MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.,

Martin Luther King, Jr.,

Martin Luther King, Jr.,

Martin Luther King Jr was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta Ga. Until he was six years old his name was Michael Luther King Jr. His father changed both their names legally to Martin in honor of the German religious leader Martin Luther. His parents were names Martin Luther King Sr and Alberta Williams King. He had an older sister name Christine and a younger brother name Alfred Daniel. He and his siblings were taught at an early age the importance of religion and the need for good education. Both Martin's parents were greatly involved in their church Ebenezer Baptist in which they attended. Martin's mother Alberta was a school teacher and church musician and his father was a minister. At an early age Martin saw how his father stood up for what he believed in and helped him see how early slavery and segregation set fear in blacks toward white people.

Martin also knew because of this segregation blacks were treated unfairly, which lead to his decision to become a minister himself and make life better for blacks. Martin's education started at Morehouse College where he graduated in 1948. He continued his studies at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester Pennsylvania where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity Degree in 1951. During this time he meets and started dating Coretta Scott and in 1953 they were married. In 1954 Martin and Coretta moved to Montgomery Alabama where he became pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Throughout their marriage they had four children. In 1955 he earned a doctorate degree from Boston University.

In 1960 Martin and his family moved to Atlanta where he became pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church. On December 5, 1955, five days after Montgomery civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to obey city rules mandating segregation on buses which lead to bus boycotts. This also led Martin to become president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. Those boycotts eventually lead the United States Supreme Court to declare Alabama's segregation laws unconstitutional.

In 1957 Southern Christine Leadership Conference was established and Martin became its first president. Also during the same year he received the Spin garn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for his work in civil rights. In the spring of 1963 Martin and his staff had mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama in which clashes between black demonstrators and police using dogs and fire hoses generated newspaper headlines throughout the world. In June President Kennedy reacted to those demonstrations and the segregation that caused it by submitting broad civil rights legislation to Congress (which passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964). Mass demonstrations and marches continued. On August 28, 1963 one particular march that started from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial attracted more than 200,000 protesters to Washington, D.C.

Addressing the marches from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered his famous "I Have a ...