1959 |
3 February
|
King embarks on a month-long visit to India where he meets
with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and many of Gandhi’s
followers.
|
 |
1960 |
1 February
|
King moves
from Montgomery to Atlanta to devote more time to SCLC and
the freedom struggle. He becomes assistant pastor to his father
at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
|
 |
25-28 May
|
King is found not guilty of tax fraud by a white jury in
Montgomery.
|
23 June
|
King meets privately in New York with Democratic presidential
candidate John
F. Kennedy.
|
19 October
|
King is arrested during a sit-in demonstration at Rich’s
department store in Atlanta. He is sentenced to four months
hard labor for violating a suspended sentence he received
for a 1956 traffic violation. He is released on $2000 bond
on 27 October .
|
 |
1961 |
31 January
|
Dexter Scott, King’s third child, is born
|
 |
21 May
|
After the initial group of Freedom Riders seeking to integrate
bus terminals are assaulted in Alabama, King addresses
a mass rally at a mob-besieged Montgomery church.
|
 |
16 October
|
King meets with President John
F. Kennedy and urges him to issue a second Emancipation
Proclamation to eliminate racial segregation.
|
16 December
|
King, Ralph Abernathy and 264 other protesters are arrested
during a campaign in Albany, Georgia.
|
 |
1962 |
28 September
|
During the closing session of the SCLC conference in Birmingham,
Alabama, a member of the American Nazi Party assaults King,
striking him twice in the face.
|
1963 |
| |
Strength
to Love, King's book of sermons, is published
|
 |
28 March
|
Bernice Albertine, King’s fourth child, is born.
|
 |
16 April
|
Responding to eight Jewish and Christian clergymen’s
advice that African Americans wait patiently for justice,
King pens his "Letter
from Birmingham Jail." King and Abernathy were arrested
on 12 April and released on 19 April.
|
7 May
|
Conflict in Birmingham reaches its peak when high-pressure
fire hoses force demonstrators from the business district.
In addition to hoses, Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull"
Connor employs dogs, clubs, and cattle prods to disperse four
thousand demonstrators in downtown Birmingham.
|
|
28 August
|
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom attracts more
than two hundred thousand demonstrators to the Lincoln Memorial.
Organized by A.
Philip Randolph and Bayard
Rustin, the march is supported by all major civil rights
organizations as well as by many labor and religious groups.
King delivers his "I
Have a Dream" speech.
|
 |
|
After the march, King and other civil rights leaders meet
with President John
F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon
B. Johnson in the White House.
|
 |
18 September
|
King delivers the eulogy
at the funerals of Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair,
and Cynthia Dianne Wesley, three of the four children that
were killed during the 15 September bombing of the Sixteenth
Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Carole Robertson, the
fourth victim, was buried in a separate ceremony.
|
10 October
|
U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy authorizes the FBI to
wiretap King’s home phone.
|
