Student Name: Shekerra Kelly Date: 1/10/11 MECPS, Mr. Jiang

 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is an African American Baptist minister who was the main leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950's and 1960's.

 “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”  “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

 Dr. King Jr. wrote Stride Toward Freedom (1958), Strength to Love (1963), Why We Can't Wait (1964), Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967), and The Trumpet of Conscience (1968).

 King was born on Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta. His name at birth was Michael King, Jr., after his father, Michael King. But his father changed their names to Martin Luther King, Sr. and Jr., when he was about 5.  He entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, to earn a divinity degree. King then went to graduate school at Boston University, where he got a Ph.D. degree in theology in In Boston, he met Coretta Scott of Marion, Alabama, a music student. They were married in The Kings had four children—Yolanda, Dexter, Martin, and Bernice. In 1954, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

 Some of his early civil rights movement include a protest of Montgomery's segregated bus system in 1955 and nonviolent protest.

 He contributed to African Americans gaining their civil rights.