5 things you didn’t know about Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his mark on the U.S. and the world when he pioneered for civil rights and equality decades ago.
His story has been told and recreated in numerous forms: books, movies, articles and podcasts highlight facts about the activist’s life until his death in 1968.
While most people know about the Baptist minister’s work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, his push for nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience to create change and his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, some facets of King’s life are discussed infrequently.
Here are five things you might not have known about Martin Luther King Jr.:
1. King was the middle child, and his birth is celebrated nationwide.
Born January 15, 1929, to Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King, Martin Luther King Jr. was the couple’s second child and their first son. Martin Luther King Jr. had an older sister and a younger brother. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of two Americans whose birthday is celebrated as a national holiday; the other is George Washington.
2. Martin wasn’t always his name.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born Michael King Jr. His father, who was born Michael King, changed his name after the death of his father-in-law in 1931. After filling in the pastoral footsteps of his father-in-law, Michael King Sr. adopted the name Martin Luther King in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. Michael Jr. later took the name, too.
3. He skipped two grades and entered college at a young age.
Martin Luther King Jr. skipped the ninth and the 11th grade and started his college career at Morehouse College in Atlanta at the age of 15 in 1944.
4. He survived an assassination attempt.
Izola Ware Curry, a mentally ill woman, stabbed King with a letter opener at a 1958 book signing. The seven-inch blade was lodged near his heart, and it took doctors hours of surgery to remove the blade. “The X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery,” King said in his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. “And once that’s punctured, you’re drowned in your own blood. That’s the end of you.”
5. He was arrested more than two dozen times.
King was arrested 30 times.
<p>King at the age of 6. (Handout)</p>
King graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and from Boston University in 1955. (Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Handout)
<p>While in Boston, he met Coretta Scott. They married in 1953 and would eventually have four children: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice. (Bahnsen Negative Collection/Handout)</p>
In 1955, as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization that was responsible for the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955 to 1956. (Gene Herrick/AP)
King’s battle with the law continued. He was arrested thirty times for his participation in civil rights activities. Here he is being charged with loitering in 1958. (Charles Moore)
When he wasn’t part of the civil rights struggle, King was a family man. He’s seen here with his wife, Coretta, and four children (from left to right) Dexter, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III and Bernice.
In August 1963, thousands gathered for the March on Washington where King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. (File photo/AP)
In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize from the hands of Gunnar Jahn, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, in Oslo, Norway. At the time he was the youngest man ever to receive the prize. (File photo/AP)
On July 2, 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with King and other civil rights leaders present. (File photo/AP)
Bishop B. Jlian Smith, of the Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Church (left), King (center), and Rev. Ralph Abernathy (right) during a civil rights march in Memphis, Tenn. in 1968. (File photo/AP)
The next day, an assassin’s bullet struck King as he once again stood on the balcony. In June, James Early Ray was arrested in London and charged with King’s murder. (File photo/AP/Time Inc.)
The family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. walk in the funeral procession of the slain civil rights leader on April 9, 1968. (File photo)
In 1983, after years of fighting, Coretta Scott King (left) was successful in getting her late husband’s birthday recognized as a national holiday. Here, President Ronald Reagan signs the legislation. (File photo)
