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Special edition
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Timeline
LIBERTY AND
JUSTICE FOR ALL
1929
• Martin Luther King Jr. is born on Jan. 15 to Rev. and Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr. (former AlbertaC hristine
Williams) in Atlanta, Ga.
1935 - 1944
• Dr. King attends David T. Howard Elementary School, Atlanta University Laboratory School, and Booker
T. Washington High School. He passes the entrance examination to Morehouse College in Atlanta, without
graduating from high school.
1948
• Dr. King is ordained to the Baptist ministry and appointed associate pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church
in Atlanta, He graduates from Morehouse College with a BA degree in Sociology and enters C rozer Theological
Seminary in Chester, Penn. He begins to seriously study the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
1953
• Dr. King marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Ala.
1954
• The Supreme Court of the United States rules unanimously in Brown vs. Board of Education that racial
segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. appoints Dr. King as the 20th
pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.
1955
• Dr. King receives a Ph.D. degree in Systematic Theology from Boston University. The Kings' first child,
Yolanda Denise, is born in Montgomery. Mrs. Rosa Parks, a42-year-old Montgomery seamstress refuses to
relinquish her bus seat to a white man and is arrested.
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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. welcomed a kiss from his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgom­
ery, Ala., March 22,1956. King was found guilty o f conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign
to desegregate the transit system, but a judge suspended his $500 fine.
1956
• Dr. King is arrested on a charge of traveling 30 mph in a 25 mph zone in Montgomery. He is released on
his own recognizance. A bomb is thrown onto the porch of Dr. King s Montgomery home. Mrs. King and Mrs.
Roscoe Williams, 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 Montgomery’s travel segregation
laws be declared unconstitutional. Dr. King is
indicted in the Montgomery bus boycott on
the charge of being party to a conspiracy to
hinder and prevent the operation of business
without “just or legal cause.”
• Dr. King is a speaker before the platform
committee of the Democratic Party in Chicago.
Federal injunctions prohibiting segregation
on buses are served on bus-company and city
officials in Montgomery. Injunctions are also
served on state officials; Montgomery buses
are integrated.
Portland State University, a public urban univer­
sity known for civic engagement, seeks applica­
tions for a wide variety of positions. We cultivate a
community that values individual differences, and
we are strongly committed to diversity and equality
in education and employment. We promote suc­
cess for all students and recognize staff and faculty
diversity as one of our greatest assets.
To read about current openings, please visit:
http://www.hrc.pdx.edu/
Portland State University is an Affirmative Action,
Equal Opportunity institute and. in keeping with the
President’s diversity initiative, welcomes applica­
tions from diverse candidates and candidates who
support diversity.
<&> Portland State
1957
• An unexploded bomb is discovered on the
front porch of the King's house. The Southern
Christian Leadership Conference is founded.
King is featured on the cover of Time magazine
and del i vers a speech for the Prayer Pi lgri mage
for Freedom celebrating the third anniversary
of the Supreme Court's desegregation deci­
sion. The speech, titled. “Give Us the Ballot,"
is given at the Lincoln Memorial in Washing­
ton, D.C.
• Dr. King meets with the Vice President of
the United States, Richard M. Nixon. Presi­
dent Dwight D. Eisenhower orders the Arkan­
sas National Guard to escort nine black stu­
dents to an all-white high school in Little Rock,
Ark. The first Civil Rights Act since Recon­ Bayard Rustin walks with Martin Luther King, Jr. in
struction is passed by Congress, creating the 1956 during the bus boycott in Montgomery. While
Civil Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Rustin's homosexuality and former affiliation with the
Communist Party led some to question King's confi­
Division of the Department of Justice.
• A second child, Martin Luther III, is bom dence in him as an organizer and key advisor. King
stood by the importance of Rustin s skills and dedica­
to Dr. and Mrs. King.
tion to the movement.
1958
• Dr. King, along with Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, A. Philip Randolph, and Lester Granger meet with
President Dwight D. Eisenhower; Dr. King is arrested on acharge of loitering (Interchanged to “failure toobey
an officer") in the vicinity of the Montgomery Recorder’s Court. He is released on $I(X) bond.
• Dr. Kingisconvictcdafterpleading“N otG uilty"onthcchargeoffailuretoobey anofficer. Dr. King'sbook,
Stride toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is published by Harper & Row.
• Dr. King is stabbed in the chest by Mrs. Izola Curry, who is subsequently alleged to be mentally deranged.
The stabbing occurs in Harlem while King is autographing his recently published book. His condition was
said to be serious but not critical, having barely missed his aorta.
u n iv e r s it y
continued
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on page H4