He witnessed police abuse and beatings by the Ku Klux Klan. The racist systems around him only became more visible to him as King grew older. The boy’s father no longer wanted his son to be identified with black people. But when his best friend, a white boy living in his community, was abruptly no longer permitted to play with him, one of his most vivid early impressions of bigotry happened. And when a new film was released, he had to wait several months for it to hit the Black Theaters. Even if it was empty, he had to sit on the back of the bus. In most city parks, he wasn’t permitted to play. South.Īs a boy, the arbitrary injustices that segregation created also baffled King. segregation and tried her best to justify the continued culture of segregation in the U.S. It was she who told King the history of U.S. But when it came to establishing a sense of self-respect in her girls, considering the bigotry they encountered, she was similarly committed. The King’s mother, Alberta, by comparison, was sweet and gentle. Strong-willed and dynamic, he was respected in Atlanta’s Black culture and became a prominent figure in the civil rights struggle that his son would eventually lead.

Martin Luther King’s dad was a pastor by birth. Furthermore, a pillar of devotion and power was their religion. They weren’t rich, but they enjoyed a pleasant if modest lifestyle as a Christian minister on Martin Luther King Sr.’s paycheck. The Kings, however, found themselves to be one of the more fortunate Black families of the period.

It was also heavily divided in the American South, and the Great Depression was just falling on the nation. Martin Luther King Jr., born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929, came into a fractured nation that was in profound economic distress. witnessed social and economic discrimination firsthand while he was growing up. These sections, compiled from his writings, documents, speeches, observations, and quotes, provide an overview of his life’s main events and his thoughts and feelings about them.Ĭhapter 1 – Martin Luther King Jr. In 1963, King was awarded Time Magazine’s Man of the Year for his historic relevance to the revolution, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and was sadly murdered in 1968.īut what was this national symbol of peace and justice created by private, political, and social forces?įrom the King’s viewpoint, this review sheds light on the man behind the campaign. This speech represents, to many still, the conceptual height of the 1960s American civil rights movement that King helped form, mobilize, and encourage. He was urging on Black people across America for liberty and justice. One of the most popular and significant expressions in recent American history is ‘I have a dream.’ It’s an expression that Martin Luther King Jr., the Christian pastor, and civil rights leader, used in a statement he made during the 1963 Washington March.

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