Martin Luther King

(1929-1968)
 His Family
• Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15th,
1929 in Atlanta, Georgia
• He was named after his father Martin Luther
King
• His mother Alberta Williams King was a teacher
and she taught him to read before he started
school. His father worked as a preacher.
• He had an older sister, Willie Christine
(September 11, 1927) and a younger brother,
Alfred Daniel (July 30, 1930 – July 1, 1969)
 Early Life
• He went to school at Booker T. Washington High
School. Martin was part of the debate team and
traveled to different school for debates
• He graduated from Booker T. Washington High
School at the age of 15 years old. He went to
Morehouse College in Atlanta, where his father
went.
• At the age of 17, he gave his first sermon as a
preacher.  At age 18, King became a minister,
and a year later he graduated from Morehouse
College.
 Early Life
• After graduation, he traveled to Pennsylvania to
study at the Crozer Theological Seminary
• King graduated from Crozer in 1951 with honors.
Then he went to Boston University to get my
doctorate in theology.
• Whilst there he met Correta Scott who was
studying at the New England Conservatory of
Music .
• Correta and Martin then married the following
year June,1953
• After marrying he began working as the Pastor
of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in
Montgomery, Alabama.
 Montgomery Bus Boycott
• The next year in Montgomery, a woman named
Rosa Parks was sitting in a section on a bus just
behind the sign stating "Whites Only." Blacks and
Whites were entering the bus and the driver asked
Rosa to move, but she refused. The driver called the
police and had her arrested.
• The next morning Mr. E.D. Nixon, who was a civil
rights activist, called King and asked if he would help
organize a one-day bus boycott of the Montgomery
buses. Martin requested that Blacks do not ride the
buses that day. It was a very busy time for Martin as
his first child Yolanda was born.