Dr. Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, Jr. (born January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.—died April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee) was a Baptist minister and a social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. King rose to national prominence as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which promoted nonviolent tactics, such as the massive March on Washington (1963), to achieve civil rights. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

1948 25 Feb King is ordained and appointed assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

8 June King receives his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Morehouse College.

14 September King begins his studies at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.

1951 6-8 May King graduates from Crozer with a Bachelor of Divinity degree, delivering the valedictory address at commencement.

13 September King begins his graduate studies in systematic theology at Boston University.

1953 18 June King and Coretta Scott are married at the Scott home near Marion, Alabama.

1954 1 September King begins his pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

1955 5 June King is awarded his doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University.

1957 10-11 January Southern black ministers meet in Atlanta to share strategies in the fight against segregation. King is named chairman of the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration (later known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC).

1963 28 August The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom attracts more than two hundred thousand demonstrators to the Lincoln Memorial. Organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, the march is supported by all major civil rights organizations as well as by many labor and religious groups. King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. After the march, King and other civil rights leaders meet with President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House.

1968 4 April King is shot and killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Martin and Malcom and America notes by James H. Cone

Re: MLK, “nonviolence . . . seemed to be the only practical method that promised success.”

Rauschenbusch’s Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907) moved him deeply, especially the interpretation of the

Hebrew prophets and “the social aims of Jesus.” P. 29

“King’s integrationist views in that it too claimed to be nonracial, expounding a Christian gospel that transcends color. In Christ, “there is no east or west, no north or south. There is “as Paul said” neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female . . . we are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3: 28 p. 31

“Love is one of the principal parts of the Christian faith . . . He’s also the God that stands before the nations and says “Be still and know that I am God, that if you don’t obey me I’m gonna break the backbone of your power. Standing beside love is always justice. “ p. 62

King derived the meaning of the expression “American dream” from 2 sources: the American liberal democratic tradition, as defined by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the biblical tradition of the Old and New Testaments.” P. 67

“Martin’s theological definition of love as agape (redemptive goodwill) in contrast to romantic love (eros) and philia (reciprocal affection)” p. 130

“All are on in Christ Jesus” Gal 3:28 p. 148

“The essence of the Epistles of Paul is that Christians should rejoice at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believe.” P. 150

when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/i-have-dream-address-delivered-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom

Rev 7: 9, 10 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

"Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children . . . No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24) . . . I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal." (Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson)