Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his doctorate in 1955 and became a Baptist minister like his father. He was inspired by Gandhi's non-violent activism during a trip to India in 1959. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 calling for racial equality. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 39.

1. By Dale George

2.  Martin Luther King Junior
was born on January 15th
1929 in Georgia, Atlanta. His
father, Martin Luther King
Senior, was a Baptist
Minister and his mother,
Alberta Williams King, was
a schoolteacher. His original
name was Michael but he
was renamed as Martin. He
attended Morehouse College
in 1944 and then went to
Crozer Religious Seminary
to undertake postgraduate
study, receiving his
doctorate in 1955.

3.  Martin married Coretta
Scott in 1953 on the lawn
of her parent’s house in
the hometown of
Heiberger, Alabama. They
had 4 children : Yolanda
King, Martin Luther King
III, Dexter Scott King and
Bernice King.

4.  Martin with the Quaker Group went to
Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace in India in
1959. He was inspired by Gandhi’s success
with non-violent activism. During his final
evening in India :
 "Since being in India, I am more
convinced than ever before that the
method of nonviolent resistance is the
most potent weapon available to
oppressed people in their struggle for
justice and human dignity. In a real sense,
Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life
certain universal principles that are
inherent in the moral structure of the
universe, and these principles are as
inescapable as the law of gravitation.“
 - Martin Luther King

5.  Throughout his career, King wrote and
spoke frequently, drawing on his
experience as a preacher. His most
famous speech ‘I Have A Speech', was
said on August 28th 1963, in which he
called for racial equality and an end for
discrimination. On October 14th 1964,
he was the youngest recipient to
receive the Nobel Peace Prize which
was awarded to him for leading non-
violent resistance to racial prejudice in
the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57lotnK
GF8

6.  On December 1st 1955, a
middle-aged lady named Rosa
Parks was arrested for
refusing to give up her seat to
a white person. The
Montgomery Bus Boycott,
urged and planned by Nixon
and led by King, soon
followed. The boycott lasted
for 385 days, and the situation
became so tense that King's
house was bombed.[41] King
was arrested during this
campaign, which ended with a
United States District Court
ruling in Browder v. Gayle that
ended racial segregation on all
Montgomery public buses.

7.  King was booked a room at Lorraine
Hotel, Memphis ; he was standing on the
balcony. Then, at 6:01 p.m., April 4, 1968,
a shot rang out as King stood on the
motel's second floor balcony. The bullet
entered through his right cheek,
smashing his jaw, then travelled down his
spinal cord before lodging in his
shoulder. Abernathy heard the shot from
inside the motel room and ran to the
balcony to find King on the floor.The
events following the shooting have been
disputed, as some people have accused
Jackson of exaggerating his response.
 After emergency chest surgery, King was
pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital
at 7:05 p.m. According to biographer
Taylor Branch, King's autopsy revealed
that though only 39 years old, he had the
heart of a 60-year-old man, perhaps a
result of the stress of 13 years in the civil
rights movement.