forces that seek to undermine our nation .”
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Childhood and youth
- 2 Fight for civil rights
- 3 In Birmingham
- 4 The March on Washington
- 5 Nobel Peace Prize
- 6 Bloody Sunday
- 7 Against the Vietnam War and poverty
- 8 Murder
- 2 FBI manhunt
- 3 References
- 4 Sources
Biographical synthesis
Childhood and youth
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15 , 1929, in Atlanta , Georgia . His father was Baptist pastor Martin Luther King, Sr. and his mother was church organist Alberta Williams King. His father’s name was originally Michael King and his at birth Michael King, Jr. On a family trip to Europe in 1934 , the father, during a visit to Germany , decided to change the names using Martin Luther in honor of the Protestant leader Martin Luther (in Spanish Martin Luther ). [3] He had an older sister, Christine King Ferris, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King.
In 1939 , he sang with the choir of his church in Atlanta for the presentation of the film Gone with the Wind .
King studied at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta. He was not in the ninth or twelfth grade, and entered Morehouse College , a college reserved for black youth, at age 15, without formally graduating from high school. In 1948 , he graduated from Morehouse with a sociology degree and enrolled at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania , from where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree (a degree in theology). Then in September of that same year he began his doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University , receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Fight for civil rights
In 1954 , King began his life as a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery at the age of 25.
The southern United States was characterized at that time by violence against black people and racism that would lead to the death of three black people in 1955 , including a 14-year-old adolescent and a church pastor.
After the events of the 1 of December of 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus Luther King was one of the leaders in the bus boycott. The black population supported and sustained the boycott, and organized a ride-sharing system. King was arrested during this campaign.
The boycott lasted over a year (382 days) and was tense and dangerous. White racists resorted to terrorist methods and the home of Martin Luther King was attacked with firebombs on the morning of January 30, 1956, as well as that of Pastor Ralph Abernathy , who supported King and participated in the boycott.
The boycott ended thanks to a decision of the United States Supreme Court on November 13 , 1956, which made segregation in buses, restaurants, schools and other public places illegal.
In 1957, King was involved in founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a group created to organize Civil Rights activism. He continued to lead the organization until his death. He was an advocate of the philosophies of non-violence, and civil disobedience. When he was violently attacked by racist authorities, he garnered significant attention from the progressive media, sparking a pro-Civil Rights tide in public opinion.
King adhered to the philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience, as Henry David Thoreau had described and used successfully in India by Gandhi . [4] On the advice of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, he decided to use it for the SCLC demonstrations.
The FBI began to put Martin Luther King under surveillance in 1961 , believing that Communists were trying to infiltrate the civil rights movement. Although they did not get any proof, the agency used certain details recorded over six years to try to remove him from the direction of the organization.
While signing copies of his book at a store in Harlem , the 20 of September of 1958 was stabbed by Izola Curry, a black woman who accused him of being a communist leader, and it would be judged as unbalanced. Luther King narrowly escaped death, as the wound made with a paper knife had grazed his Aorta . He forgave his attacker and, in a statement to the press, took the opportunity to highlight and denounce the presence of violence in American society.
In 1959 he wrote the book The Measure of a Man , an attempt to describe an optimal structure of soc
Monument to Martin Luther King at 23 y F. El Vedado
political, social and economic age, from which the essay What is man? (What is a man?).
In Birmingham
In 1960 , the population of Birmingham, with 35% of its population made up of blacks, was one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States in all aspects of life. Birmingham had no policemen, no firemen, no shopkeepers, no black bank managers or clerks; employment for the black population was limited to manual jobs in steel mills.
After the arrest of Shuttlesworth, a pastor who was fighting to eliminate discrimination in Birmingham, for violating segregation laws in 1962 , he turned to Martin Luther King and the SCLC for help. The protests began with a boycott at Easter in 1963 to incite company bosses to open vendor jobs and other positions to people of all races, and to stop segregation in stores, demonstrating, for example, in the existence of collection boxes reserved exclusively for whites.
Luther Kin was arrested on April 13 and his letter from Birmingham Jail is a passionate statement of his quest for justice. In such circumstances, he received the direct support of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy , and Kin’s wife, Coretta, that of Jacqueline Kennedy ; he was released a week later.
On May 21 , after long peaceful demonstrations that were violently repressed by the police, the mayor of Birmingham resigned, the police chief was relieved and in June all segregation posters were removed and public places open to black women.
On Sunday 15 September , a Ku Klux Klan bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church during prayer time killed four black girls and injured 22 children. The attack sparked national outrage and bolstered the civil rights movement.
The March on Washington
Representing the SCLC, Martin Luther King was the leader of one of the six major civil rights organizations that organized the march on Washington for jobs and freedom. And he was one of those who accepted President John F. Kennedy’s suggestion to change the message of it.
Kennedy had initially opposed the goal of the march because he believed it could have a negative impact on the vote on the civil rights law. The group of six agreed under presidential pressure and influence to present a less radical message. Some civil rights activists thought at the time that the march thus presented an inaccurate and sweetened view of the situation for blacks; Malcolm X called it “The Sham on Washington.”
The march did, however, raise specific demands:
- the end of racial segregation in public schools;
- significant civil rights legislation (including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in the world of work);
- a protection of civil rights activists from police violence;
- a minimum wage of $ 2 for all workers without distinction;
- an independent government for Washington DC , reporting to a committee of Congress.
Despite the tensions, the march was a resounding success. More than 250 000 people of all ethnic groups met on 28 of August of 1963 against the United States Capitol, in what was the largest demonstration took place in the US capital.
What would ultimately be the high point in Martin Luther King’s struggle was his famous ” I have a dream ” speech , in which he expressed his will and hope to meet a fraternal America . This speech is considered one of the best in the US, along history with the Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln .
Nobel Peace Prize
Despite the 1954 ruling of the Supreme Court, which declared racial segregation unconstitutional in public schools, only six black children were admitted to white schools in St. Augustine ( Florida ).
In May and June 1964 , Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders took direct action in that city to denounce the events; a night march around the old slave market ended with protesters attacked by white segregationists and with the arrest of hundreds of people. As the prisons were too small, the detainees had to be locked up in the open. Some protesters were thrown into the sea by police and segregationists, and escaped drowning during an attempt to reach the white-only beaches of Anastasia Island .
The tension reached its peak when a group of protesters threw themselves into the pool of the Monson motel forbidden to blacks. The photograph of a police officer diving to arrest a protester and that of the motel owner pouring hydrochloric acid into the pool to drive activists out were known all over the world and even served to discredit America’s freedom speech . Protesters endured verbal and physical violence without responding, which sparked a movement of national sympathy and helped pass the Civil Rights Act on July 2 , 1964.
On October 14, 1964, Martin Luther King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize , having led a non-violent resistance with the aim of eliminating racial prejudice in the United States.
Bloody sunday
Martin Luther King and the SCLC joined with the SNCC in the city of Selma in December 1964. The SNCC had already been there working on voter registration for a few months. King and the SCLC, in partial collaboration with SNCC, attempted to organize a march which had planned to go from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery , initiating the March 25 of the year 1965 . The first attempt to march was on March 7, was aborted due to the siege and police violence against the protesters. The day has since been known as Bloody Sunday or Grace Sunday. Bloody or Grace Sunday was the greatest turning point in the effort to win public support for the Civil and Human Rights movement more than all people of color for the clearest demonstration of the dramatic potential of the techniques. of Martin Luther King’s nonviolence.
King, however, was not present; Later in a meeting with President Lyndon Johnson , he had tried to delay the march until March 8 , but the march was held against his wishes and without his presence by local civil rights workers.
Images of police brutality against protesters were broadcast widely across the country, sparking a national sense of public outrage and the violation of human rights itself.
The second attempted march was on March 9 , which ended when the King stopped the march on the Pettus Bridge outside Selma, an action that he appears to have negotiated with city leaders beforehand. This unexpected event aroused the surprise and anger of many within the passivist movement. The march was finally carried out fully on March 25 , with the approval and support of President Johnson, and it was during this march that Stokely uttered the phrase Black Power.
By the time he arrived at the Montgomery Capitol on Thursday, March 25, the protesters numbered 25,000. Martin Luther King then delivered the ” How Long, Not Long ” speech . That same day, the white civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo was assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan while transporting protesters in her car. Martin Luther attended their funerals and President Johnson intervened directly on television to announce the arrest of the culprits.
Less than five months later, the president signed the Voting Rights Act guaranteeing the right to vote for black citizens without restrictions of any kind.
Against the Vietnam War and poverty
Beginning in 1965 , Martin Luther King began to publicly express his doubts about the role of the United States in the Vietnam War . The 4 of April of 1967 , a year before his death, in New York pronounced the speech “Beyond Vietnam: Time to break the silence.”
A true revolution of values would then worry, ashamed, of the surprising contrasts between poverty and wealth. With justified outrage, I would look across the seas and see individualistic capitalists from the West pouring huge amounts of money into Asia , Africa, and South America , just to make a profit and without any concern for social improvements in those countries. I’d say, “It’s not fair.”
He believed that Vietnam made it difficult to achieve the objectives Johnson set out in his 1964 State of the Union address, in which he announced a “war on poverty.”
Luther King was already hated by many racist whites in the southern states, but this speech caused many media to turn against him. Time called the speech “a demagogic slander that looked like a Radio Hanoi script,” and The Washington Post declared that King “had diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”
Luther King traveled the country from end to end to assemble a “multiracial army of the poor,” who would march on Washington and initiate civil disobedience at the capitol, which would last if necessary until Congress signed a declaration of human rights from the United States. poor. The Reader’s Digest would speak of an “insurrection.”
This “declaration of the poor” called for a government jobs program to rebuild America’s cities. Luther King saw an urgent need to confront the Congress that had demonstrated its “hostility to the poor” by “distributing military funds generously” but giving “funds to the poor greedily.” His vision was that of a change that would be more revolutionary than a simple reform: he cited the systematic defects of racism, poverty, militarism and indicated that “the very reconstruction of society was the real problem that had to be solved.”
Murder
In late March 1968 , Martin Luther King went to Memphis ( Tennessee ) to support local black scavengers who were on strike since March 12 in order to obtain better pay and better treatment.
As a result of the peaceful protests, a wave of violence broke out against them that degenerated into the murder of a young African American.
On April 3 , at the Mason Temple, Martin Luther gave the prophetic speech “I have been to the top of the mountain” before an euphoric audience.
The 4 of April of 1968 at 18 hours and one minute, Martin Luther King was killed by a white segregationist on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis ( Tennessee ). His last words on that balcony were addressed to musician Ben Branch , who was to perform that night during a public meeting attended by Martin Luther:
Ben, get ready to play Precious Lord, Take My Hand at the meeting tonight. Play it in the most beautiful way.
His death was declared at St. Joseph’s Hospital at 7:05 p.m. The assassination sparked a wave of racial riots in 60 cities in the United States (125 in all) that led to numerous deaths and forced the intervention of the National Guard.
Five days later, President Johnson decreed a national day of mourning (the first for an African American) in honor of Martin Luther King. His funerals were attended by 300,000 people, also attended by Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
Following the assassination, the city of Memphis negotiated an end to the strike in a garbage-friendly manner.
Two months after the death of Martin Luther King, James Earl Ray , an escapee, was captured at London Heathrow airport when he was trying to leave the UK with a false Canadian passport in the name of Ramon George Sneyd. Ray was quickly extradited to Tennessee and charged with the death of Martin Luther King; acknowledged the murder on March 10 , 1969, and recanted three days later. On the advice of his attorney Percy Foreman, Ray pleaded guilty in order to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Ray fired his lawyer, saying that the culprits in the death had been a certain “Raoul” and his brother Johnny, whom he had met in Montreal , Canada . He further said that “he had not personally shot King”, although he could “be partially responsible without knowing it”, suggesting a clue to a possible conspiracy. He then spent the rest of his life trying in vain to have his sentence overturned and the process reopened.
The 6 of April of 2002 , the New York Times reported that a pastor, the Rev. Ronald Denton Wilson, had declared that it was his father Henry Clay Wilson , who had assassinated Martin Luther King Jr, and not James Earl Ray. He said his motives were not racist but political, since he thought King was a communist. [5]
FBI manhunt
The FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover had antagonistic relations with Martin Luther King. Following a written order from Attorney General Robert Francis Kennedy, the FBI began investigating him and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference .
The FBI tapped into the phone lines at King and Stanley Levison’s homes and offices, as well as the hotels where they stayed when they were traveling across the country.
For his part, Martin Luther categorically denied having relations with the Communists, Hoover responded by accusing him of being “the biggest liar in the country.”
As nothing could be found politically against Luther King, the objectives and investigations of the FBI changed and they focused on trying to discredit him through his private life. The first attempt was made to prove that he was an unfaithful husband.
The FBI distributed reports of these alleged deviations in his private life to journalists who were friends, allies or potential sources of funding for the SCLC, and even to Martin Luther’s own family. The agency also sent anonymous letters to the interested party threatening to reveal more information if he did not abandon his civil rights activism. Some letter has even been interpreted as an invitation to Martin Luther to commit suicide.
The FBI’s last contact with Martin Luther King was the moment of his assassination. The agency was monitoring him at the Lorraine Motel from a building across the street, very close to where James Earl stood. Members of the FBI were the first to come along with Martin Luther to provide the first care as soon as he was shot. For those in favor of a conspiracy theory, his presence so close to the place of the crimes is a confirmation of his involvement in the murder.
