Martin Luther King Jr: Readings and Timeline

Compiled by the Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation
BOOK CHAPTERS
Stride Toward Freedom (1958) — "My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence"
“Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale…"

Strength to Love (1963) — "Transformed Nonconformist"
“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists… The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority…”

Why We Can’t Wait (1964) — “The Negro Revolution: Why 1963?”
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon… unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. Both a practical and a moral answer to the Negro’s cry for justice, nonviolent direct action… became the triumphant tactic of the Negro Revolution of 1963… When such a people begin to move, they create their own theories, shape their own destinies, and choose the leaders who share their own philosophy…”

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) — “The World House”
“If Western civilization does not now respond constructively to the challenge to banish racism, some future historian will have to say that a great civilization died because it lacked the soul and commitment to make justice a reality for all men…”

A Timeline of the Black Freedom Movement:
​The Life of Martin Luther King Jr.

January 15, 1929
King is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
September 20, 1944
King begins at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
February 25, 1948
King is ordained and appointed assistant pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
June 8, 1948
King receives his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Morehouse College.
September 1948 -
​May 1951    
King studies at Crozer Theological Seminar in Chester, Pennsylvania.
​On November 19, 1950, King attends a lecture by Dr. Mordecai Johnson on Gandhian nonviolence at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.
September 1951 -
June 1955
King studies systematic theology at Boston University, receiving his Ph.D.
June 18, 1953    ​
King and Coretta Scott marry in Alabama.
September 1, 1954
King begins pastoring Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
Gives first iteration of speech “Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.”
December 1955
Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to vacate her bus seat in Montgomery. 
A one-day boycott is called for December 5, and the Montgomery Improvement Association is formed. The Montgomery Bus Boycott continues for 381 days. King’s house is bombed and he commits himself to nonviolence. 
December 21, 1956
The boycott ends on December 21, 1956 with the integration of the buses. King gives the address “Facing the Challenge of a New Age” to the First Annual Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change in December 1956.
January 1957
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is formed in Atlanta; King is named chairman. 
March 1957
King attends independence celebrations of Ghana, meeting with Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, giving the speech “The Birth of a New Nation.”
September 1958
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is published on Sept. 17, featuring the essay “My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence”. On his book tour, King is stabbed in New York.
February 1959    ​
King visits India for a month, meeting with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and followers of Gandhi, publishing the article “My Trip to the Land of Gandhi” later that year. 
June 1959
King gives the commencement speech "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" at Morehouse College.
August 1959
James Lawson begins teaching workshops on nonviolence in church basements in Nashville, Tennessee. Students such as Diane Nash, James Bevel, and Barnard Lafayette attend, producing the leadership of the Nashville Student Movement which desegregated the lunch counters and became young leadership of the movement overall.
May 1961
CORE organizes Freedom Rides to protest the segregation of interstate travel.
April 13, 1963
SCLC organizes the Birmingham desegregation campaign.
May 7, Police Commissioner Bull Connor employs dogs and club-wielding police to disperse four thousand demonstrators downtown. King is jailed and pens “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.
June 1963
Strength to Love is published, including “Transformed Nonconformist” essay.
August 28, 1963
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom takes place in DC; King delivers “I Have a Dream” speech. 
September 15, 1963
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham is bombed by white supremacists, killing four little girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Dianne Wesley, and Carole Robertson.
June 1964
Why We Can't Wait is published.
July 1964
King supports the Mississippi Freedom Summer campaign to register Black voters and combat voter suppression. 
December 10, 1964
King receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
March 1965
King embarks on the Selma campaign. On March 7 (Bloody Sunday) marchers beaten at Edmund Pettus bridge. March 21-25 King leads march from Selma to Montgomery.
January 26, 1966    
King moves to Chicago for campaigns in urban North. Feb 23, meets The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad; this campaign inspires King to give the speech “The Other America”  later in
​April 14, 1967.
June 7, 1966    ​
King participates in the “March Against Fear” through the South after the shooting of James Meredith.
April 4, 1967
King delivers “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church in NYC. 
​In June 1967, he publishes Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?
November-December 1967
King delivers a series of lectures published as The Trumpet of Conscience including “Youth and Social Change.” ​​
December 4, 1967
The Poor People’s Campaign is announced.
February 1968   
Sanitation workers in Memphis go on strike under the leadership of Reverend James Lawson. King delivers his “Drum Major Instinct” speech on February 4, and gives the speech “Honoring Dr. Du Bois” in New York City on February 23. King visits Memphis multiple times in support of the strike, giving “All Labor Has Dignity” on Feb 12, 1968 during one of his visits. 
April 1968
On the night before his assassination on April 3, 1968, King gives his final speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” in Memphis. On April 4, 1968, King is shot and killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. King is buried April 9, 1968 in Atlanta with a mass funeral procession.​
 
Coretta Scott King continues King’s work for peace, delivering a speech on "10 Commandments on Vietnam" on April 27, 1968. The Poor People’s March on Washington takes place May 12 to June 24 under the leadership of Reverend Ralph Abernathy and the SCLC. ​