Date of Birth: January 15, 1929
Birthplace: Atlanta, GA
Family Background: Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up in a large Victorian home in Atlanta, surrounded by love in a large, extended family of parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, and uncles. Following in the footsteps of is father and grandfather, he returned to his hometown in 1960 to co-pastor Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Achievements: King graduated from Morehouse College (B.A. 1948), Crozer Theological Seminary (B.D. 1951) and Boston University (Ph. D. 1955). From 1955 until his death he led the Civil Rights Movement, providing inspiration through his strength, wisdom, and loving leadership at boycotts and peaceful demonstrations, and changed the hearts and minds of America through moving, motivational speeches.
Speech Excerpt:
"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
. . . I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."
Died: April 4, 1968 at the hands of an assasin. James Earl Ray pled gulity to the murder and was convicted, but he later recanted. Many people belive the King assissination was the result of a conspiracy.
