Essay On Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the key individual, which helped African-Americans reach the almost unattainable grasp of equality. Martin Luther King, Jr., was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. His father, Martin Luther King, Sr. was pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, which was founded by Martin's maternal grandfather (Schulke 14). At an early age Martin showed his admiration for his father, spending hours listening to his sermons for the next Sunday morning worship service at Ebenezer (Ayres 49). Martin grew up attending segregated public schools, excelling in all subjects, and moved on to Morehouse College at the age of fifteen and graduated at the age of eighteen with a bachelor's degree in sociology (Ayres 56).

At Boston University, he met Coretta Scott; they were married in 1953. King's rise to national and international prominence began in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. In that year, Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to obey a city ordinance that required African Americans to sit or stand at the back of municipal buses. The African American citizens of the city (one of the most thoroughly segregated in the South) organized a bus boycott in protest and asked King to serve as their leader. Thousands boycotted the buses for more than a year, and despite segregationist violence against them, King grounded their protests on his deeply held belief in nonviolence.

Martin Luther King Jr was born on the 15th of January, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, known as Michael Luther King Jr and was than assassinated on the 4th of April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The world renowned Baptist minister and social activist had a massive impact on the American civil rights movement from the mid 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. Martin Luther King Jr’s up bringing was fairly pleasant and he was brought up with a great education. However, he had his couple of prejudices and traumatic experience through out his life. One of these including one of his friends who was a fair skinned boy who was told to tell King that he was no longer allowed to play with him because the children were now attending

His grandfather served from 1914 to 1931. After his grandfather died, he served as the co-pastor. Martin attended segregated schools in Georgia. He surprisingly graduated high school at age 15. He went to Morehouse College, a Negro institution of Atlanta.

Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were outstanding men who fought for the civil rights of the African American race and all humans. First, I’ll discuss Dr. King who was born on January 19th, 1929 in his family home in Atlanta, Georgia with the name of Michael Luther King Jr., but changed his first name to Martin later in his life. His grandfather and father, Martin Luther King Sr., were both reverends at the Ebenezer Baptist church. Dr. King Jr. spent his undergraduate years at Morehouse College in Atlanta where he discovered his view that Christianity could be used as a force for social change. During his last semester he was ordained and also began his first steps to political activism by writing a letter to the editor of the Atlanta Constitution that African Americans were “entitled to the basic rights and opportunities of American citizens”.

Originally named Michael he attended a segregated high school and graduated at the age of 15. He later received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a Negro Institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. In 1957 The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed and Martin Luther King was to provide new leadership for the civil rights movement... ... middle of paper ... ...he Southern Christian conference and group that looked to use nonviolent protests to fight discrimination. It is truly moving to hear about such man and what he stood for, believed in and achieved in his lifetime.

His father served as pastor of a large Atlanta church, Ebenezer Baptist, which had been founded by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s maternal grandfather. King, Jr. was ordained as a Baptist minister at age 18. King attended local segregated public schools, where he excelled. He entered nearby Morehouse College at age 15 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1948. After graduating with honors from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1951, he went to Boston University where he earned a doctoral degree in systematic theology in 1955.

King thrived at Booker T. Washington High School, graduating at the age of 15 before moving on to Morehouse College. For years, he had questioned religion, but in his third year of college, he took a bible class that renewed his faith. King later went on to study at Crozer theological seminary for three years. He met his future wife during his last year of seminary, and went on to receive his Ph.D in 1955 at the age of 25. In late 1955, Dr. King was elected to lead his first public peaceful protest.

(Smith 2). Five days after Rosa Parks refused to obey the city's rules concerning bus segregation, African-American residents of Montgomery, Alabama launched a bus boycott. They elected Martin Luther King, Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. (Phillips 3). King received national prominence as the boycott continued, due to his personal courage and exceptional oratical skills.

Dr. King’s goal was to protest segregation until it was declared unconstitutional. In 1955 Rosa Parks was ordered by a bus driver to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she refused, she was arrested and taken to jail. King started the Boycott of the Montgomery Bus System. In 1956 the Supreme Court declared Segregation Laws unconstitutional which ended Bus Segregation.