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Your Birth - Su nacimiento
He was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta. He was the middle son of Pastor Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta William King. His paternal grandfather was also a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where he served from 1914 to 1931. -
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His Studies - Sus Estudios
After studying in public schools and graduating from high school at the age of 15, he went to university. In 1948 he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College (Atlanta), an institution originally created for African Americans. In 1951 he obtained his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, from which that same year he began to pursue a doctorate at Boston University. Four years later, in 1955, he obtained the title of Doctor of Philosophy. -
Family - Familia
During his stay in Boston he met Coretta Scott, a woman he married in 1953 and they had four children: Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King and Bernice King. -
Boycott - Boicot
From a young age, he became aware of the situation of social and racial segregation in which the blacks of his country lived, and especially those of the southern states. Became a pastor, in 1954 he took over a church in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. Later in August 1955, King led a year-long boycott against the segregation of municipal buses, following the arrest of a black dressmaker, Rosa Parks, who sat in the reserved section for whites. -
Fame - Fama
The fame of this man spread throughout the country and he immediately took charge of more mobilizations; He also became a member of the Association for the Progress of Colored People, where he improved the living conditions of many people. -
Imprisonment - Encarcelamiento
In 1960 he took advantage of a spontaneous sit-in by black students in Birmingham, Alabama, to start a nationwide campaign, but Martin Luther King was imprisoned and released through the intercession of John Fitgerald Kennedy, then a candidate for president of the United States, but succeeded in blacks have equal access to libraries, dining rooms and parking lots. -
Washington
After that, in the summer of 1963, I led a gigantic march on Washington in which some 250,000 people participated. King and other representatives of anti-racist organizations were received by President John F. Kennedy, who promised to accelerate his policy against segregation in schools and on the issue of unemployment, which particularly affected the black community. -
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Murder and Criminal - Asesinato y Delincuente
Years later, in March 1965, he led a demonstration of thousands of civil rights defenders that traveled almost a hundred kilometers, from Selma, where acts of racial violence had occurred, to Montgomery. His fight had a tragic end: on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis by James Earl Ray, a common white criminal. -
Judgment - Juicio
As his funerals were being held at the Edenhaëser Church in Atlanta, a wave of violence swept across the country. Ray, arrested by the police, recognized himself as the perpetrator of the murder and was convicted with circumstantial evidence. Years later he retracted his statement and, with the support of the King family, requested the reopening of the case and the hearing of a new trial.
