M artin L uth er K ing J r .
Page 4
January 13. 2010
2010 s p e c ia l ed itio n
ing Inspired Nation, World
Biography of a civil rights hero
Martin Luther King Jr., (Jan. 15, 1929-April 4,
1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but
later had his name changed to Martin.
His grandfather began the family's long
tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to
1931; his father succeeded him, and from
1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as
co-pastor.
Martin Luther attended segregated pub
lic schools in Georgia, graduating from
high school at the age of 15; he received
the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse
College, a distinguished historically
black institutionof Atlanta from which
both his father and grandfather had
graduated.
After three years of theological
study at Crozer Theological Semi
nary in Pennsylvania where he was
elected president of a predominantly
white senior class, he was awarded the
B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at
Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at
Boston University, completing his residence
tor the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the
degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married
Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon
intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons
and two daughters were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pas
tor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in
Montgomery, Ala. Always a strong
worker for civil rights for members of
his race. King was, by this time, a
member of the executive
committee of the
■
N a tio n a l
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading
organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in
December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great
black nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in
the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar
Jahn in his Nobel presentation speech in honor of King,
The boycott lasted 382 days. On Dec. 21, 1956,
after the Supreme Court of the United States had
declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segre
gation on buses, blacks and whites rode the buses
as equals. During these days of boycott, King was
arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected
to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged
as a black leader of the first rank.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, an organization
formed to provide new leadership for the now
burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for
this organization he took from Christianity; its
operational techniques from Gandhi.
In the 11-year period between 1957 and
• 1968, King traveled over six million miles and
spoke over 2,500 times, appearing wherever
there was injustice, protest, and action; and
meanwhile he wrote five books as well as
numerous articles.
In these years, he led a massive protest in
Birmingham, Ala., that caught the attention of the
entire world, providing what he called a coalition of
conscience, and inspiring his "Letter from a Bir
mingham Jail", a manifesto of the black revolution; he
planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of
blacks as voters; he directed the peaceful march on
Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he deliv
ered his address, "1 Have a Dream", he conferred with
President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for Presi
dent Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of
25 times and assaulted at least four times; he was
awarded five honorary degrees; was named
Man of the Year by Time magazine in
continued
on page 17
Dr. Martin
Luther
King Jr.
In the
Neighborhood
Everybody can have
a dream. / ju st hate
that h e ’s gone.
— R onald H arris
What is the most influential part of Martin Luther
King Jr.’s legacy and how is it being felt today?
His speech on the mountain top
about how we should be ju dged by
the content o f our character and
not the color o f our skin.
— T eresa S choates
»
To unite every
body as one.
We are equal.
— V alu e D oyle
continued
on page 7