Martin Luther King, Jr.

That was one of Michael Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speeches. But he changed his name to Martin Luther King Jr. He was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father, Michael Luther King, was a Baptist minister. He had an older sister named Christine and a younger brother named Alfred Daniel. So being a young Christian African American, he did not understand what it meant to be an African American when he was young. And so his life was hard for him.

Martin graduated from Morehouse College in 1948. Then he met his wife, Coretta, at the University of Boston. Then he married her in 1953 and was married for 15 years. By 1955, Martin was pastor in a Montgomery, Alabama church. And then he had his first baby, Yolanda. As time passed, he did not like the problems between races and so he did something about it. In 1957 though 1959, he made 208 speeches. As that happened, he got arrested 16 times. People also sent him hate mail.

But that did not stop him. In August 28, 1963, a quarter of a million people gathered by the Lincoln Memorial to hear what he was going to say. There he made his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream. Martin did not like violence. But the Vietnam War had started.

He was the youngest man to win the Nobel Peace Price. But then in April 4, 1968 Martin was with his friends, then was a gun shot. Martin had been shot. He died on the way to the hospital. He died in April 1964. Even though he was killed his dream became true.