Before leading boycotts, marches, and a national movement in support of racial equality, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was a prankster known as Mike or M.L.
King was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1930s and 1940s. His family was not wealthy, but they did own a car and a piano. Martin and his siblings enjoyed playing board games, and his favourite was Monopoly. Like other children, he had chores to do around the house. His sister complained that when it was Martin’s turn to do the washing up, he would hide in the bathroom.
King grew up in a segregated society, meaning that people of different races were kept separate. At the age of 14, he travelled 90 miles with his teacher to a speech contest. On the way home, the bus driver forced them to stand so that white passengers could sit. “It was the angriest I have ever been,” he later wrote.
Martin initially wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer because he wanted to help people. He was already a powerful speaker, and his university lecturers showed him that he could change people’s lives by becoming a preacher. So he chose that path. In 1954, at the age of 25, he became the pastor of a church in Montgomery, Alabama.
King believed that nonviolent protest was the best way to respond to injustice and wrongdoing. The following year, when an African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, King led a citywide protest. Black residents refused to use the city buses until all passengers were treated equally. It took many months, but they eventually succeeded.
Civil rights protests spread to other cities and states. King helped to establish a group called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he became known across the country. His supporters organised nonviolent “sit-ins” at segregated shops and other public places. King was arrested more than 20 times for his activism. His house was bombed, but he continued to preach nonviolence. In 1964, he received a prestigious award, the Nobel Peace Prize. At just 35 years old, he was the youngest person ever to receive the award at that time.
Four years later, while in Memphis, Tennessee, for a workers’ rally, he was shot and killed.
In 2011, 48 years after the March on Washington, a memorial to King was dedicated near the Lincoln Memorial, where he famously declared, “I have a dream . . .”
Martin Luther King Jr. was known for his playful nature as a child. When people walked down the street near his home, he would frighten them by tying one of his mother’s fox furs to a stick and poking it through a bush, pretending it was a wild animal. To avoid piano lessons, he and his younger brother tried—unsuccessfully—to scare their instructor by tampering with the piano stool so it would collapse when the teacher sat down. He also disliked washing the dishes, loved ice cream, and would sometimes pop the heads off his sister’s dolls to use them as makeshift baseballs.
“He was an ordinary child,” said Marty Smith, a park ranger at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, where he conducts tours of the six-bedroom house where King grew up. “It was just later in life that he did extraordinary things.”
King was required to recite a Bible verse at the dinner table before eating, and for several years his favourite was the shortest, simplest verse he could find—John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”
Noelle Trent, a director at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, and also the daughter of a minister, explained that having a parent who preaches gives you a greater awareness of “the turmoil in other people’s lives.” King would have witnessed much turmoil—meaning trouble and confusion—while growing up. His father taught him the importance of standing up for what is right. On one occasion, King and his father were shopping when a clerk referred to his father as a “boy.” King’s father replied, “My son is a boy, and I am a man, and you don’t speak to me that way.”
Despite his playful nature, King was also a strong student. He skipped the ninth and twelfth grades and graduated from high school at the age of 15. He struggled with public speaking initially, even receiving a C grade in speech while training to become a minister. This demonstrates that “if you keep working hard, you can become one of the best ever.”
Glossary
King was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1930s and 1940s. His family was not wealthy, but they did own a car and a piano. Martin and his siblings enjoyed playing board games, and his favourite was Monopoly. Like other children, he had chores to do around the house. His sister complained that when it was Martin’s turn to do the washing up, he would hide in the bathroom.
King grew up in a segregated society, meaning that people of different races were kept separate. At the age of 14, he travelled 90 miles with his teacher to a speech contest. On the way home, the bus driver forced them to stand so that white passengers could sit. “It was the angriest I have ever been,” he later wrote.
Martin initially wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer because he wanted to help people. He was already a powerful speaker, and his university lecturers showed him that he could change people’s lives by becoming a preacher. So he chose that path. In 1954, at the age of 25, he became the pastor of a church in Montgomery, Alabama.
King believed that nonviolent protest was the best way to respond to injustice and wrongdoing. The following year, when an African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, King led a citywide protest. Black residents refused to use the city buses until all passengers were treated equally. It took many months, but they eventually succeeded.
Civil rights protests spread to other cities and states. King helped to establish a group called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he became known across the country. His supporters organised nonviolent “sit-ins” at segregated shops and other public places. King was arrested more than 20 times for his activism. His house was bombed, but he continued to preach nonviolence. In 1964, he received a prestigious award, the Nobel Peace Prize. At just 35 years old, he was the youngest person ever to receive the award at that time.
Four years later, while in Memphis, Tennessee, for a workers’ rally, he was shot and killed.
In 2011, 48 years after the March on Washington, a memorial to King was dedicated near the Lincoln Memorial, where he famously declared, “I have a dream . . .”
Martin Luther King Jr. was known for his playful nature as a child. When people walked down the street near his home, he would frighten them by tying one of his mother’s fox furs to a stick and poking it through a bush, pretending it was a wild animal. To avoid piano lessons, he and his younger brother tried—unsuccessfully—to scare their instructor by tampering with the piano stool so it would collapse when the teacher sat down. He also disliked washing the dishes, loved ice cream, and would sometimes pop the heads off his sister’s dolls to use them as makeshift baseballs.
“He was an ordinary child,” said Marty Smith, a park ranger at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, where he conducts tours of the six-bedroom house where King grew up. “It was just later in life that he did extraordinary things.”
King was required to recite a Bible verse at the dinner table before eating, and for several years his favourite was the shortest, simplest verse he could find—John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”
Noelle Trent, a director at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, and also the daughter of a minister, explained that having a parent who preaches gives you a greater awareness of “the turmoil in other people’s lives.” King would have witnessed much turmoil—meaning trouble and confusion—while growing up. His father taught him the importance of standing up for what is right. On one occasion, King and his father were shopping when a clerk referred to his father as a “boy.” King’s father replied, “My son is a boy, and I am a man, and you don’t speak to me that way.”
Despite his playful nature, King was also a strong student. He skipped the ninth and twelfth grades and graduated from high school at the age of 15. He struggled with public speaking initially, even receiving a C grade in speech while training to become a minister. This demonstrates that “if you keep working hard, you can become one of the best ever.”
Glossary
- Baptist ministers: Clergy members of the Baptist denomination of Christianity.
- Segregated: The enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment.
- Chores: Routine tasks or jobs, typically domestic ones such as cleaning or washing dishes.
- Washing up: British English term for cleaning dishes and utensils after a meal.
- Pastor: A minister in charge of a Christian church or congregation.
- Nonviolent protest: A form of protest that does not involve physical violence; instead, it uses peaceful methods to achieve social or political goals.
- Injustice: A situation in which the rights of a person or a group of people are ignored or disrespected.
- Citywide: Involving or affecting an entire city.
- Sit-ins: A form of protest in which participants sit and refuse to leave a place until their demands are met.
- Activism: The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.
- Prestigious: Having high status; admired and respected.
- Nobel Peace Prize: An international award given annually to someone who has made outstanding contributions to peace.
- Memorial: A structure established to remind people of a person or event.
- Lecturers: Teachers at a university or college.
- Fox furs: The fur of a fox, often used in clothing or accessories.
- Tampering: Interfering with something in order to cause damage or make it behave differently.
- Makeshift: Something made using whatever is available and not intended to last long.
- Turmoil: A state of great disturbance, confusion, or uncertainty.
- Clerk: A worker in a shop who assists customers.
- Delivered: Gave or presented (as in a speech).