Martin Luther King, Jr.

Michael Luther King Jr., also known as Martin Luther King Jr., to me is considered one of the greatest men of all time. I say this because he was one of the very few black men in the 1960’s that stood up for what he really believed in and wasn’t afraid of the consequence. He also helped other races over come segregation in a peaceful manner. King is responsible for most of the credit of the civil-rights act. James Earl Ray assassinated King on April 4th 1968 in Memphis Tenn. Yet the first celebration of his birthday as a national holiday took place on Jan 20th 1986. It took almost 17 years for him to be noticed as such a brave and noble man.

King was born Jan 15th 1929, the son of a schoolteacher and a Baptist minister. After graduating in 1948 from Morehouse collage he went on to graduating with a bd. from crazier theological seminary in Chester, P.A. Soon after he married Correta Scott and had 4 children (Yolanda Denise (1955) Martin Luther King the 3rd (1957) Dexter (1961) and Bernice Albetine (1963)) they moved to Montgomery, Alabama so King could preach at Dexter Avenue Baptist church. In a typical year King made over 208 speeches, so he had to travel very often. When King visited India, he met his lifelong hero, Mohandas K. Gandhi. While there he created Gandhi’s passive resistance techniques for his civil-rights success. Soon after, King left for Alabama to pastor his father’s church, Ebenezer Baptist church. King met John F. Kennedy, and he urged him to support civil rights acts. A few years before this, King was caught going 30-mph in a 25-mph zone, and was arrested by a white police officer. While he was in jail Martin’s house was bombed. Less then 10 years later he was arrested again, this time for demonstrating in defiance of a court order. Martin wrote a letter from Birmingham Jail, this letter became an important part of the civil-rights act.

On August 28th almost 250,000 civil-rights supporters attended the March on Washington. At this time, at the Lincon Memorial King Delivered his famous “I had a dream” speech. Soon after that, King came out with his first of 4 books named “Why we can’t wait”. While in Washington King met with West Berlin Mayer Willy Brant and Pope Paul the 5th. December 10th is one ok Kings most well known dates. For this is the date that he won the Noble Peace Prize. On Jan 18th King successfully registered his first vote, but it came with a price, James George Robinson assaulted him.

King had to be strong to grow up in times like these, when there was prejudice against people of the African American race. He had to work even harder then most white men to accomplish the same achievement. This didn’t have any effect on his self-esteem or discourage him in any way; he was proud of his heritage and wouldn’t stand being discriminated against it. King was a strong, noble, yet peaceful man, and his life had ended way too early. Although on April 4th 1968 King was assassinated, his spirit and accomplishments live on and will forever. And so many people are thankful for all he’s done for this country.