Martin Luther King Jr.

CHRONOLOGY OF KING'S LIFE

January 15, 1929
King is born in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr.

February 25, 1948
King is ordained to the Baptist ministry.

June 21, 1948
King graduates from Morehouse College with a B.A. in Sociology.

1951-1955
Attends Boston University doctoral programs, earns Ph.D in theology.

June 18, 1953
King marries Coretta Scott, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music, in Marion, Alabama.

May 17, 1954
King visits Washington, D.C. The United States Supreme Court in "Brown vs. Board of Education" rules segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

October 13, 1954
King is appointed minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

June 5, 1955
King receives doctoral degree in Systematic Theology from Boston University.

December 1, 1955
In Montgomery, Mrs. Rosa Parks refuses to relinquish her bus seat to a white man and is arrested. This incident touches off a massive bus boycott, led by King as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association.

December 21, 1956
After a successful one-year, city-wide boycott, Montgomery Bus Company announced integration of all public buses.

February 12, 1957
Helps organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King is elected president, and shortly thereafter Time Magazine puts him on its cover. In 1957, a bomb is thrown at the King house, but it does not explode.

1958
Meets with President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House; he is arrested in Montgomery (first charged with loitering; a charge that is dropped and replaced with "failure to obey an officer"). King publishes Strive Toward Freedom, an account of
the Montgomery bus boycott. While on tour to promote the book, he is stabbed in the chest. His condition is serious but not critical.

February, 1960
Is arrested in February on charges that he failed to pay his Alabama state taxes in 1956 and 1958. He is later acquitted by an all-white jury.

April 15, 1960
King is invited to a meeting at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, of college students from around the nation. He urges them to form their own direct action organization. After a speech by Dr. King in the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was born.

June, 1960
He meets with President John F. Kennedy.

December, 1960
He is arrested at an Atlanta sit-in.

1961
Arrives in Albany, Georgia, to participate in an unsuccessful desegregation campaign. In December, he is arrested in Albany for obstructing the sidewalk and leading a parade without a permit.

1962
Is arrested again, at a July prayer vigil in Albany, and charged with failure to oby a police officer, obstructing the sidewalk, and disorderly conduct. In October, he meets once more with President Kennedy.

March & April 16, 1963
In March and April, leads sit-in demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. King writes the famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" while imprisoned for demonstrating against the segregation of eating facilities in that city.

August 28, 1963
King delivers his famous "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the historic "March on Washington", the first massive national integrated protest march in America. Attended by over 260,000 people, the march brought international attention to the civil rights movement.

1964
Joins demonstrations in St. Augustine, Florida, in May and June and is arrested. His book We Can't Wait is released in June.

July 2, 1964
King attends the signing of the Public Accommodations Bill, part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House.

September
He meets with Pope Paul V1 at the Vatican.

December 10, 1964
King receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

March 7, 1965
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizes civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. On March 7, the marchers are beaten by Alabama state troopers when they attempt to cross Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge.

March 21, 1965
Two weeks later, joined by 3,000 supporters from around the nation, and protected by federal troops, they began their march again. En route they are joined by another 25,000 supporters. When he and the other marchers reach Selma, King addresses
the marchers from the Montgomery capitol building. He delivers a speech on voting rights.

August 6, 1965
The 1965 Voting Rights Act is signed into law by President Johnson.

1966
In Chicago, meetes with Elijah Mohammed, leader of the Nation of Islam, and leads an unsuccessful protest against job discrimination, poor schools, and slum housing.

1967
King's book Where Do We Go From Here is published. At a speech in Chicago, he denounces the war in Vietnam. November 27, he announces that the SCLC will launch a "Poor People's Campaign" to address to the problems of poor blacks and whites.

March 28, 1968
King leads thousands of protesters in a march through downtown Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking sanitation workers.

April 3, 1968
King delivers his "I've been to the Mountain Top" speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.

April 4, 1968
While speaking from the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Dr. King is assassinated by a sniper. James Earl Ray is later captured and convicted of murder.

January 18, 1986
After 18 years of intense lobbying by hundreds of leaders of all races, the United States Congress passed Public Law 98-144. On this day, President Ronald Reagan declares the first observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday to be a national holiday, celebrated on the third Monday of each January hereafter.