(Elie ^ ìo rtla n ìt © b se ru e r
1929
Jan. 15
Martin Luther King Jr., is born
to Rev and Mrs. Martin Luther King
Sr. (the former Alberta Christine
Williams), in Atlanta. Ga.
1935-1944
King attends David T. Howard
Elementary School, Atlanta Univer
sity Laboratory School, and Booker
T. W ashington High School. He
passes the entrance examination to
Morehouse College (Atlanta) with
out graduating from high school.
1947
King is licensed to preach and
become assistant to his father, who is
pastor o f the E benezer B aptist
Church, Atlanta.
Spt^ i“1 ^ itio n
1955
King receives a Ph D. degree in
Systematic Theology from Boston
University.
The Kings’ first child, Yolanda
Denise, is born in Montgomery.
M rs. Rosa Parks, a 42-tw o-
y e a r-o ld M o n to g o m e ry se a m
stre ss, re fu se s to re lin q u ish her
bus seat to w hite m an and is a r
rested.
T he first day o f the bus b o y
co tt. T he trial for M rs. Prks. A
m eeting o f m ovem ent leaders is
held. Dr. King is unanim ously
e le c te d presid en t o f an o rg a n iz a
tion nam ed the M ontgom ery Im
p ro v em en t A sso citio n , a name
p ro p o s e d by R e v e re n d R alph
King waits for an ambulance moments after a deranged woman stabbed him with a letter opener at a
New York store in Sept. 1958. He later referred to this incident in his speeches whenever he was
preoccupied with death.
A bernathy.
The Montgomery Bus Co. sus
pends service in black neighbor-
hoods.
King is ordained to the Baptist
m in istry . He g ra d u a te s from
Morehouse College with a B.A. de
gree in sociology.
King enters Crozer Theological
Seminary, Chester, Pennsyvania.
After hearing Dr. A.J. Muste and Dr.
Mordecai W. Johnson preach on the
life and teachingsofM ahatmaGanhi,
he begins to study Gandhi seriously.
1956
1951
Kinggraduates from Crozer with
a B.D. degree.
1953
King marries Coretta Scott in
Marion, Ala.
1954
[D iversity
CJ6
racial segregation on city bus lines is
unconstitutional.
Dr. King is a speaker before the
platform committee of the Demo
cratic Party in Chicago.
Mayor Gayle of Montgomery
instructs the city’s legal department
“to file such proceedings as it may
deem proper to stop the operation of
car pools and transportation systems
growing out of the boycott.
The U nited States Suprem e
Court affirms the decision of the
three-judge district court in declar
ing unconstitional A labama’s state
and local laws requiring segregation
on buses.
Federal injunctions prohibiting
segregation on buses are served on
ciy and bus company officials in
M ontgomery. Injuctions are also
served on stte officials.
segregation in public schools is un
constitutional.
King is installed by Rev. Martin
Luther King Sr., as the 20th pastor of
the Dexter Avenue Church, Mont
gomery.
1948
The Supreme Court of the United
States rules unanimously in Brown
vs Board of Education that racial
Jan. 14^ 1^98
King and his wife, Coretta, meet with reporters on the steps of the
Montgomery County Courthouse before his trail in March 1956 for
violating a state law forbidding boycotts.
Call (503) 288-0033 To Advertise In
(The |Jo rtlan h (Observer
Dr. King is arrested on a charge
of traveling 30 miles per hour in a 25
mile-per-hour zone in Montgomery.
He is released on his own recogni
zance.
A bomb is thrown onto the porch
of Dr. King’s Montgomery home.
Mrs. King and Mrs. Roscoe W il
liams, wife of a church member, are
in the house with baby Yolanda
Denise; no one is injured.
A suit is filed in federal district
court asking that M ontgom ery’s
travel segregation laws be declared
unconstitutional.
Dr. King is indicted with other
figures in the Montgomery bus boy
cott on the charge of being party to a
conspiracy to hinder and prevent the
operation of business without “just
or legal cause.”
A U. S. district court rules that
Indian leader Mahatma
Gandhi’s philosophy of
nonviolent resistance ultimately
served as the model for King's
pacifist approach to social
change.
M ontgom ery buses are inte
grated.
1957
An unexploded bomb is discovered
on the front porch of the Kings’ house.
The Southern Christian Leader
ship Conference (SCLC) is founded.
Dr. King is elected its president.
Time magazine puts Dr. King
on its cover.
Dr. King delivers a speech for
the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
celebrating the thrid anniversary of
the Supreme C ourt’s desegregation
decision. The speech, entitled “Give
Us the Ballot,” is given at the Lincoln
Memmorial, W ashington, D.C.
Dr. King has a conference with
the vice-president o f the United
States, Richard M. Nixon.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
federalizes the Arkansas Naional Guard
to cscord nine Negro Students to an all-
white high school in Little Rock, Ark.
The first civil rights act since
Reconstruction is passed by Con
gress, creating the Civil Rights Com
mission and the civil Rights Division
of the Department of Justice.
A s e c o n d c h i l d , M a r tin
L u th e r III, is born to D r. and
M rs. K ing.
Community!
î hke rv
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Programs that reinforce
your family’s values. We don’t
think any budding young artist
should be inspired by violence.
Do you? OPB. Part o f a
happy childhood for over
a quarter of a century.
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got fun, nonviolent shows like
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and now Arthur, all part o f the
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