Martin Luther King junior was born on January 15th, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. Both his father and grandfather were pastors in a baptist church in Atlanta. Although he was born Michael King, just like his father, he changed his name to Martin Luther. That was in honor of the 16th-century German priest, Martin Luther. Following his mother’s death, King attempted suicide at the age of 12 years. Later, he received doctorates in philosophy and theology at the Boston University. One of his sources of inspiration was Mahatma Gandhi.
His journey against segregation began in the mid-1950s. After Rosa Parks‘ arrest, Martin Luther King became the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott was successful, and King proved himself to be an excellent speaker. However, segregation in the USA continued. To further coordinate the civil rights movement, King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.
✟ April 4, 1968, Memphis, USA
Perhaps his greatest achievement came in 1963. On August 28th, over 250 thousand people attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. During the rally, Martin Luther King presented his famous “I have a dream” speech. To summarize the talk, he called for equal rights and opportunities and the end of racism.
Consequently, the 1963 Washington rally influenced the Civil rights act of 1964 and the Voting rights act of 1965. In addition to these successes, in 1964, Martin Luther King received the Nobel peace prize. Later on, he also criticized the Vietnam war.
Later Life
In the upcoming years, King was jailed several times and lost some of his dynamics. However, he started planning the Poor people’s March. The plans we interrupted on April 4th, 1968, when James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee. Following his death, mass nationwide riots broke down out. His birthday is marked as a federal holiday in the US.
I have a dream that my four little 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.
MLK jr.
