Martin Luther King Jr Biography Essay

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929, and was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. His father, Michael King Sr., was the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church at the time of Martin’s birth ("Martin Luther King Jr. Biography"). At birth, Martin Luther King Jr’s name was actually Michael, like his father, but they both changed their names later in their lives ("Martin Luther King Jr.- Biography."). They changed their names to Martin because they were inspired by Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation leader. Martin and his siblings, Willie Christine and Alfred Daniel Williams, grew up in a Christian home where his parents tried to shield him from racism but did not succeed. He entered the public schooling system when he was five and attended Booker T. Washington High School. In high school, he skipped the ninth and eleventh grade and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at the age 15. All through his adolescence, King was uncomfortable displaying his religious beliefs and this caused him to turn away from following his father into the ministry field. He didn’t decide to follow his father until he took a bible class in his junior

He was arrested upwards of twenty times, assaulted at least four times, awarded five honorary degrees, named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963 and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks, but also a world figure in the matter of thirteen years ("Martin Luther King Jr. - Biography."). On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin Luther King Jr was fatally shot at the age of thirty-nine. King Was in Memphis to support a peaceful march for sanitation workers and was shot on the balcony of his hotel room at around six o’clock at night ("The Martin Luther King Assassination."). James Earl Ray was believed to be the murderer and confessed to it on March 10, 1969, to avoid the death