MARTIN LUTHER KING

Martin Luther King was born on January 15 th in 1929, Atlanta. His mother, Alberta King, was a schoolteacher, and his father, Michael Luther King, was a Baptist minister. His father later changed both their names to Martin Luther King.

Martin Luther King had a excelent education, he frequent the church and read the scripture. He entered Morehouse College at the age of 15 and graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology. And in 1951, he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity Degree in the Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania He received a Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology from Boston University on June 5, 1955.

King married Coretta Scott on June 18, And he began his ministry in 1954 as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks took a stand for her race by refusing to give her seat to a white passenger. Following this event, King was selected as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association

King establish himself as the national leader of the civil rights movement, leading boycotts and staging protests against segregation in the South but without violence like he inspired with Gandhi's non-militant stance. He began to travel and speak, making an average of 208 speeches per year

King suffered many attacks for example while he was at the Hotel Albert in Harlem promoting his book, Stride Toward Freedom, he was stabbed by a deranged African American woman. While King was in St. Augustine, Florida to meet with other integration leaders, a shot was fired through a window in his rented beach cottage. No one was home at the time of the shooting.

Dr King won the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1956 King was many times arrested and he had to go to the prison.

On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray. The country, along with Coretta and King’s young daughter Bernice, mourned his death. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is entombed at the Freedom Hall Complex.

President Ronald Reagan made January 20th, the celebration of Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. By Maria Del Reino.