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Dr. martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15, 1929. his name was "Michael" when he was born, but was changed shortly after they changed it to martin Luther

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1944

At age 15 King begins his freshman year at More house College in Atlanta. He originally studies medicine and law but later decides to enter the ministry. King graduates from Morehouse College in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. He spends the next three years at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. It is here that he first learns about Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence. Renowned for his public speaking skills, King is elected president of Crozer’s student body, which is composed almost entirely of white students. He is the valedictorian of his class in 1951. King then attends graduate school at Boston University. In Boston, King meets Coretta Scott. They are married in 1953. The following year King becomes pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He receives a Ph D. in theology from Boston University in 1955.

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In December 1955 King is chosen to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, formed by the Black community to lead a boycott of the segregated city buses. The boycott comes about after a Black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was arrested. In response, King leads the Montgomery bus boycott. Late in 1956 the U.S. The Supreme Court rules that segregation on buses is unconstitutional.

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Graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and was admitted to More house College at age 15. 1948 Graduates from More house College and enters Crozer Theological Seminary.

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After graduating in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in sociology, King decided to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in a seminary in Pennsylvania before pursuing a doctorate in theology at Boston University.

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As SCLC's president, King emphasized the goal of black voting rights. In 1959, he toured India and studied Gandhian non-violent strategies. At the end of 1959, he resigned from Dexter and returned to Atlanta where the SCLC headquarters was located and where he also could assist his father as pastor of Ebenezer.

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On April 17, 1944, in the 1st A.B. Church of Dublin, Georgia, fourteen year old Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his first public speech “The Negro and the Constitution.” At this site, a seed was planted in his heart that would grow into his life's work. His journey to the mountain top began here.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 — the day before he was assassinated. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Drive, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world.

I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.

As you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" — I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.

But I wouldn't stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.

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At 6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of King’s assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property damage in over 100 American cities. James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped fugitive, later confessed to the crime and was sentenced to a 99-year prison term. During King’s funeral a tape recording was played in which King spoke of how he wanted to be remembered after his death: “I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others”

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Responses to King's death varied. Black Americans were devastated, pained, and angered. Violence erupted in more than 125 American cities across 29 states. Nearly 50,000 federal troops occupied America's urban areas.