Martin Luther King
Fact File
Martin Luther King was born January the 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He had an older sister, Willie, and a younger brother, Alfred. When growing up in Atlanta, it was during a time when black people did not have the rights which they have today. Blacks and whites were separated in schools and sitting in separate sections in busses. Sometimes blacks would be forced to stand up in the bus even though there were empty seats in the “white” section at the front of the bus. All the disadvantage that the black people had, all the discrimination and racism, made Martin fight for fair treatment. Already at 15, he got his high-school graduation.
Martin married Coretta Scott, on June 18 1953, on the lawn of her parents’ house in her hometown, Heiberger, Alabama. They became parents to four children, Yolanda, Martin the III, Dexter, and Bernice. The son of a southern middle-class African American minister and his wife, Martin became an internationally known leader of the Civil Rights movement. He gained worldwide popularity for his philosophy of nonviolent social change “I Have a Dream”.
“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King got his inspiration from Christ and the actions of Gandhi. Only through truth can the untruth answer be known. Only through love can hatred be defeated. This is the lifestyle of the Buddha and the Christ. Many states and cities had right to do legal punishments, on people who were interacting with humans of another race, The Jim Crow Laws: “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards” “Every employer of white or negro males shall provide for such white or Negro males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities” “No colored barber shall serve as