Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. He acted as co-pastor with his father when he became of age. He also attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen. He received a B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College; a Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. He enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University after that, receiving his degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott. They together formed a family of two sons and two daughters.
Always a strong supporter in the civil right movements to stop discrimination against his own people, he soon became a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. By early December of 1955 he leaded the first nonviolent bus boycott. Although the end result produced equal rights on buses for blacks, during the process King was arrested, his house bombed, and was a subject for personal abuse. Throughout all this, it was crystal clear he would not give up without a fight; a strong leader for the civil rights movement. All this paid off in 1957 when he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. What this organization did was provided new leadership for the civil rights movement. With this he traveled over six million miles, spoke over twenty-five hundred times, was arrested twenty times, assaulted at least four, awarded five honorary degrees, named Man of the Year by Time magazine, wrote five books, and many articles. He showed up anywhere there was protest or injustice. His most famous speech, “I have a dream” is commonly known even today. Not only was he a leader of American blacks, but also a figure soon to be known almost anywhere. At age thirty five he was the youngest person to win a noble peace prize. Turning over all the money to further the civil rights movement, he was clearly someone to look up to. Unfortunately, all lives must end sooner or later. For Martin Luther King Jr., it happened at a young age of 39. He was assassinated at his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee. Although he isn’t physically with us, we still keep his spirit alive by celebrating his many accomplishments and push for equal rights.
“Martin Luther King – Biography”. Nobelprize.org. 20 Jan 2011 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html