Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of America's great leaders. He was a powerful speaker, and he spoke out against laws which kept black people out of schools and jobs. He led protests and marches demanding fair laws for all people. He is very important during Black history month. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin's father was a pastor. His mother was a teacher. Martin had an older sister named Willie Christine, and a younger brother named Alfred Daniel. Martin liked to play baseball, football and basketball. He liked to ride bicycle and he loved to sing. He often sang in his father's church. Martin learned to read at home before he was old enough to start school. All throughout his childhood, he read books about black leaders like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and George Washington Carver. Martin was a great student.He finished high school two years early and was fifteen when he entered Morehouse College. In college Martin was determined to be a minister. After he graduated from Morehouse College, he studied for a doctorate at Boston University.In 1953 he married Coretta Scott. They had 4 children together. Then in 1954 Martin Luther King Jr. began his first job as a pastor. In December of 1955, Rosa Lee Parks, a black woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a municipal bus to a white man. The black community chose Dr.King to organize a boycott to end racial segregation in public transportation. King gained national importance during the course of 381-days . Despite efforts to suppress the movement, in 1956 the Supreme Court's mandate outlawed all segregated public transportation in the city.In 1960 Martin met with Senator John F. Kennedy. They talked about about ways to end discrimination. In 1963, Pres. Kennedy issued the Civil Rights Bill to Congress. If it was passed discrimination would be over, but Kennedy was shot and killed before the bill was decided. On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. led a march to Lincoln Memorial, D.C. in support of the fight for civil rights. Over 50,000 people of all race attended. During the demonstration,Dr. King gave a speech called "I Have a Dream". He talked about freedom for all black people. Now Dr. King was knonw all over the world. On December 10,1964 Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Civil Rights. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. Dr. King life was gone but his legacy still lives strongly today.