Martin Luther King Jr. has reigned in the hearts of African Americans for decades, and even up to this present day Dr. King still remains a prominent figure that changed the course of African American history. Martin Luther King Jr., the second of three children born to Alberta Christine Williams and Michael King Sr., was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up, Dr. King had to endure the hardships that African Americans in the south had to deal with during the 1940s, due to the Jim Crow law and racial segregation. He first encountered segregation when he was six years old when he was told that him and his favorite playmate where attending different school and could no longer play together because he was “colored.”
M.L. attended Booker T. Washington High School where he started to develop a sense of individuality and an affinity for public speaking. His junior year of high school he entered an oratorical contest and was awarded first prize for his speech on “The Negro and the Constitution.” On his way back home from the contest, Dr. King and his teacher, Mrs. Bradley, had to forfeit their seats to white passengers, since it
…show more content…
King played an extremely vital role in the civil rights movement. He conducted the movement, with the help of Bayard Rustin’s help, through the philosophy of civil disobedience, a message of nonviolence that King acquired from Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. King delivered numerous speeches and led several civil marches. On August 28, 1963 lead a march that consisted of about 250,000 marchers from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. There, Martin Luther King deliver his I have a dream speech. “A great American in those symbolic shadows we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity,” (Flemings,