Martin Luther King Jr.

The Voice of Civil Rights

There were many people throughout the history of the United States that helped to get equality for African Americans; however, one man's voice moved an entire race. That one man is Martin Luther King, Jr. He has a way of making you listen when he speaks and of making you understand his ideas. Many people did listen and he motivated a whole race of people to strive with him on his quest for equality. The events in his life from early life, civil rights, and later life led him to be one of the most powerful people in the movement towards civil rights.

Martin Luther King, JR., was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929 to Martin Luther King and Alberta Williams King. He was the middle child. He had an older sister, Christine and a younger brother, A.D. His father was the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, following in the footsteps of Martin's maternal grandfather A.D. Williams. Martin went to public schools in Atlanta and he did so well in school he skipped the 9th and 12th grades, graduating high school at only 15 years old. He went on to be accepted into Morehouse College as an early admission student. He graduated at 19 with a degree in Sociology in 1948. (Williams)

With his father's guidance and his admiration for Benjamin E. Mays, King decided to become a minister. On February 25, 1948 he was ordained a Baptist minister.

He was admitted to Crozer Theologist Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania in September of the same year, to receive his divinity degree. He graduated from Crozer with the honors of being the first African American to be elected president of the student body and the highest GPA in his class. He then went on to graduate school at Boston University where he formed a great devo...

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...f the most prestigious acts for American equality. He was a determined, charismatic man who used good to fight evil despite the anguish. He never gave up on the nonviolent techniques he studied on Gandhi. After his death there were many breakthroughs in civil rights. He may not have been alive to see the promised land, but in many aspects he brought the country there. He like many before him paid the ultimate price for his devotion to righteousness, "If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive."

Works Cited

Williams, Michael W., "Martin Luther King, Jr." The African American Encyclopedia Vol.5 2nd ed. 2001.

The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 7, 2005 Ed.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Biography. Gale Group, Inc. 2001. Biography Resource Center.