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.

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.