Martin Luther King Jr. biography timeline

Birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., born to teacher Alberta King and Baptist minister Michael Luther King

Appointed Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, urged and planned by ED Nixon (head of the Montgomery NAACP chapter and a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) and led by Martin Luther King follows Rosa Parks arrest

Receives Ph.D in systematic theology from Boston University

The boycott lasts for 381 days, the situation becoming so tense that King's house is bombed, King is arrested during this campaign, which ends with a United States Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation on all public transport

The US. Supreme Court ruling prompts Montgomery to desegregate buses

King is an adherent of the philosophies of nonviolent civil disobedience used successfully in India by Mohandas "Mahatma" Gandhi, and applies this philosophy to the protests organized by the SCLC. King helps found Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), reated to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the service of civil rights reform

Writes "Stride Toward Freedom", about the bus boycott

Visits India to study nonviolence and civil disobedience

Writes "The Measure of A Man", from which the piece "What is Man?", an attempt to sketch the optimal political, social, and economic structure of society, is derived

Writes "The Measure of A Man", from which the piece "What is Man?", an attempt to sketch the optimal political, social, and economic structure of society, is derived

Joins his father as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta

The FBI begins wiretapping King fearing that Communists are trying to infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement, when no such evidence emerges, the bureau uses incidental details caught on tape over six years in attempts to force King out of the SLCLC

The FBI begins wiretapping King fearing that Communists are trying to infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement, when no such evidence emerges, the bureau uses incidental details caught on tape over six years in attempts to force King out of the SLCLC

King helps launch coordinated demonstrations against segregation in Birmingham.

King and Southern Christian Leadership Conference organisers begin Project C in Birmingham.

Police arrest King for participating in nonviolent demonstrations without a permit.

King completes his defence of nonviolent direct action while imprisoned in Birmingham.

Writes Letter from Birmingham Jail, defending nonviolent civil disobedience against unjust laws.

King supports negotiations that produce commitments to desegregate Birmingham businesses.

250,000 civil rights supporters join the "March on Washington"

Makes the "I have a dream speech"

King, representing the SCLC, is among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" civil rights organisations who are instrumental in the organisation of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Delivers "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington attended by 200,000 protesters, creates powerful image, builds momentum for civil rights legislation

Demands include an end to racial segregation in public school; meaningful civil rights legislation, including a law prohibiting racial discrimination in employment; protection of civil rights workers from police brutality & a $2 minimum wage

More than a quarter million people of diverse ethnicities attend the event, sprawling from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial onto the National Mall and around the reflecting pool.

The Leaders and organisations comprising the Big Six were are ML King, Roy Wilkins, NAACP; Whitney Young, Jr. , Urban League; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis, SNCC & James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality.

At the time, it the largest gathering of protesters in Washingtons history, King's "I Have a Dream" speech electrified the crowd.

King, representing the SCLC, is among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" civil rights organisations who are instrumental in the organisation of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Martin Luther King delivers "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington attended by 200,000 protesters, creates powerful image, builds momentum for civil rights legislation.

King, representing the SCLC, is among the leaders of the so-called "Big Six" civil rights organisations who are instrumental in the organisation of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

The youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States

Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in education and employment

Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in education and employment

Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in education and employment

Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in education and employment

Publishes "Why We Cant Wait"

Learns that marchers have been attacked in Selma.

Is absent when local civil rights leaders march from Selma and are attacked.

SCLC supports the voting rights campaign, but King is not on the first march.

The march finally goes ahead fully, it is during this march that Willie Ricks coins the phrase "Black Power"

The march finally goes ahead fully, it is during this march that Willie Ricks coins the phrase "Black Power". On the steps of the state capitol building, King delivers a speech that has become known as "How Long, Not Long"

The American Jewish Committee presented King with the American Liberties Medallion for his "exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty"

King and SCLC join voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery; police beat and tear gas marchers; King addresses rally before state capitol, builds support for voting rights

Congress passes Voting Rights Act of 1965, which suspends (later bans) literacy tests and other restrictions to prevent blacks from voting

Congress passes Voting Rights Act of 1965, which suspends (later bans) literacy tests and other restrictions to prevent blacks from voting

Congress passes Voting Rights Act of 1965, which suspends (later bans) literacy tests and other restrictions to prevent blacks from voting

The SCLC forms a coalition with CCCO, Coordinating Council of Community Organisations, an organisation founded by Albert Raby, the combined organisations efforts are fostered under the aegis of The Chicago Freedom Movement (CFM)

King turns toward economic issues; SCLC moves civil rights struggle to the North; opens Chicago office to organize protests against housing and employment discrimination. Growing popularity of the black power movement, blacks stressing self-reliance and self-defense, indicates King's influence was declining, especially among young blacks

The SCLC forms a coalition with CCCO, Coordinating Council of Community Organisations, an organisation founded by Albert Raby, the combined organisations efforts are fostered under the aegis of The Chicago Freedom Movement (CFM)

The SCLC forms a coalition with CCCO, Coordinating Council of Community Organisations, an organisation founded by Albert Raby, the combined organisations efforts are fostered under the aegis of The Chicago Freedom Movement (CFM)

Delivers a major speech opposing the Vietnam War at Riverside Church

Calls for a campaign of civil disobedience to meet black demands

King plans Poor Peoples Campaign; advocates redistribution of wealth to eradicate black poverty

King plans Poor Peoples Campaign; advocates redistribution of wealth to eradicate black poverty

King goes to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, represented by AFSCME Local 1733, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment

Johnson declares a national day of mourning for the lost civil rights leader

King is booked in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, owned by Walter Bailey, in Memphis, while standing on the motel's 2nd floor balcony, King is shot at 6:01 p.m. Five days later, President Lyndon B.

King is pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 p.m.

King returns to Memphis and addresses a rally, delivering his "I've been to the Mountaintop" address at Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ, Inc. - World Headquarters), King's flight to Memphis had been delayed by a bomb threat against his plane.

The assassination led to a nationwide wave of riots in more than 60 cities.

Shot dead while stepping out onto a motel room balcony in Memphis

Death of Martin Luther King Jr

Shot dead while stepping out onto a motel room balcony in Memphis

A crowd of 300,000 attend Martin Luther King's funeral