Martin Luther King Research Paper

Dr. Martin Luther King was born on January 18, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr. entered public school at age 5. In May, 1936 he was baptized. Martin was 12 years old when his grandmother, Jennie, died of a heart attack. The event was traumatic for Martin. King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944. Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, young Martin questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. In his junior year, Martin took a Bible class, renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of

his senior year, he told his father of his decision. In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.

He became involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the affair. Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scott, an aspiring singer and musician, at the New England Conservatory School in Boston. They were married in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott and Bernice. He completed his Ph.D. and was award his degree in 1955. King was only 25 years old. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with solid family connections and had professional standing. In his first speech as the group's president, King declared, "We have no alternative but to protest. Martin Luther King Jr.'s fresh and skillful rhetoric put a new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. Martin Luther King is a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist. He would help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. King's participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. In the spring of 1963; Martin Luther King Jr. organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Entire families

attended. City police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators. Martin Luther King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters, but the event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally criticized by black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration. From the jail in Birmingham, King eloquently spelled out his theory of non-violence: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue.” He is the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on Martin Luther King Jr. James Earl Ray Shot Dr.King and killed him. Martin Luther King had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States.