Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). Biography and creative work

Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. His paternal grandfather had been a sharecropper while his maternal grandfather headed Atlanta’s black upper- middle-class Ebenezer Baptist Church. Martin’s father, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., and mother, the schoolteacher Alberta Williams King, raised him and his siblings (Alberta and Alfred) in the “sweet Auburn” neighborhood of Atlanta. Martin went to college through an early-admission program aimed at high school sophomores and juniors.

If a student did well on entrance examinations, admission was granted to either Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, or Morehouse College in Atlanta. Martin was admitted in 1944 to Morehouse when he was 15 years old. By 19 he had been ordained as a Baptist minister. After his ordination, King held the position of copastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church until his death 20 years later.

After majoring in sociology at Morehouse, King was accepted by Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor of divinity degree in 1951. That same year he entered Boston University’s Graduate School of Theology, where he was awarded the Ph.D. degree in systemic theology in 1955. His dissertation was entitled “A Comparison of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Wiseman.” While working on his doctorate, King met Coretta Scott, a graduate of Antioch College in Ohio, who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. Though she studied in the North, her roots were in rural Alabama. They were married in 1953 and subsequently had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther III, Dexter, and Bernice.

The Kings relocated to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1954 while Martin was still completing his doctorate, and he became the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, a position he retained until 1959. On December 5, 1955, only six months after receiving his doctoral degree, he was elected president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). This group had been formed after the December 1 arrest of Rosa Parks, who was famously charged with violating the city’s segregation ordinances. At the age of 27, King found himself at the center of national attention as African Americans organized to support Rosa Parks and oppose segregation in Montgomery. After a year of economic pressure on public transportation and downtown businesses, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Montgomery’s ordinances could not be used to segregate the races, ruling them unconstitutional.

In 1957 King formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a regional organization whose purpose was to fight segregation throughout the South using nonviolent strategies such as economic boycotts and picket lines. In addition, King intended the SCLC to act as a means through which various religious, social, and political groups could coordinate efforts and present unified opposition to segregation. In order to help galvanize support for future efforts, King wrote his first book, Stride toward Freedom (1958), a chronicle of how “Jim Crow” segregation laws had been defeated in Montgomery. In this work, King describes the difficulties in coordinating a massive movement, one guided by a basic philosophy:

This guiding principle has since been referred to variously as nonviolent resistance, noncooperation, and passive resistance. But in the first days of the protest none of these expressions was mentioned; the phrase most often heard was “Christian love.” It was the Sermon on the Mount, rather than a doctrine of passive resistance, that initially inspired the Negroes of Montgomery to dignified social action.

It is almost unthinkable when reading such words to imagine that, during a book signing at a New York department store in September 1958, a mentally deranged woman stabbed King in the chest with a letter opener, nearly killing him. King would frequently say for years afterward that the physicians who tended to his wound told him that had he sneezed, he would have severed his aorta and internally bled to death. During his recovery, King sojourned to India for further study of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s philosophy and practice of nonviolent protest.

A major figure in India’s spiritual and political history, Gandhi championed nonviolent protest against British colonial oppression, helping lead the nation to independence in 1948. The experience was a formative one that underscores the importance of Gandhi’s example to King’s project in the South. As he describes in “My Trip to the Land of Gandhi”: “While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change” (Ebony July 1959). When he returned, King followed the footsteps of his grandfather, moving to Atlanta in 1960 to become copastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church and direct the activities of the SCLC. Here King ardently advocated the use of nonviolent protest by African-American communities, a strategy that had been employed the previous February in Greensboro, North Carolina. His participation in “sit-ins” at Atlanta eateries resulted in his arrest and a four-month jail sentence. King was subsequently released, but only after the intervention of President John Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

The organizations that supported the SCLC and its nonviolent assault against segregation in the South varied a great deal from each other. Among them were the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced “snick”), the Urban League, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the National Council of Negro Women. Each was led by strong and talented activists who often challenged the wisdom of adhering to the SCLC’s pacifist philosophy and exclusive use of nonviolent means.

These tensions within the leadership of King’s organization were matched by logistical difficulties and a lack of resources. A CORE-led demonstration tested the ability of the SCLC under King to provide support for its members. In 1961, a CORE faction organized students to ride buses through the South defiantly, violating the Jim Crow ordinances and statutes of several states. Even though King supported the “Freedom Riders,” his endorsement was not much use without the assistance of the NAACP’s legal teams: All of their lawyers were needed to defend individuals who had been arrested for testing the 1957 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned segregation on interstate transportation.

Even though the protesters succeeded in gaining federal protection, it was not until the bonds of cooperation among civil rights groups had been severely strained. King tempered his need for action with both the NAACP’s preference for litigation and the local Christian churches’ and more conservative group’s need for gradual change. Even though King was frequently accused of being an “outside agitator,” he was prepared to respond by reminding critics of his southern roots and bases of operation. In Albany, Georgia, though, King experienced frustration and defeat as local authorities withstood the efforts of SNCC, the SCLC, and others.

Throughout 1962 the Albany campaign used sit-ins, voter registration drives, and picket lines to push local officials to desegregate public facilities. Hundreds were arrested, including King. National media attention waned and federal support faltered as the protesters were routinely arrested and sequestered. A shaky truce was reached when local officials agreed to abide by federal laws. However, where federal guidelines were absent and local authority remained effective, officials chose to close public facilities rather than make them equally accessible to African Americans.

The year 1963, though, proved to be a pivotal year in the life of Reverend King and the nation. The events surrounding King included the assassinations of Medgar Evers and President Kennedy, the murder of civil rights workers, and bombings that killed four little girls in Birmingham. In 1964, the nation witnessed the largest demonstration for civil rights in history as activists descended on Washington, D.C. The meaning of these events for King was significant. Assassination as a political tool was to be used against him five years later. The violence used by racists to thwart the activities of pacifists was to be counterbalanced by those refusing to continue to turn the other cheek. SNCC, the Deacons for Defense, and others, were to respond with reciprocal defensive violence as they vocally rejected the leadership of Reverend King and his proscriptions.

The effectiveness of mass demonstrations began to be questioned as civil rights organizations could no longer agree to unify their efforts despite their philosophical differences happened after the 1965 voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama. But King could still look back at 1963 as a banner year for successes: The Birmingham campaign not only defeated the strong-arm tactics of Sheriff Eugene “Bull” Connor, but also demonstrated on the world stage how repressive and unjust Jim Crow segregation was.

However, televising the plight of African-American children being attacked by vicious dogs and men with fire hoses was not enough. The Birmingham police and fire departments also precipitated the writing of one of King’s most important works, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which later was published as a chapter in his third book, Why We Can’t Wait (1964). In the letter King calls upon the Christian community, especially its leadership, its ministers, and its preachers, to act out of love, a universal value that human beings of all different creeds share:

Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Birmingham had been called “America’s most segregated city.” The removal of the city’s segregation ordinances in spring 1963 was seen as one of the most important victories in King’s career. But it was bested that summer by what may have been the greatest speech given in the 20th century. In 1963, the march on Washington took place in the nation’s capital with 250,000 people demanding Congress pass a comprehensive civil rights act. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King offered his vision of America’s future in his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, calling for hope and faith and prophesying freedom.

Although King’s reputation grew, his street-level activities showed signs of stalling in 1964. In the same year, the SCLC campaign to end segregation in St. Augustine, Florida, which was celebrating its 400th anniversary, was defeated when federal authorities refused to intervene and local officials successfully banned public demonstrations. Also, “Freedom Summer,” the campaign in Mississippi, saw civil rights workers killed as they worked to register voters. King’s ability to coordinate the movement’s chief organizations was also under pressure as the SCLC found itself at odds with SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP. In addition, local politics in Mississippi led by Fannie Lou Hamer challenged the conservative leadership of the Democratic Party as delegates were chosen to attend the national convention.

Hamer’s Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) confronted the leadership on the floor of the Democratic National Convention. Such efforts represented a breaking away from the traditional actions of the Civil Rights movement. A new era was dawning, and King frequently found himself defending the use of strategies that seemed to be discordant with the times. By 1965, it was apparent that the approach and alliances that had worked for the past 10 years were no longer adequate.

The Selma campaign proved to be the last major coordination of mass protest in the civil rights era. On “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965, Alabama state troopers met demonstrators led by SNCC on the Edmond Pettus Bridge. Again, with the national press watching, troopers used vicious force to turn back peaceful protesters. The situation proved impossible for the students to accept. After Selma, King’s credibility among students and in the urban North was severely questioned.

In 1966, King moved north to Chicago and began to refocus the movement’s emphasis from segregation in the South to poverty throughout the nation. By July, he was calling for an end to discrimination in housing, employment, and education. He was met with violent local resistance. Plagued by setbacks, King left Chicago without tangibly improving the lives of the poor. He did, however, increase national awareness of the economic condition of the poor and its disparity with the overall wealth of the nation. For King, such disparities were immoral, violations of what he increasingly defined as human rights.

King’s transition in emphasis from civil rights to human rights was to include not just southern African Americans or those living in areas of urban poverty in the North. King also advocated for the destitute populations of various nations in Africa, India, and Asia. The year 1967 saw King’s position shift in other ways, too. He announced his opposition to the war in Vietnam at the Riverside Church in New York, a move that many viewed as meddling in affairs too far afield from the fight against racism and poverty. Despite these criticisms, King’s stance on Vietnam is clearly consistent with his pacifist efforts for the preceding decade.

Though King started to speak out on a broader range of issues, he did not lose sight of the plight of the poor: In 1967 he announced the formation of the Poor People’s Campaign, which sought to secure a guaranteed annual minimum income for those unable to work. The campaign also sought to end housing discrimination and the passage of a $12 billion economic bill of rights that guaranteed employment to the able-bodied. In 1968, King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, in order to support striking sanitation workers, who merely wanted to unionize and have their salaries raised to the federally mandated minimum wage.

The march King led through downtown Memphis turned unexpectedly violent as marchers confronted and fought with police. As King regrouped and met with striking families, he urged them to remain nonviolent. For the rally at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple of God in Christ heard King gave his inspiring speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” which, in effect, was a final farewell to his followers. It was his last public speech before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

Martin Luther King, Jr., received a great deal of recognition and many awards and honors both during his lifetime and after his death. In 1957, he received several after the success of the Montgomery campaign, winning the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP and being selected by Time magazine as one of the most influential personalities of the year. King also won the Russwurm Award from the National Newspaper Publishers and the Second Annual Achievement Award from the Association of the New York City Police Department. A second wave of recognition for his accomplishments followed the events of 1963.

These included being named Man of the Year by Time magazine and being awarded the John Dewey Award from the United Federation of Teachers and the John F. Kennedy Award from the Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago in 1964. King’s highest honor, though, was the Nobel Peace Prize. King was the youngest person ever to receive this prestigious award when it was given to him in 1964. The 35-year-old responded by giving the $54,000 prize money to further the civil rights campaign in the United States. The prize is also noteworthy because of the acceptance speech King gave in Oslo, Norway, upon receiving it.

The third wave of recognition was posthumous. In 1968, King was awarded the Marcus Garvey Prize for Human Rights from the government of Jamaica, the Rosa Parks Award from the SCLC, and many others that are archived in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The President’s Medal of Freedom was also awarded to King posthumously in 1970. In addition to these personal accolades, King is recognized for his contribution to significant legislative accomplishments. In 1964, Congress passed the most comprehensive protection of civil rights since the Reconstruction era.

The Civil Rights Act was followed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. These three major pieces of legislation were Congress’s confirmation of Supreme Court decisions that reversed the nation’s long-standing position on the segregation of the races.

Currently, Stanford University holds the majority of King’s writings as part of the King Papers Project, whose Internet site is http://www.stan- ford.edu/group/King/ Since the 1980s, scholars have debated King’s use of scholarly sources. While there seems to be a critical consensus that King’s writings do contain plagiarism, the issue remains what to make of it and how to assess his writings. Perhaps the most balanced view of these issues lies in Clayborne Carson’s assessment from “Editing Martin Luther King, Jr.: Political and Scholarly Issues,” originally published in the Bornstein and Williams book Palimpsest: Editorial Theory in the Humanities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993), which can be found on the Internet at http://www. stanford.edu/group/King/addi- tional_resources/articles/palimp.htm:

What can we conclude, therefore, about the biographical and historical significance of King’s papers? Although I concede that the King Papers Project would not exist if not for the widespread belief among American elites in the notion that Great Men and their ideas alter the course of history, I suggest that the papers reveal less about King’s impact on the world than about the religions and intellectual influences that shaped his public persona. Documentary editions undoubtedly reinforce the notion that great leaders and their ideas alter the course of history, but they can also become valuable sources of knowledge about the social forces that make possible the emergence of new leaders. Although readers of the King papers will undoubtedly learn more about King, they should not expect his inner mind to be fully revealed through his papers.

We must face the possibility that King’s public persona may have obscured aspects of his personality and opinions or that King’s diction served purposes other than to communicate his inner thoughts. Plagiarized academic writings may have been more effective than more original writings in allowing King to play his chosen role as an African-American leader seeking [to] influence white Americans. King used his writings and his speeches and sermons not only to express ideas, but more important, to influence his multiracial audience. King has already been the focus of numerous serious biographical works, but our study of his papers convinces us that he will remain both a compelling and an elusive subject for research for many years to come.