what did martin luther king have a phd in

In What Field Was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a Doctor?

By matt soniak | jan 15, 2020, 3:00 pm est.

Martin Luther King Jr. earned a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University in 1955. He’d previously earned a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College and a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary. His dissertation , “A Comparison of the Conception of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” examined the two religious philosophers’ views of God in comparison to each other, and to King’s own concept of a "knowable and personal" God.

In 1989, some three decades after King had earned his doctorate, archivists working with The Martin Luther King Papers Project discovered that King’s dissertation suffered from what they called a “problematic use of sources.” King, they learned, had taken a large amount of material verbatim from other scholars and sources and used it in his work without full or proper attribution, and sometimes no attribution at all.

In 1991, a Boston University investigatory committee concluded that King had indeed plagiarized parts of his dissertation, but found that it was “impractical to reach, on the available evidence, any conclusions about Dr. King's reasons for failing to attribute some, but not all, of his sources.” That is, it could have been anything from malicious intent to simple forgetfulness—no one can determine for sure today. They did not recommend a posthumous revocation of his degree, but instead suggested that a letter be attached to the dissertation in the university library noting the passages lacked quotations and citations.

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What Was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a Doctor of?

Early Education

Martin Luther King, Jr., born January 15, 1929, began his schooling in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Yonge Street Elementary School and later attended the David T. Howard Elementary School. As a young man, he went to the Atlanta University Laboratory School and finished his secondary education at Booker T. Washington High School.

Skipping both the 9th and 12th grades, Dr. King never formally graduated high school, instead enrolling in Morehouse College in Atlanta after his junior year of high school.

King graduated from Morehouse in 1948 with a B.A. in Sociology. He later attended and graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he not only earned a Bachelor of Divinity in 1951, but was also awarded a graduate fellowship that allowed him to pursue his doctorate.

Doctoral Education

King enrolled in Boston University’s School of Theology and began his doctoral studies which were: “ Influenced by his increasing interest in personalism, a philosophy that emphasizes the necessity of personal religious experience in understanding God.”

Under the tutelage of several notable theologians including Edgar S. Brightman, L. Harold DeWolf and Jannette E. Newhall, King expanded his studies to include :

Several classes on the history of philosophy that examined the works of Reinhold Niebuhr, Alfred North Whitehead, Plate, and Hegel [and] . . . culminated with the completion of his dissertation, entitled “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Weiman.”

Although later (1991) a committee would determine that King had “plagiarized” portions of his dissertation, other scholars characterized these as “ faulty citation practices [that] were rooted in the notecards he created while conducting research . . . . ” Nonetheless, even the committee found the sloppy citations justified no real penalty, and rather felt that “ no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King’s doctoral degree .”

In any event, while at BU, King relied on the mentorship and spiritual guidance of the Marsh Chapel’s dean, Howard Thurman, who introduced King to, among other things Mohandas Gandhi and the effectiveness of non-violent protest.

Systematic Theology

In this discipline, theological topics are addressed “one by one” and the student “ attempts to summarize all the biblical teaching ” on that subject into one work: “ The goal is to present the major themes (i.e. doctrines) of the Christian faith in an organized and ordered overview that remains faithful to the biblical witness.”

In addition to relying on the Bible, the field also investigates “ the development of Christian doctrine over the course of history, particularly through philosophy, science and ethics .”

By applying the discipline of orderly reasoning to his studies, King developed his personal theology which included his view that:

Without immortality the universe would be somewhat irrational. But by having faith in the immortal life we are assured that God will vindicate the righteous. . . . The Christian faith in its emphasis on immortality assures us that the ambiguities of this life will be meaningful in the life to come. . . . [But yet] the solution to the problem surrounding any tragedy is ultimately practical, not theoretical.

Practical Application

Shortly after graduating the Reverend Doctor began his civil rights work with the Montgomery Bus Boycott (December 5, 1955 – December 20, 1956), where African Americans, taking a page out of Gandhi’s book, peacefully refused to ride the Alabama city’s buses until they were integrated.

The Reverend Doctor organized and participated in other acts of nonviolent protests over the next decade, but perhaps his greatest contribution to the cause of civil rights came through his fiery rhetoric that stirred action, something he saw as a minister’s noble duty :

Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somewhere the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones, and whenever injustice is around he must tell it. Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, who said, “When God Speaks, who can but prophesy?”

I Have a Dream…

More than 200,000 people attended the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, where the Reverend Doctor’s oratory on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial served as the rally’s grand finale :

In spite of the difficulties of the moment, I still have a dream . . . deeply rooted in the American 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.” . . . That one day . . . the sweltering heat of injustice and oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice [and that] . . . my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

• I’ve Been to the Mountaintop

On April 3, 1968, the Reverend Doctor gave his final, and one of his most memorable , speeches:

The nation is sick, trouble is in the land, confusion all around. . . . But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century . . . . I’ve been to the mountaintop . . . . And I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know . . . I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

The next day, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, shot while standing on the balcony of his motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Some in attendance at his final speech believe that he had a premonition of his upcoming demise :

[He] knew he wouldn’t get there, but he wouldn’t tell us that. That would have been too heavy for us, so he softened it. . . . He preached himself through the fear of death. He just got it out of him. He just . . . dealt with it. And . . . it was like, what did he know that we didn’t know?

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13 comments

Why do you say 1 in 3 black males will go to prison and 54% graduated HS because of racism? What evidence do you have to show that most of those arrests and dropouts are related to racism and not poor choices of the black community in general?

This is the 21st Century, not the 19th Century. All Americans now have equal opportunity, but must take advantage of our free education starting from kindergarten up through the 12th grade. This is the job of the students: to learn in order to be a productive member of society; in order to earn a decent living and to provide guidance for THEIR future generations. The job of parents is to see that the students avail themselves of the opportunities of the public education system and take full advantage of it. If those students do not choose to take advantage of this free public education which is available to ALL races, so be it. Do not then cry later on that you cannot get a job, or that your poor language skills inhibit you from mainstream society’s occupational opportunities.

MLK was a hero to many, especially for the Negro. However, that does not excuse him, nor Boston College from allowing him to keep the awarded “doctorate” degree because it was obtained under false premises. Had he been any other race than Negro, the doctorate would have been rescinded.

As far as the constant charge of restricting voting rights for Negroes, if the biggest problem MLK had had to confront was to simply apply, and obtain, a photo identification card in order to vote….which is, or at least should be, the case today..yet liberal democrats continue to oppose for their dishonest purposes….then he would have had a much easier road to walk.

Americans “bend over backward” to continually show that they are not racist by giving, and allowing, Negroes advantages and constant “help” to meet, or simply bypass, requirements for jobs, schools, etc, that other races have to meet…yet Negroes still lag far behind all other races in all fields tested.

Most Negroes won’t admit it, and white liberals dishonestly deny it, but today, as per MLKs “hope,” people, including Negroes, are “…not (be) judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”…and they are found sorely lacking.

That fact is no one’s fault but their own.

I am getting sick & tired of hearing about this guy exspecially the DR. part , I’d like to know if he really was a “dr.” then what part of the body did he work on ? Was he a dentist? a foot dr. ? a ear nose & throat dr. ? I could go on & on & on .

I honestly can not believe how hateful and ignorant the comments are in this thread.

@Stacy Thomas You’re so “sick and tired of hearing about this guy”, that you actually took the time to click on an article about the guy. The other half of your comment is just too dumb to address.

14% of Americans are black, 38% of the people locked up are black. MLK didn’t graduate high school. Today if you don’t graduate high school you cannot enter college. MLK stole college work from others .They are the worst at school because they don’t care and complain it’s the white people are to blame. They should look in the mirror and blame the person they see.

• HISTORY & CULTURE

Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

A civil rights legend, Dr. King fought for justice through peaceful protest—and delivered some of the 20th century's most iconic speeches.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is a civil rights legend. In the mid-1950s, King led the movement to end segregation and counter prejudice in the United States through the means of peaceful protest. His speeches—some of the most iconic of the 20th century—had a profound effect on the national consciousness. Through his leadership, the civil rights movement opened doors to education and employment that had long been closed to Black America.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor King for his commitment to equal rights and justice for all. Observed for the first time on January 20, 1986, it’s called Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In January 2000, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all 50 U.S. states . Here’s what you need to know about King’s extraordinary life.

Though King's name is known worldwide, many may not realize that he was born Michael King, Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. His father , Michael King, was a pastor at the   Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. During a trip to Germany, King, Sr. was so impressed by the history of Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther that he changed not only his own name, but also five-year-old Michael’s.

( Read about Martin Luther King, Jr. with your kids .)

His brilliance was noted early, as he was accepted into Morehouse College , a historically Black school in Atlanta, at age 15. By the summer before his last year of college, King knew he was destined to continue the family profession of pastoral work and decided to enter the ministry. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Morehouse at age 19, and then enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, graduating with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951. He earned a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University in 1955.

King married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents' house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama. They became the parents of four children : Yolanda King (1955–2007), Martin Luther King III (b. 1957), Dexter Scott King (b. 1961), and Bernice King (b. 1963).

Becoming a civil rights leader

In 1954, when he was 25 years old, Dr. King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In March 1955, Claudette Colvin—a 15-year-old Black schoolgirl in Montgomery—refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, which was a violation of Jim Crow laws, local laws in the southern United States that enforced racial segregation.  

( Jim Crow laws created 'slavery by another name. ')

King was on the committee from the Birmingham African-American community that looked into the case. The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) briefly considered using Colvin's case to challenge the segregation laws, but decided that because she was so young—and had become pregnant—her case would attract too much negative attention.

Nine months later on December 1, 1955, a similar incident occurred when a seamstress named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus. The two incidents led to the Montgomery bus boycott , which was urged and planned by the President of the Alabama Chapter of the NAACP, E.D. Nixon, and led by King. The boycott lasted for 385 days.

King’s prominent and outspoken role in the boycott led to numerous threats against his life, and his house was firebombed. He was arrested during the campaign, which concluded with a United States District Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle   ( in which Colvin was a plaintiff ) that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses. King's role in the bus boycott transformed him into a national figure and the best-known spokesman of the civil rights movement.

Fighting for change through nonviolent protest

From the early days of the Montgomery boycott, King had often referred to India’s Mahatma Gandhi as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change.”

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In 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Joseph Lowery, and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the organizing power of Black churches to conduct nonviolent protests to ultimately achieve civil rights reform. The group was part of what was called “The Big Five” of civil rights organizations, which included the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Congress on Racial Equality.

Through his connections with the Big Five civil rights groups, overwhelming support from Black America and with the support of prominent individual well-wishers, King’s skill and effectiveness grew exponentially. He organized and led marches for Blacks' right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights.

( How the U.S. Voting Rights Act was won—and why it's under fire today .)

On August 28, 1963, The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom became the pinnacle of King’s national and international influence. Before a crowd of 250,000 people, he delivered the legendary “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. That speech, along with many others that King delivered, has had a lasting influence on world rhetoric .

In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights and social justice activism. Most of the rights King organized protests around were successfully enacted into law with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act .

Economic justice and the Vietnam War

King’s opposition to the Vietnam War became a prominent part of his public persona. On April 4, 1967—exactly one year before his death—he gave a speech called “Beyond Vietnam” in New York City, in which he proposed a stop to the bombing of Vietnam. King also suggested that the United States declare a truce with the aim of achieving peace talks, and that the U.S. set a date for withdrawal.

( King's advocacy for human rights around the world still inspires today .)

Ultimately, King was driven to focus on social and economic justice in the United States. He had traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in early April 1968 to help organize a sanitation workers’ strike, and on the night of April 3, he delivered the legendary “I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech , in which he compared the strike to the long struggle for human freedom and the battle for economic justice, using the New Testament's Parable of the Good Samaritan to stress the need for people to get involved.

Assassination

But King would not live to realize that vision. The next day, April 4, 1968, King was gunned down on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis by James Earl Ray , a small-time criminal who had escaped the year before from a maximum-security prison. Ray was charged and convicted of the murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison on March 10, 1969. But Ray changed his mind after three days in jail, claiming he was not guilty and had been framed. He spent the rest of his life fighting unsuccessfully for a trial, despite the ultimate support of some members of the King family and the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

The turmoil that flowed from King’s assassination led many Black Americans to wonder if that dream he had spoken of so eloquently had died with him. But, today, young people around the world still learn about King's life and legacy—and his vision of equality and justice for all continue to resonate.

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Losing King: Shock, sorrow, anger, and a voice time hasn’t silenced

Five decades after assassination, views from Gates, Gordon-Reed, others on the nation then and now

Colleen Walsh

Harvard Staff Writer

Fifty years ago the murder of a Baptist minister turned Civil Rights giant shook the nation. Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. There to support the city’s striking sanitation workers, King was about to head to dinner when he was struck in the jaw by a single bullet. In a country already roiled by racial violence and civil unrest, the killing set off a wave of deadly riots from coast to coast.

We asked a group of Harvard scholars to reflect on King’s life, death, and legacy. Historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Henry Louis Gates Jr . recalled where they were when they heard about the assassination. Philosopher Tommie Shelby remembered his earliest impressions of King’s language and rhetoric. All three shared thoughts on how the Civil Rights leader would view today’s America. Political theorist Danielle Allen , set to deliver the keynote at a King-focused conference on Friday, said that 50 years on, his work remains unfinished.

Annette Gordon-Reed (from left), Danielle Allen, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Tommie Shelby.

File photos by Stephanie Mitchell and Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff

‘It’s a shock that I’ve never gotten over’

A senior in high school, Gates was at home in Piedmont, Va., watching TV when an announcement interrupted the news.

“I had three best friends that were black and they came over and we were just shocked — we were stunned,” said Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center . “There was nothing that we could do.

“Basically it’s a shock that I’ve never gotten over, really. I mean, I still can’t believe it when I watch the footage.”

The shock lingered in Gates’ voice as he considered King’s relative youth.

“He seemed like such an old man but he was 39 years old. He did all of that when he was 39, and I definitely believe — I am one of the black people who thinks there was some kind of conspiracy to kill him. I think he could have been the first black president and I don’t think America was ready for that.”

King, Gates added, was “moving toward an amalgamation of race and class and that was threatening to the system.”

What would he think of the U.S. today?

Gates said King would be surprised by how much the country has moved the dial, and stunned by the numbers of upper- and middle-class African-Americans. “But he would be equally shocked that the percentage of black children living at or beneath the poverty line is roughly the same as it was in 1970, roughly the same as it was when he died.”

And while King would be pleased by the progress made since 1968, and “astonished and delighted” that the country was led by an African-American president for eight years, he would also be dismayed “at mass incarceration” and at “deindustrialization which interrupted the cycle of moving from the working class to the middle class and the middle class to the upper-middle class.”

‘ It was clear that he was making lots of people angry ’

More like this.

When King came to Harvard

Beyond ‘I Have a Dream’

Gordon-Reed, 9 years old in 1968, was with her mother at the home of one her friends “when her son came into the room and told us that King had been assassinated.”

Her Texas community’s reaction was one of “great sadness,” said Gordon-Reed, Harvard Law School ’s Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences , and a Pulitzer Prize winner for “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.”

“But this was a small town with a small black population,” she said. “More open anger was expressed in urban communities.”

Gordon-Reed said her mother and father “were not surprised” by King’s murder. “It was clear that he was making lots of people angry. The possibility of violence was always present given all that was at stake.”

Her parents’ reaction was likely shared by countless Americans. King had endured repeated physical attacks during his years of nonviolent protests, and death threats against him were common. In his last public address, delivered at Memphis’ Mason Temple the day before his death, King alluded to his own mortality.

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”

Turning to today, Gordon-Reed said King would have been amazed by the Obama presidency, though unsurprised by the backlash against it.

“I would imagine he may also be surprised at how he has been embraced by so many different segments of society, for their own purposes,” she added, and “by the pace of social changes — the women’s movement, the movement for LGBTQ rights. And [that] the issue of race is not just a matter of black and white anymore.”

While much has changed for the better, Gordon-Reed said the economic advances King pressed for at the end of this life “have not come to fruition.”

“All available evidence indicates that communities of color still lag behind in terms of wealth,” she said. “The legacies of slavery, segregation, and the commitment to white supremacy have not yet been overcome. In fact, the issue of inequality is not just about race. The situation of organized labor — the weakening of unions overall — would have surprised him, I think. He thought that unions, along with working-class people of all colors, could cooperate to strike a blow on behalf of all marginalized people. That does not seem to be on the horizon.”

‘Leaders should not seek riches, fame, or even recognition for their efforts’

One of Shelby’s most powerful King moments was the first time he read “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

“It has so many important ethical lessons,” said the Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy. “For instance, King argued that it is wrong to counsel the oppressed not to fight for their rights because this might provoke others to engage in violence or might create social strife. ‘Law and order’ and civil peace are not ends in themselves. They are means for establishing and maintaining just social conditions.”

Which of King’s beliefs would most surprise people today? Reparations are high on Shelby’s list.

In “Why We Can’t Wait” (1964), King wrote that while the cost made it “impossible to fully pay reparations to blacks for all the wrongs of slavery … compensation was due to the descendants of slaves for the unpaid toil of their ancestors.”

And King’s life still contains crucial lessons for those in charge today, said Shelby, co-editor of “To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr.”

“Leaders should not seek riches, fame, or even recognition for their efforts,” Shelby said. “They should see their vocation as one of service and sacrifice and should lead by example. This kind of leadership requires integrity, resilience, a willingness to speak hard truths in public, and most of all hope — the conviction that, through our determined efforts, we can make our world more peaceful and just.”

‘C ourage, endurance, moral clarity, and love’

With Harvard students on spring break the week of the assassination, King was remembered on Palm Sunday at Memorial Church. The Harvard Crimson’s Monday, April 8, edition ran a picture of the slain icon accompanied by an article headlined “Funeral, Sympathy March Draw Thousands to South.” The following day, President Nathan M. Pusey canceled morning and early afternoon classes to allow students to attend a special service in Memorial Church. The Harvard leader addressed the crowd during the somber ceremony.

“I do not know when the death of a private citizen has quickened such a universal response of grief and deprivation — nationwide and worldwide,” said Pusey. “Our grief is for the man and for the many unaccomplished things for which he worked and died.”

The impact of King’s death rippled through Commencement events. In March 1968, students had broken from tradition and directly invited the Class Day speaker. They selected King, whose speech, set for June 12, was expected to address the Vietnam War .

A year earlier King had registered his opposition to the conflict in a blistering New York speech that connected war, racism, and poverty. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia was in the audience that day. “I heard him speak so many times,” Lewis told The New Yorker in 2017 . “I still think this is probably the best.” (In a fitting turn, Lewis will be the principal speaker at the Afternoon Program of Harvard’s 367th Commencement on May 24. )

Her husband’s death still raw, Coretta Scott King agreed to speak in his place on Class Day. By then the nation was mourning another loss. Six days earlier Civil Rights advocate and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy had been shot to death in Los Angeles.

“These two men addressed themselves to the burning issues of our times: They spoke out against great evils in our society: racism, poverty, and war,” King told seniors at Sanders Theatre. “They were great and effective actors on the stage of history. They played their parts exceedingly well, thus inspiring millions. They are a part of that creative minority which helped to move society forward.

“As young people, as students, your lives have been greatly affected by the loss of these champions of freedom, of justice, of human dignity and peace. In a power-drunk world, where means become ends, and violence becomes a favorite pastime, we are swiftly moving toward self-annihilation. Your generation must speak out with righteous indignation against the forces which are seeking to destroy us.”

Five decades removed from the grieving widow’s show of courage and resolve, Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor, will focus her address at Friday’s symposium on urging the same qualities upon a nation still struggling to live up to Martin Luther King Jr.’s highest hopes.

“The Civil Rights movement is far from done; the onward march of freedom still requires courage, endurance, moral clarity, and love,” Allen said. “I think we can best memorialize the men and women who worked with King, and King himself, by finding the courage to insist, over and over again and lovingly, on the ethical demands of full integration.”

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MLK 50 years Later- Commemorative Website

Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Boston University in 1951, searching for a multicultural community and a setting for his study of ethics and philosophy. He became “Dr. King” by earning a Ph.D. in systematic theology here in 1955.

Do you want to learn more about the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or How a Man Became an Icon? If so, take a look at the Commemorative Website .

For more videos, check out BU Today .

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Timeline of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Life

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• Last Updated: Jun 6, 2023 8:54 AM
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Martin Luther King, Jr.

Give Us the Ballot

The impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stretches beyond the past, working to protect our right to vote in the name of justice. Learn more about how you can active in your community by volunteering with the NAACP for MLK Day. 

No figure is more closely identified with the mid-20th century struggle for civil rights than Martin Luther King, Jr. His adoption of nonviolent resistance to achieve equal rights for Black Americans earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. King is remembered for his masterful oratorical skills, most memorably in his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Early Life and Education

Born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, King was heavily influenced by his father, a church pastor, who King saw stand up to segregation in his daily life. In 1936, King's father also led a march of several hundred African Americans to Atlanta's city hall to protest voting rights discrimination.

As a member of his high school debate team, King developed a reputation for his powerful public speaking skills, enhanced by his deep baritone voice and extensive vocabulary. King left high school at the age of 15 to enter Atlanta's Morehouse College, an all-male historically Black university attended by both his father and maternal grandfather.

After graduating in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in sociology, King decided to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in a seminary in Pennsylvania before pursuing a doctorate in theology at Boston University. While studying for King served as an assistant minister at Boston's Twelfth Baptist Church, which was renowned for its abolitionist origins. In Boston, he met and married Coretta Scott, a student at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Joining the Civil Rights Movement

After finishing his doctorate, King returned to the South at the age of 25, becoming pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Shortly after King took up residence in the town, Rosa Parks made history when she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a Montgomery bus.

Starting in 1955, Montgomery's Black community staged an extremely successful bus boycott that lasted for over a year. King, played a pivotal leadership role in organizing the protest. His arrest and imprisonment as the boycott's leader propelled King onto the national stage as a lead figure in the civil rights movement.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.… We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

With other Black church leaders in the South, King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to mount nonviolent protests against racist Jim Crow laws. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's model of nonviolent resistance, King believed that peaceful protest for civil rights would lead to sympathetic media coverage and public opinion. His instincts proved correct when civil rights activists were subjected to violent attacks by white officials in widely televised episodes that drew nationwide outrage. With King at its helm, the civil rights movement ultimately achieved victories with the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Nonviolent protest gains traction

In 1959, King returned to Atlanta to serve as co-pastor with his father at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. His involvement in a sit-in at a department 1960 presidential election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Pressure from Kennedy led to King's release.

Working closely with NAACP, King and the SCLC turned their sights on Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, organizing sit-ins in public spaces. Again, the protests drew nationwide attention when televised footage showed Birmingham police deploying pressurized water jets and police dogs against peaceful demonstrators. The campaign was ultimately successful, forcing the infamous Birmingham police chief Bull Connor to resign and the city to desegregate public spaces.

"There is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It's worth going to jail for. It's worth losing a job for. It's worth dying for. My friends, go out this evening determined to achieve this freedom which God wants for all of His children." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the campaign, King was once again sent to prison, where he composed his legendary "Letter from Birmingham Jail," in response to a call from white sympathizers to address civil rights through legal means rather than protest. King passionately disagreed, saying the unjust situation necessitated urgent action. He wrote: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.… We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

History-making marches

In 1963, King and the SCLC worked with NAACP and other civil rights groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which attracted 250,000 people to rally for the civil and economic rights of Black Americans in the nation's capital. There, King delivered his majestic 17-minute "I Have a Dream" speech.

Along with other civil rights activists, King participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. The brutal attacks on activists by the police during the march were televised into the homes of Americans across the country. When the march concluded in Montgomery, King gave his "How Long, Not Long" speech, in which he predicted that equal rights for African Americans would be imminently granted. His legendary words are widely quoted today: "How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Less than six months later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act banning disenfranchisement of Black Americans.

Death and legacy

Over the next few years, King broadened his focus and began speaking out against the Vietnam War and economic issues, calling for a bill of rights for all Americans.

In the spring of 1968, King visited Memphis, Tennessee, to support Black sanitary workers who were on strike. On April 4, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray in his Memphis hotel. President Johnson called for a national day of mourning on April 7. In 1983, Congress cemented King's legacy as an American icon by declaring the third Monday of every January Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." — Martin Luther King, Jr.

King was honored with dozens of awards and honorary degrees for his achievement throughout his life and posthumously. In addition to receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, King was awarded the NAACP Medal in 1957 and the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Committee in 1965. After his death, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1994 with his wife, Coretta.

King's legacy has inspired activists fighting injustice anywhere in the world. NAACP has carried on King's work on behalf of Black Americans and strives to keep his dream alive for future generations. We take inspiration from his closing remarks at the NAACP Emancipation Day Rally in 1957: "I close by saying there is nothing greater in all the world than freedom. It's worth going to jail for. It's worth losing a job for. It's worth dying for. My friends, go out this evening determined to achieve this freedom which God wants for all of His children."

March on Washington, August 28, 1963

"In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men – yes, black men as well as white men – would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.… America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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MLK Papers Project uncovers how Martin became King with rare, unpublished documents

Julian Glover interviews Dr. Clayborne Carson about the King Papers Project.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- We know about his dream, but how much do we know about the moments in his life that shaped that dream? The  Martin Luther King Jr. Education and Research Institute at Stanford University is producing a multi-volume collection of MLK's personal and public documents, spanning decades, to illuminate little-known moments in the civil rights leader's life that shaped him.

It's the type of dilemma historians dream of.

For Dr. Clayborne Carson, the founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, it's become his life's work documenting King's life in the King Papers Project. "It's taken us much longer to edit and publish his papers than it took him to live his life," said Dr. Carson. "That's been the challenge; not the lack of materials, but because of so much material out there." The King Papers Project is a collection of King's most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, and rare unpublished texts.

To date, seven exhaustive volumes have been published spanning hundreds of pages. Each volume is bound in a signature red cover. The work started in 1985 when Dr. Carson was handpicked by Coretta Scott King, founder of the King Center in Atlanta, to lead the project nearly 20 years after MLK was assassinated.

Glover : "How long did you believe it would take you to get through all 12 volumes at the time?" Carson : "I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you the answer to that. I told (Coretta Scott King) 'probably in about 20 years I think we can wrap this up'." Glover : "So you were thinking 2005?" Carson : "Yes. And we've kind of passed that deadline."

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Meet the 2019-20 MLK Visiting Professors and Scholars

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Founded in 1990, the Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Visiting Professors and Scholars Program honors the life and legacy of Martin Luther King by increasing the presence of, and recognizing the contributions of, underrepresented minority scholars at MIT. MLK Visiting Professors and Scholars enhance their scholarship through intellectual engagement with the MIT community and enrich the cultural, academic, and professional experience of students. The program hosts between four and eight scholars each year with financial and institutional support from the Office of the Provost and oversight from the Institute Community and Equity Office. Six scholars are visiting MIT this academic year as part of the program.

Kasso Okoudjou is returning for a second year as an MLK Visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics. Originally from Benin, he moved to the United States in 1998 and earned a PhD in mathematics from Georgia Tech. Okoudjou joins MIT from the University of Maryland College Park, where he is a professor. His research interests include applied and pure harmonic analysis, especially time-frequency and time-scale analysis; frame theory; and analysis and differential equations on fractals. He is interested in broadening the participation of underrepresented minorities in (undergraduate) research in the mathematical sciences.

Matthew Schumaker joins MIT for another year in the Music and Theater Arts Section within the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Schumaker received his doctorate in music composition from the University of California at Berkeley. At MIT, he teaches a new course, 21M.380 ( Composing for Solo Instrument and Live Electronics ), a hands-on music technology composition seminar combining instrumental writing with real-time computer music. Additionally, The Radius Ensemble in Cambridge, Massachusetts has commissioned Schumaker to write a new piece of music that seeks to translate into music the vibrant, curved gestures and slashed markings in the abstract landscapes of celebrated Ethiopian-born painter Julie Mehretu.

Jamie Macbeth is visiting from Smith College, where he is an assistant professor in computer science. He received his PhD in computer science from University of California at Los Angeles. Although this is his first year as an MLK Visiting Scholar, he is not new to MIT, since he has been a visiting scientist since 2017. He is hosted by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Macbeth’s research is focused on building and studying intelligent computing systems that demonstrate a human-like capability for in-depth understanding and production of natural language, and thus can achieve richer interactions with human users. He is especially keen on building systems that decompose the meaning of language into complex conceptual structures that reflect humans’ embodied cognition, memory, imagery and knowledge about social situations.

Ben McDonald has been a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry since 2018 and is now an MLK Visiting Scholar. McDonald received his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Northwestern University. His research focused on the total synthesis of flavonolignan natural products and the development of reverse-polarity carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. As a member of the department’s Chemistry Alliance for Inclusion and Diversity, he is focused on advancing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. One of the initiatives he seeks to establish is a summer research program, which recruits talented future scientists from underrepresented backgrounds.

Tina Opie is an associate professor in the Management Division at Babson College. Opie obtained her PhD in management (with a concentration in organizational behavior) from New York University’s Stern School of Business. As an MLK Visiting Scholar in MIT Sloan School of Management, along with access to MIT’s Behavioral Research Lab, she is conducting research to develop the construct of Shared Sisterhood . “Shared Sisterhood examines how high-quality relationships (e.g., relationships characterized by trust, emotional vulnerability) between black, white, and Latinx women at work facilitate workplace inclusion and equity.” Though her work has a specific focus, people of all genders and racioethnic backgrounds can be “sisters” and can contribute to fostering a more inclusive work environment. Opie established Opie Consulting Group, a diversity-and-inclusion consultancy that incorporates Shared Sisterhood in creating inclusive workplaces.  

Rhonda Williams , an MLK Visiting Professor hosted by the Department of History, joins MIT from Vanderbilt University, where she was recently appointed the John L. Seigenthaler Chair in American History. She is the founder of the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University. Her essay titled “Black Women Who Educate for Justice and Put Their Time, Lives, and Spirits on the Line" was recently published in "Black Women And Social Justice Education: Legacies and Lessons" (2019, SUNY Press). On Oct. 25, Williams will deliver a social justice-related performance-lecture called “ The Things That Divide Us: Meditations ” at MIT. In spring 2020, she will facilitate a social justice workshop for students, faculty and staff.

For more information about our scholars and the program, visit mlkscholars.mit.edu .

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MIT MLK Visiting Scholars & Professors Program

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• About the program

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology established the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor Program to enhance and recognize the contributions of outstanding scholars. The program honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professors and Scholars enhance their scholarship through intellectual interactions with MIT peers and enrich the intellectual life of the Institute with their participation in MIT research and academic programs.

Scholars are expected to be deeply engaged in the life of the Institute through teaching, research and other scholarly interactions with the MIT community. Their presence gives them the opportunity to make a significant impact on the growth and awareness of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the MIT community as a whole.

Appointments as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professors have been in all of MIT’s academic areas of Architecture, Engineering, Humanities, Management and Science. Appointments will also be considered in the fields of medicine, law and public service, where individuals of high distinction can add significantly to the intellectual life of the Institute through special subject offerings and interactions with students interested in pursuing such professions.

While most Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professors are from colleges and universities, appointments will also be considered from individuals from public and private organizations outside of academia.

• Comments from former scholars

“The MIT MLK Visiting Professor and Scholars Program was indeed a superb experience and was an excellent springboard to my professional career. Since then, many good things have happened, and, yes, your program deserves great credit!”

--Dereje Agonafer MIT MLK Visiting Professor 2007-2008 Professor and Director of Electronics, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington

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Panelists talk legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in ‘The Civil Rights Act at 60’

About 100 Evanston-area residents attended a panel titled “The Civil Rights Act at 60: Is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Dream for Chicago and the Country Attainable?” at Evanston Township High School Monday night. 

The panel — which was presented by the Family Action Network and the Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies — featured Vaughn Bryant, executive director of Metropolitan Peace Initiatives, and Lerone Martin, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. The event was moderated by journalist and author Natalie Moore.

The talk focused on King’s legacy and the importance of organizing in local communities today. Topics discussed included segregation, redlining and redistribution of wealth. 

Martin said people commonly misunderstand King as only being concerned with ending Jim Crow laws when, in actuality, King was interested in eradicating the “triple evils” of racism, poverty and military violence.

“His body of work is so large and encompasses concerns about poverty, economic exploitation, housing, war and police brutality,” Martin said. “What we have in this country, unfortunately, is that King has been anesthetized, or he’s been sanitized, in order to be acceptable to the broader public and to the broader nation.”

In Chicago, King worked against redlining by trying to find places where Black Americans wanted and could afford to live, Martin said.

Martin said King would test for fair housing by sending white and Black people looking to buy homes to the same local real estate agencies. He found that prospective white homeowners were offered housing all across the city, while prospective Black homeowners were only offered housing in the west and south sides of Chicago, Martin said. 

“(King) came up to Chicago and gave a speech in 1963 and said Chicago is as segregated as Farmingdale,” Martin said. “We see the photos and the images of a Birmingham march — children being sprayed with hoses and dogs being bitten. You didn’t see that necessarily within Chicago, but it was still segregated in part because of federal housing policy.”

Martin said that King would spend time in Black neighborhoods as a way to speak with the community. King focused on engaging with people in conversation, particularly young people because they “have opportunity and responsibility to try to create a better world,” Martin said.

Bryant said reaching out to communities and listening to what they have to say is the pinnacle of organizing — even to this day. Lobbying is an important way for people to advocate for what they want and need, he added. 

“It is making sure that the people who are closest to the problem in their local community are coming up with the solutions,” Bryant said. 

Martin said one such problem in need of a solution is wealth inequality — specifically, how racialized the issue is. 

Evanston resident JoAnn Robson, who attended the panel, said she appreciated the speakers highlighting how far society has come for general racial equality, yet there is a saddening lack of progress in closing the wealth distribution gap. 

However, Robson said she remains hopeful that future progress is on its way. 

“I have faith in the young people of today,” Robson said. “I think you’re going to help make the world a better place.”

Email: [email protected]  

Related Stories:

— Nonprofits hold panel discussion to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for fair housing

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King, Martin Luther, III

October 23, 1957

The first son of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott  King , Martin Luther King, III, was born 23 October 1957. He graduated from  Morehouse College  with a BA in political science. He is a popular speaker and a community activist with a special interest in programs that support young people. In 1986 he was elected to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to represent more than 700,000 Georgia residents, but was defeated in his bid for the chairmanship of the Board in 1993.  Dedicated to expanding his father’s ideals, Martin was elected the fourth president of the  Southern Christian Leadership Conference  in 1997. He served until the end of 2003, leading marches, convening police brutality hearings, and organizing gun buy-back programs. In 2005, he told  Ebony  magazine, “My father’s views were unequivocal, and I have found them to be invaluable to me as guidelines for prayerful consideration of current events and issues” (“What Would King Do Now?”). 

King, III, “What Would King Do Now?”  Ebony , January 2005.