Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who represented the African American population in order to find justice in uniting blacks with whites, and to treat each other with respect as one of the same. He had the whole entire country watching him defending his own people to have equal rights and should be treated the same way as the whites do towards themselves. His legacy is still within us, of what he fought for and what he had done to make it happen to this day. His famous speech, “I Have a Dream”, was powerful when he delivered it to 250,000 people who were marching peacefully in Washington, DC.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born as Michael Luther King, Jr. on January 15, 1929 to Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Christine King, in Atlanta, Georgia, but he changed his name to Martin Luther King, Jr. later on. In the years 1935-1944, he attended David T. Howard Elementary School, Atlanta University Laboratory School, and Booker T. Washington High School. Without graduating from high school, he passed the entrance examination to Morehouse College, from which both his grandfather and father had been graduated. He received a B.A. degree in 1948 there. Martin Luther King Jr. became a preacher for six years. In Boston University, he completed his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. He met Coretta Scott, who was a young woman of artistic attainments and uncommon intellectual, and married her in Boston. During the years, as time passes by, bombs were thrown at, threats were made towards him and his family for trying to defend the blacks to give them equal rights as the whites. Except a lot of controversy have spread throughout the whole entire country of the United States of America. Many people supported him for what he believes that should be done with and what rules should be changed to make things right for his people. He was arrested several times, but was released due to his personal profile or bail money from his fellow supporters. In 1963, Time magazine named him Man of the Year. Two years later, in 1965, he was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead of accepting the prize money, he donated it to further progress the civil rights movement. In March of 1968, Dr. King lead six thousand protestors through Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers, but disorder was let loose onto the streets. One six-year-old child was killed and fifty people were injured. Between 1957 and 1968, Dr. King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was protest, injustice and action. He also wrote five books as well as several articles. The title of Dr. King’s last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top,” was delivered at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. On April 4, 1968, tragedy has been struck. While standing on the balcony of his motel room, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. At the age of 39, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died in the hospital with a gunshot wound to his neck. He left behind his wife, two sons and two daughters.

Dr. King made other minorities, such as Asians, Mexicans, and Latinos, realize that they too can be treated equal in the United States society. He created peace movements in order for the powerful people in the society to meet their demands. In fact some other