Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Jan 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968

製作：賴亦歆老師

Timeline

1861~1865 1929 1954 1955 1963 1967 1968 1986

the American Civil War Early life &

Education

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Pastor King

March to Washington

Opposition to the Vietnam war

Assassination

MLK Jr. Day

Segregation

Segregation Laws

Largely because of Plessy vs. Ferguson, racial segregation prevailed in the South from the 1890's until the 1950's. 

Confederate Flag

Segregation Laws

Under segregation, laws kept blacks and whites apart.

They were not allowed to

attend the same schools or churches,eat in the same restaurants,drink from the same water fountains,or even use the same restaurants.

Confederate Flag

The Ku Klux Klan, a supposedly secret society dedicated to maintaining white supremacy in America, regularly committed acts of terrorism throughout 20th century. Their masks, hooded robes, and terrifying symbol—a burning cross—were among many devices used to frighten anyone who favored integration or spoke out against the abuse of black people’s rights.

One terrorism practiced by whites to assert their authority over blacks was lynching—racially motivated execution without a trial. The victim was typically a black person who had been accused (but not found guilty) of an offense, or one who had angered whites by asserting his/her own individuality. Torture was often inflicted before killing. Some white townspeople treat lynching as entertainment. The power of the segregation system was evident in the fact that white murderers were almost never convicted. Historians believe that more than 10,000 black Americans died this way between the Civil War and civil rights movement.

Martin’s Childhood

Michael Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, to a school teacher, Alberta King, and a Baptist minister, Rev. Michael Luther King, Sr. in Atlanta, Georgia. His father later changed both their names to Martin Luther King.

Martin and his big sister Christine.

EducationIn 19444, King entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school. In 1948, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, and enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951. In 1955, he received a Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology from Boston University.  

Influenced by Gandhi…Nonviolent Disobedience

Dr. King & his wife Coretta

In the Crozer Theological Seminary, King heard a preach on the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. He began to study Gandhi seriously.

Pastor King

King began his ministry in 1954 as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Rosa Parks—The Voice of Montgomery in 1955

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white - she was arrested.

• Black economic power: Without black riders, white-owned bus companies were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy.

• The NAACP, with the help of Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., organized a bus boycott in Montgomery, which lasted 381 days.

Listen to Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy discuss the importance of the boycott (1:53)

The Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from left, at a press conference.

The success of the boycott demanded inconvenience and complications in the lives of Montgomery blacks. Getting to work by foot, by thumb (hitchhikers), and by car pool, through a hot summer and a rainy winter, thousands made a daily commitment not to take the bus. One day, MLK saw an old woman called Mother Pollard walking slowly down the road,. “Aren’t your feet tired?” Martin asked her. “Yes,” said Mother Pollard. “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.” She meant that she knew she was doing the right thing.

An empty bus passed by during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Dr. King was ArrestedFor travelling 30 mph in a 25 mph zone

• Police started harassing the car pool, threatening to arrest drivers, revoke their licenses, and cancel their insurance policies.

• On January 26, King was arrested for speeding and taken to jail. A few days later, his house was bombed. It wasn’t long before King was receiving dozens of hate letters and threatening phone calls every day.

• In February, an all-white grand jury indicted 89 people, including 24 ministers and all drivers in the car pool, for violating an obscure anti-labor law that prohibited boycotts. King was the first to be tried. The judge found him guilty and sentenced him a year of hard labor or a fine of $500 plus court costs.

MLK Jr. was photographed by Alabama cops following his

February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery bus boycott. The historic mug shot, taken when King was 27, was discovered in July 2004 by a deputy cleaning

out a Montgomery County Sheriff's Department storage room. It is unclear when the

notations 'DEAD' and '4-4-68' were written on the picture.

• Therefore, the Montgomery bus company agreed to integrate their buses and hire black bus drivers.

A hard-won battle• In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses

was unconstitutional, sealing the success of the boycott.

Dr. King and his wife, Coretta, at the conclusion of the boycott.

Dr. King & Rev. Ralph Abernathy riding a bus on the first day for desegregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama. (December 21, 1956)

March for Civil Rights

March on Washington in 1963

Opposition to the Vietnam War

King expressed his disenchantment with President Johnson’s Vietnam policies.

During the Vietnam War,

King began to rethink his mission and

turned his focus from racial discrimination

to problems of poverty and

economic injustice.

Lorraine Hotel

April 4, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.

Memphis, Tennessee

MLK’s Last March

MLK Day is Signed Into Law

President Ronald Reagan signs a law making MLK day,the 3rd Monday of January, near the time of King’s birthday.

Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Malcolm X                      

I Have A Dream Today Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?-- Martin L. King

"Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence."

Malcolm X

Nonviolent Resistance“…this is not a method for cowards; it does

resist. The nonviolent resister is…nonaggressive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent. But his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade the opponent that he is mistaken. This method is passive physically…but spiritually it is dynamically aggressive…

This great weapon, which we first tried out in Montgomery in the bus boycott…has become instrumental in the greatest mass-action crusade for freedom that has occurred in America since the Revolutionary War.”

Nonviolent Resistance“It was routine for us to collect hundreds of

knives from our own ranks before the demonstrations, in case of momentary weakness….There were lots of provocations, not only the screaming white hoodlums(無賴 ) lining the sidewalks, but also groups of Negro militants talking about guerrilla warfare. We had some gang leaders and members marching with us. I remember walking with the Blackstone Rangers while bottles were flying from the sidelines, and I saw their noses being broken and blood flowing from their wounds; and I saw them continue and not retaliate(報復 ), not one of them, with violence.”