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Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. He was born into a religious family and his father was a preacher at a Baptist church. Black people in the southern part of the United States did not have equal rights when Dr King was growing up. They were often poorer and less well educated than white people. Black students in Atlanta were forced to attend separate schools, and live in separate areas of the city, under a system known as segregation. Martin enjoyed learning, and he passed through school very quickly. He was only fifteen when he graduated from high school, and became ready to enter university. He attended Morehouse College, one of the few universities in Atlanta where black students were allowed to study at the time. Martin discovered he had a gift for public speaking while he was at university, and he decided to become a preacher. He moved north to study in Boston when he was 22, and it was there that he met and married his wife, Coretta. He completed his studies in 1951, and obtained his doctorate degree in religion. In 1954, Martin and Coretta moved to Montgomery, Alabama, after he was offered a job as a Baptist Minister. Dr King became a civil rights activist early on in his career, and led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott began after Rosa Parks, a black woman who lived in Montgomery, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 382 days, and ended when the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system. The ruling gave black people a new feeling of pride and unity. They saw that peaceful protest could be used as a tool to win their legal rights. Dr King became well known throughout the world and he was often asked to speak about his ideas on non-violence. The civil rights movement spread quickly in the southern part of the United States. An organization called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed to guide it, and Martin Luther King became its president. Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States. These protests became known as freedom rides. Sadly, some of the freedom rides turned violent. Black activists were beaten and arrested. Some were even killed. In 1963, Dr King organized a March to Washington D.C, where he delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech, which expressed his ideas and hopes for the future. He was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1964, but he did not live to see the final results of his life's work. He was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968 while attending a rally there. In 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was introduced as a special day, to celebrate his work and lifetime achievements. The holiday is observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of Dr King's birthday.