Caleb  Z.

2-25-09

3^rd Hour

Martin Luther King Jr.

He was born on January 15, 1929, in Alabama. His father was the pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church that Martin went to for most of his Childhood. Martin Luther King wasn’t always named Martin; he changed his name from Michael Luther King. His father expected him to take the church after him.

When Martin was five he had just got home from school. He told his mom that he was going to his friend’s house, and she didn’t mind. His friend was white, when he knocked on the door; the boys mom answered and told Martin that since the two were in school it would be wrong if they continued to play. Martin ran home confused and asked his mom why they couldn’t be friends. His mother told him about segregation and how whites thought that they were better than blacks. He told his mom that it was wrong for people to do that and that he wished he could change that about people. He started to change the world on that day.

Martin Luther King was always ahead of his classes in high school, so he got a scholarship to a mainly all white college. He went to Morehouse College. He quickly fell behind, because the ALL black high schools were not as advanced as the white college he was attending. When he was he graduated Morehouse College in 1948 at the age of 19; two years younger than the average person. (Age 21) While he was attending Morehouse he met a lady named Coretta Scott. He later married her in Boston, Massachusetts in 1953.

Coretta Scott King was going to college for drama and singing; mainly performing. Martin Luther King convinced her to go back down south so he could be the minister of his father’s church. He later became the pastor of that Church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954 when his father retired.

In 1955-56 Martin Luther King organized a boycott from the buses, he got the idea after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her spot on the bus to a white man. She was booked and that sparked the boycott; many of blacks were outraged when they heard the news. Martin went to the jail that she had been booked at and helped to get her released. She was fined and put on probation but no serious charges occurred. He held the boycott for nearly two years. Once Martin was walking down the street when he saw an elderly woman. He told her that she shouldn’t be walking; she told him that walking gave her a milestone in life and a reason to live. That she wanted to do a little to help the cause. The government passed a no segregation law on the buses. The law made it to be blacks could sit freely on the buses. The reason the law was changed (my opinion) was because of the lack of people riding the buses. The busing system lost a lot of money because the blacks were the main people riding the buses in the south.

Martin road a city bus the first day the law was in effect and he sat in the very front seat. When he got on the bus the white driver looked at him a told him he could sit were he like. That he did a really good thing by boycotting the buses.   Martin just smiled and then sat down.

When Martin got done with the bus boycott he decided that he could do more and then he decided to attempt to do just that. He gave his famous “I HAVE A DREAM” speech in 1963 on August 28 at our Nations Capitol. Washington D.C! He gave his speech right in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It was the most famous speech of many that he gave. It sparked the movement and if it wasn’t for that speech we might not be where we are today.

Just one year later Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; he was the youngest person to get that prize. He was only 35 years old when he received the award. His wife Coretta also attended the award ceremony and she was in tears through out the entire ceremony as. She said that is was one of the happiest moments that her and Martin spent together.

Martin had written a book and he was doing an autograph session for the book when a black lady walked up to him and asked, “Are you Dr. King?”

“Yes I am” Martin Luther King answered. The lady pulled out a knife and stabbed him. He was very close to dying. The doctor said that if he would have coughed or even sneezed that he would have died. Martin didn’t press charges on the lady but asked that she be helped. He didn’t feel that it was her fault.

Martin was watching T.V when he had heard about the assassination of John F. Kennedy the former president. Martin told his wife that it was going to happen to me. He said that he lived the life to his fullest and that he was happy with his family. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed on April 4, 1968; on a hotel balcony. The hotel was called the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He had been standing on his balcony talking over it to his colleagues. His killer was in a building across the street; the police later arrested James Earl Ray as the killer of Martin Luther King Jr. His family held his funeral on April 9, 1968 as his casket was pulled down the street while men and women black and white sang Martin’s favorite song. “We Shall Overcome” The song he sang in many of his marches. 

Every January on his birthday we celebrate his life. We think of all his good and bad times, we dedicate that day to the GREAT life of Martin Luther King Jr.

THE END!!!!