35 Facts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Search engine giant Google celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2021 with Doodle. Google Doodle, delineated by Pittsburgh-based visitor artist Noa Denmon, observes the 26th anniversary of the government American holiday and day of service to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Here’s a look at the life of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Personal

• Birth name: Michael King Jr.
• Birthdate: January 15, 1929
• Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
• Death date: April 4, 1968 (aged 39)
• Death place: Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
• Resting place: Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park
• Father name: Martin Luther King Sr., Baptist minister
• Mother name: Alberta (Williams) King
• Spouse: Coretta Scott King (June 18, 1953 – April 4, 1968, his death)
• Children:
  • Bernice, March 28, 1963;
  • Dexter, January 30, 1961;
  • Martin III, October 23, 1957;
  • Yolanda, November 17, 1955
• Education:
  • Morehouse College, B.A., 1948;
  • Crozer Theological Seminary, B.D., 1951;
  • Boston University, Ph.D., 1955
• Famous as: Baptist, minister, activist
• Known for: Civil rights movement, the Peace movement
• Notable awards:
  • Nobel Peace Prize (1964)
  • Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumously; 1977)
  • Congressional Gold Medal (posthumously; 2004)
• Memorials: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Read More: Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2021: Google Doodle celebrates 26th birthday anniversary of MLK Day

35 Interesting Facts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

1. The civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, GA. King’s dad was a Baptist minister and his mom was a school teacher.

2. In 1934, his dad made a trip to Germany and became encouraged by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. Accordingly, King Sr. changed his name as well as that of his 5-year-old child.

3. Martin Luther King Jr. is most popular in the USA and internationally as far as concerns him in propelling the civil rights movement by using peaceful techniques for protest.

4. King avoided two grades in secondary school and began his college education at Morehouse College at 15 years old. In the wake of getting his degree in sociology from Morehouse, Martin procured a divinity degree from Crozer Seminary and afterward a doctorate degree in theology from Boston University.

5. While at Crozer Theological Seminary, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was acquainted with the lessons of Gandhi. In an interview, King said he went to a lecture from the president of Howard University given in Philadelphia about Gandhi, and he became “deeply influenced” by the way of philosophy of nonviolence.

6. While studying for his Ph.D. at Boston University, MLK was guided by theologian and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman, who was a major effect on him.

7. While going to Boston University, Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scot, an aspiring singer, and civil rights activist, who was a student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. They were married on June 18, 1953, at her parents’ home in Heiberger, Alabama. The couple had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice.

8. In 1954, Martin Luther King acknowledged the call to minister the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in his new bride’s home state of Alabama. The church was situated in the city of Montgomery, a highly-isolated city where almost half the residents were African American. He became exceptionally engaged with the community as a civil rights activist, remembering serving for the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP).

9. In 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. established the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) related to other executive members and officials of the NAACP’s Montgomery chapter. The MIA, a group of local Black ministers and community leaders which was formed to improve race relations in Montgomery.

10. In 1955, as President of the MIA, Martin Luther King Jr. led a boycott of buses in Montgomery, Alabama after Rosa Parks was arrested for declining to surrender her seat to a white man. The Montgomery Bus Boycott continued for 381 days however eventually prompted the abolishment of racial segregation on public buses in Alabama. King’s contribution to the 381-day boycott led the Supreme Court of the United States to rule that bus segregation was illegal.

11. In 1957, Martin Luther King, Jr. worked with Ralph Abernathy and numerous other civil rights leaders, activists, and ministers to establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Atlanta. This association was formed to fight segregation and accomplish the civil rights of African Americans across the United States using civil disobedience, for example, protests and demonstrations. King was elected president of the SCLC.

12. In May 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his popular “Give Us the Ballot” speech during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington.

13. In 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. left his peaceful situation in Alabama to went back to his hometown of Atlanta. While proceeding to serve as co-paster of Ebenezer Baptist Church, he started a full-time quest for civil rights through peaceful methods, for example, protests and marches. The objectives of the civil rights movement focused on abolishing racial discrimination in numerous regions including public transportation, business, voting, and education.

14. King’s most popular speech is his “I Have a Dream” speech. During the 1963 March on Washington, King delivered a speech prepared by his speechwriter, Clarence Jones. He performed it in 1963 before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to a crowd of over a fourth of 1,000,000 individuals. He developed more enthusiastic during the speech, and towards the finish of the speech, he started to talk straightforwardly from his heart. As per PBS, those well-known lines that everybody can quote (“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise, live out the true meaning of its creed…”) were improvised.

15. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked with other civil rights leaders to arrange the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which occurred on August 28, 1963. The motivation behind the march was to fight racial segregation in employment and racial separatism in schools, while likewise demanding fair wages for all workers. The march was the biggest social event in Washington, DC’s history. It was at this march that King delivered his popular I Have a Dream speech at the Lincon Memorial.

16. In the spring of 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. assisted with getting organize the Selma to Montgomery marches for voting rights. During the March 7 event, King and numerous other peaceful marchers were abused by law enforcement officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Numerous protestors were genuinely harmed during the March; one individual was killed by individuals from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Many others, including King, were arrested. The day came to be known as Bloody Sunday. A few days after the fact, on March 21, protestors accumulated once again and were able to finish their multi-day trip to the state capitol in Montgomery.

17. Even though King was an incredible man, he absolutely was not a saint. Various allegations of extramarital affairs and womanizing were made against him, and he admitted in private that he had shortcomings in that area of his life. Likewise, during the 1980s, an investigation found that parts of King’s Ph.D. dissertation had been plagiarized.

18. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most youthful person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at 35 years old. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his role in restricting racial discrimination and segregation through nonviolent protest and different methods.

19. King was viewed as a danger to American security by police authorities. He went to prison almost 30 times, arrested for acts of ‘civil disobedience,’ including the time he was imprisoned in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956 for traveling five miles per hour over the speed limit. Paper trails from the FBI show that the agency made efforts to ruin King’s advancement. After his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, the FBI increased their investigation into King.

20. On March 7, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was associated with getting organizing a march from Selma to Montgomery to protest the murder of a protester who was killed by an Alabama state trooper during the earlier month. The march was blocked by state troopers and cops who fiercely beat the members. The event, which came to be known as “Bloody Sunday,” was broadcast on news stations across the USA, and it fostered sympathy for the civil rights movement.

21. Martin Luther King Jr. was very active as a civil rights leader from his 1955 appearance in Montgomery until his awkward passing in 1968. His solid confidence in non-violent protest helped set the pace of the civil rights movement.

22. The civil rights movement, generally because of the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., prompted a huge legislative change in the United States. Nonviolent activities and civil disobedience caused many highly-publicized emergency circumstances where the government was forced to take a stand or to take action with enactment. Blacklists, demonstrations, protests, and marches were eventually powerful, and huge enactment was passed against racial separation.

23. Martin Luther King Jr. got more than fifty honorary college degrees as well as a few renowned awards during or due to the thirteen years that he was active in the civil rights movement.

24. For the duration of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a writer. He wrote numerous books and articles about his views and experiences in the civil rights movement while battling for African Americans.

25. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last extraordinary speech is known as the “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” address, and it was conveyed the day preceding he passed on April 3, 1968.

26. In mid-1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. got associated with a developing civil rights demonstration in Memphis, Tennessee. On February 12, 1968, 1,300 Black sanitation laborers in Memphis started protesting their awful working conditions, segregation, and low compensation. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the laborers demanded union recognition, higher wages, and a finish to separation. King went to Memphis three times to help the sanitation laborers. The strike endured 64 days, finishing on April 12, 1968. King was killed in Memphis on April 3, the day after his last speech on the side of the striking laborers.

27. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis, Tennessee. He was shot by James Earl Ray. King was in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, staying at the Lorraine Motel in room 306. At night, King was standing on the balcony, when he was struck by a bullet. King was rushed to the Saint Joseph Hospital. Even though doctors tried to save his life, he was articulated dead soon after his arrival. Martin Luther King was just 39 years of age at the time of his death. The motel where he was shot is currently the site of the National Civil Rights Museum.

28. A few people have affirmed that King’s murder was part of a bigger conspiracy and that Ray was only a scapegoat.

29. King’s favorite song was “Take My hand, Precious Lord.” The song was sung at his funeral by his companion, Mahalia Jackson.

30. Towards the finish of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. had changed his concentration from civil rights to campaigns to end poverty and stop the Vietnam War. A large number of his liberal partners felt distanced by his position on the war.

31. King’s most controversial speech, “Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam,” was recorded on vinyl and acquired him a Grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album.

32. After his passing, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

33. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that would build up a nationally observed holiday in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is the only non-president to have received such an honor; the other American to have a non-president to have gotten such an honor; the other American to have a holiday recognized in his name is George Washington.

34. The holiday was first celebrated in 1986 on the third Monday in January, near MLK’s birthday on January 15. He is additionally the only non-president with a memorial situated on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

35. At first, a few states were hesitant to receive the new holiday, yet since the year 2000, each of the 50 states has observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day.