Martin Luther King Jr by: Ashley Lindsey

The Beginning Martin Luther King Jr was born on January 15 1929 to Martin Luther King Sr and Alberta Williams King in Atlanta, Georgia.

Education He attended Atlanta University Laboratory School and Booker T. Washington High School before going to Morehouse College to obtain a degree in Sociology. In June of 1948, King graduated from Morehouse College and entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was there that he began to study the teachings of Gandhi.

Family After King graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree, he married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953, in Marion, Alabama. The couple had four children: Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott and Bernice Albertine. He soon took the job as the pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama.

Civil Rights A bus boycott was organized to challenge segregated transportation in the south. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped with the organization of the bus boycott as the newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. During the bus boycott in 1955, King received a frightening phone call in which his life was threatened. It was a defining moment as he knew he had to stand up for justice, for truth, for righteousness even if there were people working against him. He continued to preach nonviolence as a tactic in fighting segregation, even though Dr. King was jailed numerous times, stabbed once and threatened often.

Parts of “I Have A Dream” "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.' I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today." Martin Luther King, Jr. said during his I Have A Dream speech

Awards He was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Death On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. died in a Memphis hospital less than an hour after he was shot in the neck by a gunman while standing on the balcony of a Memphis motel. Americans reacted to the slaying with shock and sorrow with hope that the violence of his death would not overshadow the nonviolence he preached.

The King Center Established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, The King Center is the official, living memorial dedicated to the advancement of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leader of America’s greatest nonviolent movement for justice, equality and peace. More than 650,000 visitors from all over the world are drawn annually to the King Center to pay homage to Dr. King, view unique exhibits illustrating his life and teachings and visit the King Center’s Library, Archives, his final resting place, his birth home, gift shop and other facilities

The End Fin Adios