Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. His father was a pastor and his mother was a teacher. When he was 15, he began college at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After he graduated in 1948 he moved to Massachusetts where he went to school at Boston University. This is where he met his wife Coretta Scott. They were married on June 18, 1953 in Marion, Alabama. They had 4 kids.

Martin Luther King, Jr. began his first job as a pastor in 1954 at a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Then in 1955 he received his doctor’s degree. While he was in Alabama, there was an African-American named Rosa Parks who was arrested for sitting in the “White Only” part of the bus. This made Dr. King and other African-Americans refuse to ride the bus. Dr. King preached for a peaceful boycott, stating “We must meet hate with love”. In November 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separating the blacks and whites on the bus were not allowed. This ended the boycott after 381 days.

In 1960, Dr. King moved back to Atlanta where he continued to lead peaceful protests against “White Only” restrooms, restaurants, drinking fountains, etc.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. King had a march with over 200,000 people in Washington D.C. Here he gave his “I Have A Dream” speech. In his speech he wanted everyone to be treated equally no matter what color they were or what religion they believed in. In 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his Civil Rights efforts.

On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated on the balcony at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. He died an hour later. He was shot by a man names James Earl Ray. He had gone to Memphis to lead another protest for the African-American garbage men in Memphis. He wanted them to be paid the same money that the white people were