calemrice@gmail.com Mrs. Rice Writing 6 December 5, 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Many people are inspired by a man who was courageous, successful, and had intentions for people to live in peace. He also was a very loving caring person and father. His life showed how change is possible by using nonviolent methods. Now I shall tell you about Martin Luther King Jr. Born January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia Martin Luther King Jr., who was academically successful in his youth, pastored several churches, and was a loving, caring father. Martin Luther King Jr. went to segregated schools. When he was fifteen he graduated from high school and then graduated from college when he was nineteen. His grandfather started the family's long tenure (family line) as a pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He served there from 1914-1931. In 1954 Martin Luther King Jr. became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama. He was married in 1955, to Coretta Scott, in Boston, and had two girls and two boys whose names were Yolanda Denise, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice Albertine (Bunny). His family was proud of him when he went to jail because he was standing up for black people and their equal rights. His wife said that he loved kids, but that she had to discipline them for him. He actually wante d to have eight children.
Martin Luther King Jr. did many very important things like using nonviolent methods to bring about change. In addition to Martin Luther King Jr. s private life, he had a public life that included many great honors given to him. H e was elected president of a predominantly white senior class in 1963. He was named man of the year by Time Magazine. Probably one of his most immense awards was in 1964, at the age of thirty-five he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, with a total amount of prize money of $54,123. Martin Luther King Jr. not only wanted freedom for blacks but for everybody to go to the same schools, and all the people in the nation to live in harmony. From 1957 to 1968 he traveled over one-million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times. Believing that change was possible, he went wherever there was injustice or disharmony. In 1963 he directed a peace march of 250,000 people in Washington, D.C., and that is when he delivered a famous speech called I Have a Dream. Here is one piece of the speech, I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. " The sad ending of his life was on April 4, 1968, while standing on a balcony at a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee; he was assassinated. (He was on his way to lead another protest.) After his death his family kept working on the "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change, which started in the basement of their home and [in 1985
was] housed in an $8 million complex adjacent to Ebenezer, it is the common skewer that binds [his children] to their father s goals." Even today many people admire the courage of what Martin Luther King Jr. did. We have set aside a national holiday for him, celebrated on the third Monday of each January near his birthday. He was a successful person in his youth who pastored several churches. He also had many awards and honors. Something he is known for is showing nonviolent means to bring about change. He reminded the nation damaged by racism that everyone is created equal. Lastly he was a courageous, successful, and loving man. As you can see he was a very inspirational person.
Works Cited "I HAVE A DREAM..." (Copyright 1963, Martin Luther King, JR.) Speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King At the "March on Washington" "Martin Luther King Jr. - Biography". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 14 Nov 2017. < http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html Curtis, Christie, and Mary E. Hake. Grammar and Writing. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers, Inc., 2010. Washington, Frank. The Children of Dr. King: Living with the Legacy. Atlanta Magazine, 29 Aug. 2014, www.atlantamagazine.com/civilrights/mlk-family-legacy-bernice-king/?src=longreads.