Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

About the Author

Martin Luther King, Jr., was the preeminent leader of the modern civil rights movement. His philosophy of nonviolent direct action and inspirational oratory helped overthrow the Jim Crow system of racial segregation and win greater rights for African Americans.

King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Baptist ministers. He was educated at Morehouse College and Crozier Theological Seminary. He studied philosophy at Boston University, receiving his doctorate in 1955.

In 1953 he married Coretta Scott. They had four children. Also in 1953 he accepted the pastorate of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. After Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, King was persuaded to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, an organization formed to coordinate the 381-day boycott of city buses. King's successful leadership of the boycott and his application of Gandhian nonviolence to civil rights issues thrust him into national prominence.

King and other African American ministers formed the SCLC in 1957 to expand the struggle against racial segregation in the South. In 1962 King and the SCLC suffered a major defeat in Albany, Georgia, where months of demonstrations had failed to desegregate any public facilities. Mass protests in Birmingham produced a more successful outcome. In response to growing pressure for legislative action, President John F. Kennedy introduced a comprehensive civil rights bill. On August 28, 1963, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” Speech before 250,000 people assembled for the March on Washington. He was named Time magazine's “Man of the Year” for 1963 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

King and the SCLC focused on voting rights in 1965. Selma, Alabama, was targeted for demonstrations because of white authorities' determined opposition to African American voter registration. A vicious attack by Alabama state troopers on nonviolent protesters drew national attention. King then led marchers from Selma to Montgomery to press for national voting rights legislation. President Lyndon B. Johnson responded by sponsoring the Voting Rights Act, which became law that summer. In subsequent years King extended his crusade beyond the South, tackling slum housing in Chicago in 1966, declaring his opposition to the Vietnam War in 1967, and calling for a Poor People's Campaign for economic justice in 1968.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, while supporting a strike by sanitation workers. In 1983 Congress declared King's birthday a national holiday.