Chronology of Dr. King's Life
1929
January 15
1*35-1944
1947
1948
February
June
September
1953
1954
May
October
1955
June
O
Dfiremher
1956
January
<7
February
June
October
November
? December
: 1957
February
May
September
- 1958
?; June
September
.j ?
vm
February
1960
January
February
April
Marun Luther King Jr. is born to the Rev. and Mrs. Mar
tin Luiher King Sr. at 501 Auburn Ave. in Atlanta.
King attends David T. Howard Elementary School,
Atlanta University Laboratory School, Booker T. Wash
ington High School and enters Morehouse at age 15.
18-year-old King is licensed to preach and becomes
assistant to his. father, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church
in Atlanta.
King is ordained to the Baptist ministry.
King graduates from Morehouse College with a B.A.
degree in sociology.
King enters Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester,
Pennsylvania. Here he begins a serious study of the life
and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
King marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Alabama.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously in Brown vs.
Board of Education that racial segregation in public
schools is unconstitutional.
Rev. King is installed as the*20th pastor of the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
King cams a Ph. D. degre<rtrf systematic theology from
Boston University.
Mpj. Rosa Parks is arrested because she ret uses t6 give
her bus seat to a white man. The bus boycott starts on
December 5th, and King is elected president of the Mont
gomery Improvement Association.
King is a rxmvtf ip^Montgomery and released on his own
recognizance. A bomb is thrown onto the porch of the
King home/;
King is indicted with other protesters on the charge of
being part of a conspiracy to prevent the operation of
business without "just or legal cause."
A United States district court rules that racial segregation
on city bus lines is unconstitutional.
The mayor of Montgomery instructs the ci$* council "to
file such proceedings as it may deem proper to stop the
operation of car pools and transportation systems grow
ing out of the boycott."
United States Supreme Court upholds decision of district
court in declaring Alabama's segregation on buses' laws
unconstitutional.
Federal injunctions prohibiting segregation on busfes are
served on city and bus company officials and stale offi
cials. On the 21st Montgomery buses are integrated.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is
founded. Dr. King is elected its first president. King
appears on the cover of Time magazine.
King delivers "Give Us the Ballot" speech at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, D.C. on the third anniversary
of th $ Brown decision.
President Eisenhower federalizes the Arkansas National
Guard to escort nine Negro students to an all-white high
school in Little Rock. The first civil rights act since
Reconstruction is passed, creating the Civil Rights Com
mission and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice
Department.
i
Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph and Lester
Granger meet with President Eisenhower.
King is arrested in the vicinity of the Montgomery
Recorder's Court and released on $100 bond. King is
convicted and fine is paid by Montgomery Police com
missioner over King's objection. King's book Stride
Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is published.
Dr. and Mrs. King begin a month-long visit to India to
study Gandhi's techniques of non- violence.
King family moves to Atlanta. King becomes co-pastor
of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
First lunch-counter sit-in is held by students in Greens
boro, North Carolina.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) is founded at Shaw University in Raleigh, North
Carolina. Dr. King and James Lawson are the keynote
speakers.
June
Dr. King and A. Philip Randolph announce plans to
picket the Republican and Democratic national conven
tions.
October King is arrested with other demonstrators at an Atlanta
sit-in on the charge of violating Georgia's trespass law.
All of the arrested demonstrators are released except Dr.
King. He is released later from Reidsville State Prison on
a $2,000 bond.
: i96i
Z May
First group of Freedom Riders, organized by CORE,
leaves Washington, D. C. shortly after the Supreme Court
has outlawed segregation in interstate transportation ter
December
1962
February
May
July
September
19*3
March
April
4/
May
June
August
minals. The bus is burned outside Anniston, Alabama,
the Freedom Riders are beaten in Birmingham and anest
ed in Jackson, Mississippi. They spend 40 10 60 days in
Parchman Penitentiary.
Dr. King arrives in Albany, Georgia in response 10 a call
from the leader of the Albany Movement to desegregate
public facilities. King is anested at a demonstration.
King is tried and convicted for leading a march in
Albany.
King is invited to join the Birmingham protests.
King is arrested at an Albany City Hall prayer vigil.
James Meredith makes first attemprto^enroll at the Uni
versity of Mississippi. He is enrolled by order of the
Supreme Court and escorted onto the campus by U.S.
marshals on October 1st.
Sit-in demonstrations are held in Birmingham. Dr. King
is arrested.
King writes the "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
U.S. Supreme Court rules Birmingham's segregation
ordinances are unconstitutional.
King's book Strength to Love is published.
The March on Washington is held. Dr. King delivers his
ttavc a Dream" speech on the steps of the, Lincoln
1964
May
June
July
July-August
September
December
Memorial.
King joins other SCLC workers in demonstrations for the
integration of public accommodations and is arrested.
King's Book Why We Can't Wait, is published.
King attends the signing of the Public Accommodations
Bill, part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Riots occur in Harlem, New Jersey, Illinois and Pennsyl
vania. v
Dr. King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy visit West Berlin at
the invitation of Mayor Willy Brandt. King has an audi
ence with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.
King receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
1965
March
August
Over 3,000 marchers leave Selma, Ala., for a march to
Montgomery where they hear an address by Dr. King.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act is signed by President John
son.
1966
March
Spring
May
U.S. Supreme court rules poll tax unconstitutional.
King tours Alabama to help elect black candidates. For
the first time since Reconstruction, a number of blacks
vote in the Alabama primary.
A King antiwar statement is read at a Washington rally to
protest the war in Vietnam. King agrees to serve as co
chairman of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Viet
nam.
July King launches a drive to make Chicago an "open city" in
regard to housing.
August King is stoned in Chicago while leading a march through
crowds of angry whites.
September SCLC launches a project to integrate the public school*
of Grenada, Mississippi and initiates the Alabama On*'
zens Education Project in Wilcox County.
1967.
January
March
April
July
King writes Where Do We Go From Here?
The desegregation of public schools is ordered in Alaba
ma. Dr. King attacks U.S. policy in Vietnam in Chicago
si>eech.
King makes "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Rivcrsiil*
Church in New York City.
9
Riots in Newark, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan, hi
King and other prominent black leaders call tor an end
the nots.
October Supreme Court upholds the contefhpt of court coiivk
tions of Dr. King and other black leaders who led ih<
1963 marches in Birmingham, Alabama.
November King announces the formation of a Poor People's Cam
.paign by SCLC to address the problems 'of the po<>i
black and white.
1968
March
April
i,
King leads 6,000 protesters on march through down
town Memphis in suppon of striking sanitation workers.
King delivers his- last speech "I've Been to the Mountain
.Top" at the Memphis Masonic Temple. On the 4th. Or
King is assassinated. He dies in St. Joseph's Hospital.
a
True peace is not
merely the absence
of tension; it is the
presence of justice."
PAINBOW
New & Cafe
"FOOD FOFk BODY XND MIND"
712 Brookstown Ave. Winston-Salem, NC 27101
919-723-0858
j Open Daily '
The dreams men dreapi
live after them.
We salute the dream
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
left as his legacy
to us all.
First Union National Bank
& of North Carolina
LENDER ?1W First Union Corporation Branch ( Mtiu-s Statewide >r