Martin Luther King, Jr.: Kronologisk biografi

Born on at noon on January 15, 1929. Parents: The Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr. Home: 501 Auburn Avenue, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia.

1944

Graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and was admitted to Morehouse College at age 15.

1948

Graduates from Morehouse College and enters Crozer Theological Seminary. Ordained to the Baptist ministry, February 25, 1948, at age 19.

1951

Enters Boston University for graduate studies.

1953

Marries Coretta Scott and settles in Montgomery, Alabama.

1955

Received Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts on June 5, 1955. Dissertation Title: A Comparison of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Wiseman. Joins the bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1. On December 5, he is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, making him the official spokesman for the boycott.

1956

On November 13, the Supreme Court rules that bus segregation is illegal, ensuring victory for the boycott.

1957

King forms the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to fight segregation and achieve civil rights. On May 17, Dr. King speaks to a crowd of 15,000 in Washington, D.C.

1958

The U.S. Congress passed the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction. King's first book, Stride Toward Freedom, is published. On a speaking tour, Martin Luther King, Jr. is nearly killed when stabbed by an assailant in Harlem. Met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, along with Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, and Lester Grange on problems affecting black Americans.