Motivating Biographical Stories

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Martin Luther King, Jr.
Copyright © All rights reserved
By Anthony James & Ken Chapman
Abridged by Beth Lanier

At just twenty-six, Martin Luther King took up the leadership role that not only defined him as the most important civil rights leader of the modern era, but also defined the course of the civil rights legislation in modern America. 

Born Michael King, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929; Martin later followed his father in adopting the name Martin Luther after the religious figure that founded the Lutheran denomination and led the Protestant Reformation.  During his senior year at Morehouse College, King Jr. decided on a career in the ministry and by February 25, 1948 he was the associate pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.  Following his graduation from Crosier Theological Seminary as class valedictorian in 1951, he enrolled in graduate school at Boston University.  King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in September 1954, and was awarded his Ph. D the following June. 

Rosa Parks’ courageous refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in December 1955 then set off a chain of events that catapulted King to world fame.  Several groups within Montgomery’s black community decided to unite in organizing a boycott against segregated seating on the city buses.  The Montgomery Improvement Association came into being, and King accepted the presidency.  It took 381 days of struggle against white hatred and resistance to bring the boycott to a successful conclusion.  Despite jeopardized jobs, intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, police harassment, and bombings that included King’s own home, King and his followers pressed on.  Success of the boycott became apparent when King and several allies boarded a public bus in front of King’s home on December 21, 1956. 

In February 1957, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was created to continue the movement for change throughout the South and King was, again, elected president.  During its first two years, the SCLC floundered in the face of organizational and financial problems.  In November 1959, King resigned from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and move to Atlanta to take on his SCLC responsibilities fulltime.  Student activism then provided the spark that gave new life to the civil rights movement.  On February 1, 1960, four students demanded service at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. and continued to sit after their demands were refused.  The sit-ins spread rapidly across the South.  In October, King reluctantly joined a renewal of sit-ins at Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta, where he was arrested along with other participants.  A compromise freed all participants except King, who was eventually sentenced to four months in state prison.  Presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy, called King’s wife, Coretta Scott, to express sympathy and King was released eight days later.  King then won the support of the student organizers for a compromise desegregation plan in Atlanta.  

On May 4, the Congress on Racial Equality launched the freedom rides inaugurating a new phase in the struggle. At a Montgomery rally on May 21, King called for a large-scale nonviolent campaign against segregation in Alabama.  In December, the bombing of a church drew King’s attention to Birmingham.  National support grew for King and his cause, and contributions for his bail flowed in.  Before he was released from jail nine days later, King read an open letter signed by eight white clergymen who denounced demonstrations.  King’s response, “Letter from a Birmingham jail”, became the most quoted and influential of his writings.  After pressure from the White House, white businesses made some concessions to black demands that were accepted by King as victories.   

In the wake of the Birmingham demonstrations, King now turned his attention to a march on Washington as a way of keeping up pressure for federal civil rights legislation.  On August 28, 1963, the peaceful demonstration drew some two hundred thousand blacks and whites to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.  On July 2, 1964, the movement celebrated a victory as President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the new Civil Rights Act.  That year, King received the Nobel Peace Prize and became the first black American to be named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.”  In May 1965, the SCLC organized a march from Selma to Montgomery demonstrating against voting obstacles.  Though it was brutally stopped by the police, it ended in another victory as Congress passed a voting rights bill later that year. 

In October 1967, King announced plans for a new campaign for economic rights.  Just as fundraising for the initiative began, King was shot and killed on the balcony outside a Memphis motel.  King’s memorial in Atlanta on April 9 drew well over 60,000 people.  On his crypt were carved the words he often used—Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, I’m Free at Last.   

For information about Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at kchapman@leaderscode.com.

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