Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr., an African American Baptist minister, was the leader of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950's and 1960's. He fought for the equal rights of African Americans.  Back then, in the South, a black person was not allowed to do all things a white person could do.  A black person couldn't eat in certain restaurants, drink from the same water fountain, vote in certain towns, get paid the same money a white person did for doing the same job, and even had to give up a seat on the bus if a white person wanted to sit.  These were some of the things Martin Luther King fought for.  

King wanted to change things in a nonviolent way.   In other words, he wanted to change things in a peaceful way by not fighting or hurting anyone.

King was born on Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He had one brother and one sister.  His father was pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. One of Martin's grandfathers also had been pastor there.

In high school, Martin did so well that he skipped both the 9th and 12th grades. At the age of 15, he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta and decided to become a minister.  King was made a minister just before he graduated from Morehouse in 1948. He entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, to earn a divinity degree. King then went to graduate school at Boston University, where he got a Ph.D. degree in theology in 1955. In Boston, he met Coretta Scott of Marion, Alabama, a music student. They were married in 1953. The Kings had four children. In 1954, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

What did Martin Luther King Jr. do for his people?  King's civil rights activities began with a protest of Montgomery, Alabama's segregated bus system in 1955. That year, a black passenger named Rosa Parks was arrested for disobeying a city law that made blacks give up their seats on buses when white people wanted to sit there or in the same row. Black leaders in Montgomery urged blacks to boycott or not use the city's buses. The leaders formed an organization to run the boycott, and asked King to serve as president. 

Terrorists bombed King's home, but King continued to insist on nonviolent protests. Thousands of blacks boycotted the buses for over a year. In 1956, the United States Supreme Court ordered Montgomery, Alabama, to provide equal, integrated seating on public buses.  Now anyone of any color could sit where they wanted on a bus. The boycott's success won King national fame and identified him as a symbol of Southern blacks' new efforts to fight racial injustice.

King and other civil rights leaders then organized a massive march in Washington, D.C. The event, called the March on Washington, was held to make Congress pass President Kennedy's civil rights bill. On Aug. 28, 1963, over 200,000 Americans, including many whites, gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in the capital. The high point of the day, King's  "I Have a Dream" speech, told about the civil rights movement.

Congress passed the civil rights bill that Kennedy and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, had recommended. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial discrimination in public places and called for equal opportunity in jobs and education. King later received the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1965, King helped organize protests in Selma, Alabama. The demonstrators protested against the efforts of white officials there to deny most black citizens the chance to register and vote. President Johnson went before Congress to request a bill that would allow Southern blacks the right to vote with no one trying to stop them. Within a few months, Congress approved the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King went to Memphis, Tennessee, to support a strike of black garbage workers. There, on April 4, 1968, King was shot and killed. James Earl Ray, a white drifter and escaped convict, pleaded guilty to the crime in March 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Tomb of Martin Luther King, Jr.

People throughout the world were sad about King's death. King was buried in South View Cemetery in Atlanta. His body was later moved near Ebenezer Baptist Church. On King's tombstone are the words from one of his speeches: "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last."

In 1980, an area including King's birthplace, church, and burial place became the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site. In 1983, Congress passed a federal holiday honoring King. The day is celebrated on the third Monday in January. In 1991, the National Civil Rights Museum opened at the site of King's assassination in Memphis. The museum's exhibits cover the history of the civil rights movement. 

King became only the second American whose birthday is observed as a national holiday. The first was George Washington, the nation's first president.

Answer the following questions in complete sentences.  Don't forget to use the edit/find button and click on the underlined words to find their meanings.

1.  When and where was Martin Luther King Jr. born?

2.  What are civil rights?

3.  What is the pastor of a church?

4.  Why did blacks boycott the buses in Montgomery, Alabama?

5.  Besides Martin Luther King Jr., who is the only other person to have their birthday celebrated as a national holiday?

6.  Where did King give his "I have a dream" speech?

7.  When is Martin Luther King day celebrated each year?

8.  Name three separate "equal rights" issues Martin Luther King won for his people.