Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American man who was born on January
15, 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. He lived at 501 Auburn Avenue for most of his childhood.
He did many things as an early teen such as neighborhood jobs and he also delivered
Newspapers. He loved sports. Blacks couldn't go to the same schools as whites. They
couldn't play at the same pools and parks if whites were there.
They couldn't go to the hotels or cafes that whites went to. They couldn't even go
through the front door of a white person's house. One time Martin Luther King needed to
use the restroom and he decided to go into the one labeled “men” instead of “colored”
and the attendant told him he had to go all the way to the other room. He was very
offended and knew it wasn't right.
He had an older sister named Willie Christine and a younger brother named
Alfred Daniel. Martin Luther King Jr. was very smart. He was so smart that he even
skipped some grades in elementary school and high school. He was 14 when he was in
the 11th grade!! He graduated high school at the age of 15. He went to Morehouse
College. He also took courses at Boston University.
On December 21, 1956, Martin Luther King was arrested and his home was
bombed. Then later in1957, he was elected the president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference. On June 18, 1953, he married Coretta Scott. On September
1st they made it to Montgomery. A little after that, they found a home at 309 South
Jackson Street. Then they had four children. First came Yolanda, on November 17, 1955,
Martin Luther III on October 23, 1957, Dexter on January 30, 1961. On March 28, 1963
the last child arrived, they named her Bernice Albertine.
Martin Luther King Jr. became the Pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church. In 1964 he was the youngest man to get the Nobel Peace prize. He gave the
prize money to the civil rights government. He received five honorary degrees, and in
1963 Time Magazine named him man of the year. He wrote five books and a lot of
articles. On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King Jr. on the
balcony of his motel room in Tennessee. He shot him in his right jaw. Then at a Memphis
hospital, about an hour later, he died. His funeral took place on April 9, 1968 at Ebenezer
Baptist Church.
