Martin Luther King Jr.

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In this world, there are a lot of people who showed great courage and tried to make the world a better place. Among these people, one of them is Martin Luther King Jr. He made the world a better place for black citizens by doing non-violence movements and marched the way to freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta Georgia as Michael King Jr., but changed his name to Martin Luther King Jr. in honor of Protestant Martin Luther. Through his activism, King played a pivotal role in ending the legal discrimination of African American citizens. During his childhood, Martin Jr.’s father strongly considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God’s will, and strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children. This left a lasting impression on Martin Luther King Jr. When Martin was 12 years old, his grandmother died of a heart attack. He was so distraught by the news that he attempted to commit suicide at his family home on May 1941 (Martin Luther King Jr., Biography). He blamed himself for his grandmother’s death because his 6 year old while he was suppose to be home watching his 6 year old brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King, he was out watching a parade, and his younger brother knocked his grandmother unconscious while sliding down a banister (8 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Martin Luther King Jr., Bijan C. Bayne). Martin started growing into his late teens, early twenties, and grew a lot more mature. On December 1, 1955, 42-year-old Rosa Parks went on the Cleveland Avenue bus after work. She sat in the first row of the colored section. When she was asked to move, she refused, causing her to be arrested. On the night Rosa Parks was arrested, the head of the local NAACP me... ... middle of paper ... ...e the interests of the poor of all races. In 1968, King announced that the Poor People’s March would converge in Washington on April 22. Meanwhile, in Memphis, Tennessee, black workers were demanding and protesting for better pay and working conditions. This protest soon spread throughout the city, with unfair treatment ranging from police brutality to intolerable school conditions. In March, King went to Memphis to lead the protest. The march ended due to young, frustrated blacks vandalizing and looting. On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther addressed a gathering. He talked about the threats on his life, and he encouraged his followers to continue the non-violent struggle, no matter what happened to him. The following night, at 6 p.m., King stood on the balcony of the Lorraine hotel when he was shot by rifle bullet. By 7 p.m. he was identified dead in a Memphis hospital.

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