Martin King

King gained national prominence as a black civil rights leader and, during his final years, as a critic of American military involvement in Vietnam. In his memoir, Stride Toward Freedom (1958), King recalled that when initially exposed to pacifism, he concluded that war “could serve as a negative good in the sense of preventing the spread and growth of an evil force.” Only after becoming familiar with Gandhian notions of nonviolent resistance was he convinced that “the love ethic of Jesus” could be “a potent instrument for social and collective transformation.” As the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King became a nationally known advocate of civil disobedience. He led protest movements in Montgomery (1955–56), Birmingham (1963), and Selma (1965), Alabama, that demonstrated the effectiveness of nonviolent tactics in spurring passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Although King was reluctant to risk his prestige as a civil rights leader by opposing the Vietnam War, he eventually publicly criticized President Lyndon B. Johnson's war policies as immoral and a harmful diversion of funds from antipoverty programs. On 4 April 1967, in his first major public statement against the war, King explained at New York's Riverside Church that “if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” King's advocacy of conscientious objection to military service and his call for a unilateral cease‐fire in Vietnam hurt his popularity and ability to influence domestic policies; nonetheless he remained an internationally recognized advocate of world peace and militant nonviolence until his assassination on 4 April 1968.

[See also Civil Liberties and War; Peace and Antiwar Movements; Vietnam Antiwar Movement.]

Bibliography

• James M. Washington, ed., The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1986.
• David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1988.
• Clayborne Carson, et al., eds. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 14 vols., 1992–.
• Clayborne Carson, ed., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1998

(1929-68) Baptist minister who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s as the leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. Having studied theology at Crozier Seminary and Boston University, King became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, and was soon asked to head the ‘Montgomery Improvement Association’ in its campaign for desegregation of city buses. A year later, King founded and headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and travelled throughout the country to campaign for the emerging civil rights movement. King's prominence and oratory power served both to unite and to promote various local campaigns against practices of discrimination, some of which resulted in his arrest and imprisonment. On 28 August 1963, King led a 200,000 strong march on Washington, and delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech from Capitol Hill. Support for the movement was a key factor in the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voting Rights Acts. He was assassinated in Memphis on 4 April 1968.

King's contribution to the cause of civic activism lies in his justly celebrated doctrine of ‘active non-violence’ (inspired by the teachings and practice of Gandhi). Undoubtedly the resolute pacifism of the movement served to promote its cause among white ‘middle America’, as did its concentration on those civil rights, such as the right to vote, which were difficult for most people to dispute. From 1963 onwards King was increasingly criticized by more radical black activist groups for his moderation (see black power). In his last years, King turned towards more complex issues affecting black Americans (e.g. the Vietnam War), and attempted to launch a cross-racial coalition against poverty, but his contribution to the dismantling of segregation in the South remains his enduring achievement.

— Stewart Wood

Martin King may refer to:

• Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), Baptist minister and civil rights activist
• Martin Luther King, Sr. (1899–1984), Baptist minister and the father of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Martin Luther King III (born 1957), son of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Dr. Martin King, fictional character in The Avengers
• Martin King (actor), British actor and voice actor
• Martin King (journalist), Australian reporter on A Current Affair
• Martin King (weather presenter), Irish weather presenter with TV3

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