Martin Luther King, Jr.

On January 15, 1929 Martin Luther King Jr., was born.If he was still alive today, he would be 74 years old. At birth his name was Michael L. King Jr. he later changed his first name to Martin. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother was a school teacher named Alberta King.When he was a young child a white mother wouldn't let her son play with him because he was a different color.

In 1948 King graduated from More House College in Atlanta Georgia, with a Bachelor of Arts. First Martin Luther King Jr. was succssful at a campaign to achieve the desegregation of public facilities in Burlington. He then concentrated most of his time on the voter- registraton drive in Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama.

King planned another campaign which he called the poor peoples campaign, a march on Washington D.C, in 1968 to show the relationship of poverty to urban violence. But he did not live long enough to be a part of it. In 1968 he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to support a strike of poorly paid sanitation workers. There on April 4, a sniper by the name of James Earl Ray assassinated him. King's death surprised the nation. His death angered many blacks that then turned to rioting for a way to relieve their suffering.

He was buried in Atlanta under a monument with the final words of his famous "I have a Dream address." This was taken from an old slave song, the inscription read: " Free at Last , Free Last , Thank God Almighty , Im Free at Last."

He was a brave and determined man.His dream of every one having equal rights came true. If King didn't do the things that he did. Life as we know it probably would be a lot different from the way it is. King also showed us that there was another way besides violence to get things changed. It really saddens me to think that a man with such knowledge and determination had to pass away at a young age. If he were still alive today there would be so many more great contribuions from Martin Luther King Jr. So many other things that are wrong with this country now would be changed by his non violent way of thinking.