Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "I refuse to accept the view... that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality."

-born in Atlanta, Georgia on Jan.15, birth name was Michael Luther King -was renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was six years old -graduated from high school at the age of 15 after skipping grades 9 &11

-graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1948 getting a degree in sociology -graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania -received his doctrine from Boston University in he studied the works of Ghandi during his college years and actually visited India in he married Correta Scott and returned down South to become pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama

-Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus -King help to organize the bus boycott that lasted 382 days in Montgomery, Alabama -this boycott gave King national recognition

-he soon began helping other communities organize protest against discrimination -he returned to Atlanta to co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church -wrote his first book Stride Toward Freedom

-the first sit-in was in Greensboro, NC at Woolworth’s when 4 college students refused to get up from the counter when they were refused service

Time magazine had him as Man of the Year in Also delivered the speech “I Have a Dream” on the steps of Lincoln Memorial at the end of the march to Washington, D.C. on August 28, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964

-the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed by Lyndon B. Johnson

-James Earl Ray was convicted of the crime King was assassinated in 1968 on the balcony of Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn. On April 4

-in 1969 his wife organized the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change; it still stands next to the church, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta

-in 1986 Ronald Regan signed the bill to make his birthday a national holiday