Martin L

L
DR. MARTIN L. KING JR.

BIOGRAPHY

• His legal name at birth was "Michael King";[3] his father, who changed his own name from Michael to Martin Luther, later said that the name Michael was recorded incorrectly Date and Place of Birth

January 15, 1929 

Atlanta, Georgia ,U.S.

• Names of Parents

Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King.

•Names of Siblings (if any)

Alfred Daniel Williams King, brother

Willie Christine King, sister

Sen Feng King, sister




King was originally skeptical of many of Christianity's claims.[7] At the age of thirteen, he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus during Sunday school. From this point, he stated, "doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly".[8] However,he later concluded that the Bible has "many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter the seminary.[7]

Growing up in Atlanta, King attended Booker T. Washington High School. A precocious student, he skipped both the ninth and the twelfth grade and entered Morehouse College at age fifteen without formally graduating from high school.[9] In 1948, he graduated fromMorehouse with a B.A. degree in sociology, and enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a B.Div. degree in 1951.[10][11] King married Coretta Scott, on June 18, 1953, on the lawn of her parents' house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama.[12] They became the parents of four children: Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, andBernice King.[13]

King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, when he was twenty-five years old, in 1954.[14] King then began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his Ph.D. degree on June 5, 1955, with a dissertation on "A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman." Anacademic inquiry concluded in October 1991 that portions of his dissertation had been plagiarized and he had acted improperly, but that his dissertation still "makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship"; the committee recommended that his degree not be revoked.

The greatest achievement of King was undoubtedly as a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. He defended the Americanswith African descent and fought for their rights. Martin Luther was greatly influenced by Howard Thurman, a civil rights leader, theologian and educator. He was a classmate of Martin Luther's father at Morehouse College. King was also inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and believed that resistance to non-violence is the only weapon to fight against inequality and injustice.He visited the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi in India in 1959. This trip was a turning point in his life and deepened his belief in the principle of non-violence and his commitment to the civil rights movement.


Martin Luther played a prominent role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955. The boycott was called for in Montgomery, Alabama to fight against racial discrimination on the city'spublic transit system. The situation became worse following the arrest of Rosa Parks, as she refused to vacate her seat to a white passenger. The king's house was bombed and he was arrested during this agitation, which marked the end to racial segregation on Montgomery public buses.
Another major accomplishment of Martin Luther was the institution of the Southern Christian LeadershipConference (SCLC), an American civil rights organization in 1957. The organization aimed at supporting the philosophy of non-violence. It was led by King as the President along with Ralph Abernathy and other activists. As an ardent believer of the Gandhian principles of non-violence, he enforced the non-violent techniques in the protests organized by SCLC. Luther also fought for the civil rights of...