Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
was a civil rights leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He is one of America’s greatest Heroes. I appreciate the legacy of his vision and the depth of sacrifices made for mankind. The color of our skin did not matter to him. We are all the same.
Martin Luther King Jr was born Michael King Jr, after his father Michael King Sr, changed his name after the death of his father-in-law in 1931. After stepping into the pastoral footsteps of his father-in-law, Michael King Sr adopted the name Martin Luther. This is how he honored the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. Michael Jr changed his name to Martin as well, initially against his father’s wishes.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Tree Grove
at Kenneth Hahn State Recreational Area
Fifty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this memorial was dedicated in his honor at the highest point of the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, overlooking downtown Los Angeles. The tree grove features an obelisk that evokes memories of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. King delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech.
As a young boy at the age of 12, Martin Luther King Jr jumped out of a second-story window. He allegedly attempted suicide after being traumatized by the death of his grandmother Jennie.
Martin Luther King Jr. a highly intelligent student, skipped the ninth and the 11th grade. He entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of only 15. King was able to enroll into a special wartime program intended to boost enrollment by admitting promising high school students. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree at the age of 19. King initially planned to become a lawyer or physician rather than become a minister like his father
Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scott in Boston in the early 1950s. King was pursuing a doctoral degree at Boston University. Scott was a student at the New England Conservatory of Music. They married June 18,1953. Because no honeymoon suites were available for African-Americans, King and his wife Coretta spent their wedding night at a friend’s funeral parlor.
King is mostly known for the Baptist minister’s work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He also pushed for nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience to create change. Dr. King had a very daring spirit not afraid to face the adversities ahead. He had the courage to stand up against segregation, discrimination, and racism.
There was an attempt on King’s life by Izola Ware Curry, a mentally ill woman, stabbed King with a letter opener at a 1958 book signing. The seven-inch blade was lodged near his heart, and it took doctors hours of surgery to remove the blade. “The X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery,” King said in his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. “And once that’s punctured, you drown in your own blood. That’s the end of you.”
King once said, “This is my being and my heritage.” He advocated for peaceful approaches to some of society’s biggest problems. He organized a number of marches and protests and was a key figure in the American civil rights movement. He was instrumental in the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the March on Washington. March 7, 1965, was a Bloody Sunday because voting-rights marchers were beaten by state troopers and civilians as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
Martin Luther King Jr, was shot dead on April 4, 1968, while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of King’s assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property damage.
On June 8, authorities apprehended the suspect in King’s murder, a small-time criminal named James Earl Ray, at London’s Heathrow Airport. Witnesses had seen him running from a boarding house near the Lorraine Motel carrying a bundle; prosecutors said he fired the fatal bullet from a bathroom in that building.
The famous “I Have A Dream” speech brought hope to a hopeless situation, freedom to the forefront and the rights of all people prevailed. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of only two Americans whose birthday is celebrated as a national holiday, the other is George Washington.
Cheri Watson- Writer
Cheri Watson has been a writer for free2funla.com for 2 years. She is a life long resident of Los Angeles and enjoys giving back to her community
