The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr

1929 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta Ga

1944 - Martin enters Morehouse College at age 15

1951 - Martin graduates from Crozer Seminary and begins studies at Boston University

1953 - Martin marries Coretta in Alabama and begins a ministry position in Montgomery the following year.

1955 - After the arrest of Rosa Parks, Martin volunteers to lead a citywide bus boycott in protest against Montgomery's segregation policies

1957 - Following victory in Montgomery, Martin is elected leader of the Southern Christianity Leadership Conference (SCLC)

1960-1962 - Further peaceful protests spread throughout the South. Martin is arrested during a sit-in in Atlanta

1963 - The campaign shifts to Birmingham, Alabama. After victory there, Martin marches to Washington DC to deliver his historic, "I have a dream" speech.

1964 - Martin received the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. The next year, he leads a 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery, winning new voting rights for black Americans

1966-1968 Race riots erupt across America. Martin travels to Memphis, TN where he convinces the rioters to join his non-violent campaign. The next day - April 4, 1968 - Martin is assassinated

1983 - US Congress establishes the third Monday of every January as "Martin Luther King Jr. Day" confirming him as one of America's greatest leaders ever known.

Today I read a biography to Micah and Hope of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. I have highlighted the main events of his life above. I also found the following worth noting:

Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA was the congregation Martin Luther King Sr preached, where MLK JR was first presented at a baby, was the first church MLK JR preached at, and was the location of his funeral.

MKL JR and his brother once unscrewed the piano stool legs to avoid their much dreaded music lessons. When the piano teacher sat down, she fell backwards and her music pages flew up in the air. Later that day, Martin was not allowed to play with a childhood friend - because the friend was white, and Martin was black. Later his mother explained the painful history Black people had endured. His innocence was lost that day and a passion ignited for freedom.

MKL poured his heart and soul into learning, and being the best he could possibly be. At age 14 he once entered a speech competition and won. The topic of his speech - History of Black People in America. On the bus home from the competition, he was ordered to "GET UP" and relinquish his seat to a white man. MLK refused, and his teacher gently replied to him "ITS THE LAW" and she quietly got up. He became more and more determined to do something to change the course of Black people in America.

After the US Supreme Court declared segregation unlawful, Martin's house was bombed. He received word and rushed home. Thankfully, his wife and daughter were unharmed, but the Black community was outraged. Martin climbed onto the smoldering remains of his porch and looked out at the crowd. I imagine the anger I would feel if someone tried to destroy me, my family, and all I had worked so hard to build. MLK's words were simple - "LOVE - I want you to love our enemies. We can't let their hate stop us."

In 1960 Martin entered a department store in Atlanta and sat with several protesters at a "whites only" lunch counter and was arrested within minutes. TV cameras captured the whole scene to the nation. His message was clear - he was happy to go to jail for freedom's cause.

Martin was later arrested for peaceful protests in Birmingham. Locked in a dirty jail, he managed to write a letter which was smuggled out. He wrote, "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws...Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever." Nearly a million copies were circulated around the US. I imagine his message was more powerful and effective since it was penned from a jail cell.

Martin had this to say the day before his untimely death, "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop...And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land."

On April 4, 1968, Martin met with Ralph Abernathy at his motel in Memphis to begin planning a new march. He was tired and stepped out on his balcony. He took a deep breath of spring air and shouted to Ralph, "Tomorrow's going to be a great day!" Then the sound of gunshot was heard, and Martin Luther King Jr was struck down by an assassin's bullet. He died an hour later.

Finally, I wanted to mention that Hope kept asking me all through the story, "When did the Black people finally get freed mommy?" I tried to explain the slaves were freed nearly a hundred years before my birth. I tried to explain that through MLK's life, Black people made small steps forward for freedom's cause. They became free to sit on the buses, free to eat where they wanted, free go to school with white children, and finally free to vote. When I finished the story, she still wanted to know when that Black people were freed. It wasn't real clear to her when a defining moment took place. Perhaps for America it hasn't yet?