Martin Luther King
Jr. was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. His
father, Martin Luther King, was as Baptist minister and his
mother, Alberta King, was a schoolteacher. His birth name is
Michael Luther Kings Jr. but he was later renamed Martin and
his father called him M.L.
Martin was so smart
he skipped the 9th and 12th grades and entered Morehouse
College when he was 15. He decided to become a minister and
went on to earn a Ph.D. from Boston University. It was in
Boston that he met Coretta Scott. They went on to have four
children. King moved to
Montgomery Alabama to become the pastor of a Baptist church.
This was in 1955 and the civil rights movement was in its
earliest stages. The civil rights movement was waged to
bring equality to all people regardless of their religion,
race or gender.
In 1955 King became
involved in civil rights activities with a protest of
Montgomery's segregated bus system. That year, a black
passenger named Rosa Parks was arrested for disobeying a
city law requiring that blacks give up their seats on buses
when white people wanted to sit in their seats or in the
same row. Black leaders in Montgomery urged blacks to
boycott (refuse to use) the city's buses.
While organizing the
Poor People's Campaign, King went to Memphis to support a
strike of black garbage workers. On April 4, 1968, King was
shot and killed by James Earl Ray. In 1983, Congress
passed a federal holiday honoring King. The day is
celebrated on the third Monday in January.
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