The Legacy Of Martin Luther King Jr.

1433 Words3 Pages

The
Legacy
Of
Martin
Luther
King
By: Joshua Gedeon

Michael King Jr., Martin Luther King's original name, was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His dad, Michael King Sr., changed his and his sons name to Martin Luther King after he visited Germany in honor of Martin Luther, a religious leader. One day on May of 1941, when Martin was 12 he attempted suicide by jumping off a two story building after learning that his grandmother had passed. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great student, he went to college in Morehouse College to get a sociology degree at the age of 15. Then, Martin joined Boston College to get a doctorate. There he met his wife Coretta Scott. King successfully attained his doctorate at the age of 25 and married …show more content…

He was also influenced by Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth American president, Leo Tolstoy, a Russian author, and Henry Thoreau, a poet and philosopher. Lincoln influenced King because he took the first step to make everyone equal freeing slaves. Leo Tolstoy inspired Martin when he said, “I cannot conceive of a man being free unless he is dead.” Martin agreed with the idea of the absence of freedom is the same as the existence of death. Thoreau influenced Raking when he wrote about non-violent idea of fighting against injustices. Last but not least Mahatma Gandhi, he impacted the way King lead the Civil Right …show more content…

What is most fascinating about it is that he was not violent. Martin patiently led hundreds of thousands of people to victory. Even though he was arrested over 50 times even though he was hated by most of the nation, he did not quit and he did what he thought was right to end segregation. If Martin did not do what he did, it would be a whole different world today. The foot soldiers who got hosed by firemen, arrested by policemen, bitten by dogs, and risking their life each day will never have their names in the history book but they were what Martin needed to reach his goal. Even though whit people treated African Americans bad he forgave them and thought of them as a brother. Today there is even a Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Most recently he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Martin is the most widely known African American of his age. He is honored today by having schools and buildings named after him, a memorial on Independence Mall in D.C, and he has a national

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