At noon, on January 15, 1929, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia. His original name was Michael Lewis King as well as his father's (just Michael King) but his name was changed to Martin after his family visited Germany in 1934. His father soon changed both of their names to Martin after Martin Luther, the German protestant leader. His parents were Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King.
Martin and his siblings were born into a neither rich nor poor middle-class family, and therefore they received better educations than the average child of their race; his understanding of this clearly influenced him into his decision to become a civil rights activist. In his father, he had a role model: Martin Luther King Sr. was involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and had led a successful campaign to even the salaries of white and black teachers in Atlanta.
As a child, King's encounters with segregation were mild but sensitive. The first significant event came when he began school. His white friends of were going to attend a different school, and once the year began, their parents no longer allowed him to come over . It was at this time of injustice that first led his mother to explain to him about segregation.
When Martin was in high school, he entered into an oratory contest in Valdosta, Georgia, where he came second.
He had an older sister, Christine King, and a younger brother Alfred Daniel King. Martin sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind.
Martin and his siblings were born into a neither rich nor poor middle-class family, and therefore they received better educations than the average child of their race; his understanding of this clearly influenced him into his decision to become a civil rights activist. In his father, he had a role model: Martin Luther King Sr. was involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and had led a successful campaign to even the salaries of white and black teachers in Atlanta.
As a child, King's encounters with segregation were mild but sensitive. The first significant event came when he began school. His white friends of were going to attend a different school, and once the year began, their parents no longer allowed him to come over . It was at this time of injustice that first led his mother to explain to him about segregation.
When Martin was in high school, he entered into an oratory contest in Valdosta, Georgia, where he came second.
He had an older sister, Christine King, and a younger brother Alfred Daniel King. Martin sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind.
Education
Martin attended Booker T. Washington High School. He skipped ninth and twelfth grade, and entered Morehouse College when he was fifteen without actually graduating from high school. In 1948, he graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology,and enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951. He then began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1955.
Family Life
Martin Luther King Jr. was married to Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 - January 30, 2006) on June 18, 1953 and they had four children - Yolanda ('Yoki'), Bernice, Martin and Dexter.