29.03.2024

15 Breathtaking Photos, from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Explore the most historic moments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s storied career with this image tour from Shutterstock’s archives.

“I’ve been to a hundred and fifty-two countries,” the civil rights activist Jesse Jackson told CNN last year. “I’ve never been anywhere where people haven’t wanted to ask me about Martin Luther King.” Were he alive today, Martin Luther King Jr. would be celebrating his 90th birthday. He led the Civil Rights Movement for fewer than thirteen years, but in that time, he transformed a nation.

As we continue to contend with our country’s painful past and uncertain future, his memory serves as a beacon of hope that someday people of all races will find equal treatment under the law. More than that, it’s a reminder not to give up the fight. Looking back on the assassination a half-century ago, Jackson reaffirmed what we already know by saying, “His spirit is alive.”

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we pulled together this collection of unforgettable photographs and quotations from the Reverend’s lifetime.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Morehouse College

Martin Luther King, third from left, listens to a speaker during an assembly at Morehouse College, in Atlanta, GA, in 1948. King subsequently graduated from the college with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. Photo by AP/Shutterstock

Martin Luther King was fifteen years old in 1944, when he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta. There, he studied some of the ideas that would inform much of his life, including the works of Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau’s text on civil disobedience. In this photo from January 1st, 1948, we can see a young King at Morehouse, two weeks shy of his nineteenth birthday.

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.”-Martin Luther King Jr., from The Maroon Tiger at Morehouse College, 1947.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Leaving Court

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss by his wife Coretta after leaving court in Montgomery, AL. King was found guilty of conspiracy to boycott city buses in a campaign to desegregate the bus system, but a judge suspended his $500 fine pending appeal. Photo by Gene Herrick/AP/Shutterstock

On the first day of December 1955, police arrested a seamstress by the name of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama, when she refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger. That’s when Martin Luther King Jr., then at the helm of the Montgomery Improvement Association, stepped in to help orchestrate a historic boycott.

Initially planned as a one-off, the Montgomery Bus Boycott ultimately lasted 381 days, with black citizens staying off of city buses. Participating came at a cost. Individuals who boycotted faced threats of arrest and violence. This included King, whose family home was bombed.

On February 21st, 1956, nearly three months into the boycott, the Montgomery County Grand Jury indicted King. The jury cited a law from the early 1920s that prohibited the boycotting of businesses. He was found guilty, but the minister didn’t lose faith. “This will not mar or diminish in any way my interest in the protest,” he said at the time. “We will continue to protest in the same spirit of nonviolence and passive resistance, using the weapon of love.”

Hundreds of people greeted King outside the courthouse, including his wife, Coretta Scott King, who kisses him in this photo taken on March 22, 1956. Despite intimidation from white residents as well as the authorities, King and his colleagues persisted. In the end, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the segregation of city buses was unconstitutional.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”-Martin Luther King Jr., from a 1957 sermon, and later, Strength to Love (1963).

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Freedom Riders

Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Dietrich Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader, shakes hands with Paul Dietrich just before a bus of Freedom Riders left Montgomery, Alabama. Dietrich, ministerial student from Virginia, joined the Freedom Riders. Photo by Anonymous/AP/Shutterstock

The Supreme Court ruled against the segregation of buses, terminals, and restaurants. But, the decision wasn’t enforced throughout the country. So, in 1961, volunteers both white and black joined to form the Freedom Riders. Together, they boarded integrated buses and embarked on a tour through Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, and Florida, where they faced threats of arrest and violence. However the activists were trained in nonviolence, and stood their ground peacefully.

“These courageous freedom riders have faced ugly and howling mobs in order to arouse the dozing conscience of the nation,” King explained. “They have accepted blows without retaliation. One day all of America will be proud of their achievements.” Here he is on May 24, 1961, with a bus of Freedom Riders in Montgomery.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”-Martin Luther King Jr., from the Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - March on Washington

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. March On Washington, 1963. Photo by Arnie Sachs/Mediapunch/Shutterstock

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - I Have a Dream

Martin Luther King Jr Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledging the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington. Next Wednesday, the nation’s first black president will stand near the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. stood 50 years ago, a living symbol of the racial progress King dreamed about, and enunciate where he believes this nation should be headed. Photo by AP/Shutterstock

On August 28th, 1963, King joined prominent leaders from organizations like the NAACP, the Congress On Racial Equality, the NUL, and more to put together the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. An estimated 250,000 people of all backgrounds showed up for that historic moment, expressing their support for desegregation and fair wages and employment policies. It was during this march that King delivered his powerful speech I Have a Dream, which still resonates today.

“I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will he able to join hands with little white boy’s and white girls as sisters and brothers.”-Martin Luther King Jr., from I Have a Dream, August 28th, 1963.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) and Malcolm X (Malcolm Little – 1925-1965) waiting for a press conference, 26 March 1964. Pic by Marion S.Trikoskor. Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG/Shutterstock

On March 26th, 1964, King met Malcolm X for the first and only time. In the lead-up to the passing of the Civil Rights Act, both activists had come to Washington for a senate debate. Though they shared common goals, the two differed. King advocated for non-violence, while Malcolm encouraged self-defense. Though Malcolm reached out in hopes of organizing a debate, King declined. The fact that they came together in the Senate hall, if only for one minute, was still momentous. Malcolm was assassinated the next year, and more than half a century later, we continue to wonder what progress the two might have made had they lived.

“I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity … This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way. If it means sacrificing, I’m going that way. If it means dying for them, I’m going that way, because I heard a voice saying, ‘Do something for others.’”-Martin Luther King Jr., from The Good Samaritan, 1966.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - St. Augustine

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gives a young picket a pat on the back as a group of youngsters started to picket St. Augustine, Fl. MLK St Augustine Boycott 1964, St. Augustine, USA. Photo by Anonymous/AP/Shutterstock

A decade after Brown v. Board of Education, the city of St. Augustine in Florida still had not fully desegregated. The fight against discrimination had been an uphill battle. Activists faced significant roadblocks along the way, including violence at the hands of Ku Klux Klan members and arrests by the police. Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators and participants in sit-ins were taken to jail.

In the spring of 1964, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) provided assistance to local activists. The Reverend himself arrived in St. Augustine in May, and in this moving photo, taken June 10th, 1964, we can see him with young demonstrators from the city.

The next day, King was arrested, along with his colleague Ralph Abernathy and others, for attempting to eat in a segregated restaurant. “Everyone in town had known for 24 hours that Dr. King would be arrested,” The New York Times reported at the time. “He had announced yesterday that he would go to jail to dramatize discrimination against Negroes in the nation’s oldest city.”

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Lyndon Baines Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908 – 1973), referred to as LBJ, served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act, 2 July 1964. Martin Luther king Jr. looks on behind the President. Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG/Shutterstock

On July 2nd, 1964, King was among those supporters present when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. The law prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin, or religion, and today, it protects everything from our right to vote to our right to access public places.

“The purpose of this law is simple; it does not restrict the freedom of any American, so long as he respects the rights of others,” Johnson told the country that day. “It does not give special treatment to any citizen. It does say the only limit to a man’s hope for happiness and for the future of his children shall be his own ability.” The President used 75 pens to sign it into law. One of which he gave to King, who described the new law as a “second emancipation.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” -Martin Luther King Jr., from Strength to Love (1963).

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Nobel Peace Prize

Integration leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. receives word by phone that he has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as he lies in hospital bed in Atlanta, Ga., where he went for a checkup. Photo by Anonymous/AP/Shutterstock

On October 14th, 1964, the Reverend became the youngest person in history to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. He was 35 years old. When news broke, he happened to be getting a check-up at St. Joseph’s Infirmary in Atlanta. As The New York Times reported that day, “Dr. King said that ‘every penny’ of the prize money, which amounts to about $54,000, would be given to the civil rights movement.”

It was a triumphant moment, signifying that people around the world were listening to what was going on in the United States. “For many years we have had to contend with the other side,” Coretta told The New York Times. “For something like this to happen makes it all worthwhile.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” -Martin Luther King Jr., accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, December 10, 1964.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - King Marching

Dr. Martin Luther King, third from right, marches across the Alabama River on the first of a five day, 50 mile march to the state capitol at Montgomery, Ala. Photo by Anonymous/AP/Shutterstock

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Marchers in Selma, Alabama

A young black boy waves from a porch as marchers lead by Dr. Martin Luther King strike out of camp near Selma, Alabama, as his protest march started its second lap. The marchers are aiming for the State Capitol at Montgomery. – Race Relations In America The Vote, Selma, USA. Photo by Anonymous/AP/Shutterstock

From March 21st-25th, 1965, thousands came together to march from Selma to Montgomery. The campaign for voting rights by the SCLC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and other activists began earlier that year, as black residents faced an uphill battle in registering to vote. By the time of the march, nonviolent demonstrators had faced brutal loses, including the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young deacon who was shot by a state trooper in Marion, Alabama.

An initial pilgrimage from Selma to Montgomery, organized earlier in March, had turned violent when troopers attacked marchers with tear gas and beatings on March 7th, also called “Bloody Sunday.” But this time, King, accompanied by religious leaders of all faiths, had the protection of the federal government. The marchers’ numbers reached to 30,000 near the close of the journey. There were still more tragedies ahead. But, national outrage over the treatment of these peaceful demonstrators helped usher in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed in August of that year.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”-Martin Luther King Jr., Conscience for Change, November, 1967.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Last Public Appearance

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his last public appearance at the Mason Temple in Memphis, TN. The following day King was assassinated on his motel balcony. In a new memoir, My Life with the Kings: A Reporter’s Recollections of Martin, Coretta and the Civil Rights Movement, retired Associated Press reporter Kathryn Johnson describes many civil rights flashpoints that she covered in the 1960s. It also details her close relationship with the movement’s leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and his family. Photo by Charles Kelly/AP/Shutterstock

In February of 1968, sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, were forced to work in spite of serious rain and floods. Two of these black men, Robert Walker and Echol Cole, were riding in the back of their truck to avoid the downpour when a switch malfunctioned. The truck’s compactor killed them both.

In the wake of the tragedy, Memphis public works denied compensation to the families. More than a thousand sanitation workers came together to organize a strike. They called attention to horrific working conditions and low wages, and their voices reached King, who made his way to Memphis to show his support. He delivered the speech I’ve Been to the Mountaintop on April 3rd, 1968, the day before his assassination.

“Like any man, 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. And I’m happy, tonight.”-Martin Luther King Jr., from I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, Memphis, April 2, 1968.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Lorraine Motel

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. walking across the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The civil rights leader was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel when he was killed by a rifle bullet on April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in prison in 1998. – King Anniversary Photo Gallery, MEMPHIS, USA. Photo by Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock

On the evening of April 4th, 1968, James Earl Ray fatally shot King just outside his second-floor room in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. To some nearby, the sound was like that of a firecracker; to others, it was more like a bomb. He survived the trip to the hospital, but following emergency surgery, he died at 7:05 PM.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Public Mourning

Woman weeps for Martin Luther King, Jr. after addressing thousands of University of Wisconsin students at campus rally in Madison. – Reaction to Martin Luther King Death, Madison, USA. Photo by Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock

The country-and the world-mourned. “It was like the breaking of a dream,” the activist Heather Booth told CNN last spring. “The breaking of our hopes.” Over 100 million citizens tuned in to witness the Reverend’s funeral on TV on April 5th. Federal buildings set the American flag at half-staff. This particular image comes from a campus rally at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The woman pictured here had just addressed the crowd.

15 Breathtaking Photos from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr. - Coretta Scott King in Mourning

Coretta Scott King, center, widow of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is comforted in the doorway of an airliner in Memphis, TN, as her husband’s body is brought up the ramp. The civil rights leader was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel when he was killed by a rifle bullet on April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the killing and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in prison in 1998. – King Anniversary Photo Gallery, MEMPHIS, USA. Photo by Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock

The New York Times obituary for King, penned by the reporter Murray Schumach and published on April 5th, described the Reverend as “a battle cry for human dignity.” Coretta continued to raise her own voice in that same cry for civil rights, appearing in Memphis soon after the assassination. 40,000 joined her for a march. As her friend Xernona Clayton later remembered, “She said ‘I think I need to go to finish his work.’”

Here she waits in the airliner doorway in Memphis as King’s casket is loaded up the ramp. She, along with friends and colleagues, carried on what they started together, even after he was gone.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”-Martin Luther King Jr., from A Proper Sense of Priorities, February, 1968.

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