The Unknown Martin Luther King

Did You Know?


1. King’s birth name was Michael, not Martin. The civil rights leader was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929. In 1934, however, his father, a pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, traveled to Germany and became inspired by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. As a result, King Sr. changed his name as well as that of his 5-year-old son.
2. Attempted SuicideAt the age of 12, King’s grandmother died of a heart attack. He blamed himself for her death and even attempted suicide afterward by jumping out of a second-story window.
3. King entered college at the age of 15King was such a gifted student that he skipped grades nine and 12 before enrolling in 1944 at Morehouse College, the alma mater of his father and maternal grandfather. He was able to enter thanks to a special wartime program intended to boost enrollment by admitting promising high school students. Although he was the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Baptist ministers, King did not intend to follow the family vocation until Morehouse president Benjamin E. Mays, a noted theologian, convinced him otherwise. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology at the age of 19. King was ordained before graduating from college.
4. King received his doctorate in systematic theology. After earning a divinity degree from Pennsylvania’s Crozer Theological Seminary, King attended graduate school at Boston University, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1955. The title of his dissertation was “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.”
5. Spent honeymoon in a funeral parlor King and his new wife Coretta Scott King married in 1953 and spent their first wedding night in a funeral parlor owned by a friend because honeymoon suites were not available for African Americans in the South (and in most other places across America).
6. King was awarded 20 honorary degrees and was named Man of the Year by Time magazine. During his lifetime, he received 20 honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the US and around the world. In 1963, he became the first African-American to be named Time magazine’s Man of the Year. The tribute included a photograph on the cover plus a seven-page article including several photos of the most memorable moments of his career – such as meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson and his 1963 arrest in Alabama.
7. “I Have a Dream” improvisationThe final and most famous part of this speech, the part from which it derives its name, was a masterful piece of improvisation on behalf of King. He was inspired by the crowd and, in the spirit of a true “preacher,” wove his words into a crescendo of eloquent ideas.
8. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was not his first at the Lincoln Memorial. Six years before his iconic oration at the March on Washington, King was among the civil rights leaders who spoke in the shadow of the Great Emancipator during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom on May 17, 1957. Before a crowd estimated at between 15,000 and 30,000, King delivered his first national address on the topic of voting rights. His speech, in which he urged America to “give us the ballot,” drew strong reviews and positioned him at the forefront of the civil rights leadership.
9. The civil rights leader was arrested 29 times and assaulted four times. Although King was admired by many, he was seen as a threat to American security by police officials. He went to jail nearly 30 times, arrested for acts of ‘civil disobedience,’ including the time he was jailed in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 for driving five miles per hour over the speed limit. Even the FBI had concerns: paper trails show that the agency had continued efforts to thwart King’s progress. After his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech in 1963, the FBI intensified its investigation into King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
10. From 1957 to 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over 2,500 times. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to aid the growing civil rights movement, elected King as its president in 1957; he led the group from its inception until he was murdered in 1968. Founded on Christian values, SCLC sought to advance the cause of the civil rights movement, but peacefully; inspired by the teachings of Gandhi, King operated on Christian principles without violence. He traveled across the nation, visiting cities for speeches and protests. During these 11 years, King also wrote five books and published several important essays and articles.
11. Favored partial reparationsAlthough he didn’t advocate full reparations for slavery he did believe that even if they were given equality, black Americans would still be at a disadvantage economically. He therefore petitioned the government to apportion $50 billion to create economic equality as well.
12. King narrowly escaped an assassination attempt a decade before his death. On September 20, 1958, King was in Harlem signing copies of his new book, “Stride Toward Freedom,” in Blumstein’s department store when he was approached by Izola Ware Curry. The woman asked if he was Martin Luther King Jr. After he said yes, Curry said, “I’ve been looking for you for five years,” and she plunged a seven-inch letter opener into his chest. The tip of the blade came to rest alongside his aorta, and King underwent hours of delicate emergency surgery. Surgeons later told King that just one sneeze could have punctured the aorta and killed him. From his hospital bed where he convalesced for weeks, King issued a statement affirming his nonviolent principles and saying he felt no ill will toward his mentally ill attacker.
13. He was the youngest person at the time to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. When Martin Luther King Jr. received a Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence, he was just 35 years old – the youngest man at the time to do so. His prize included a check for $54,123, which he donated to various organizations – the American Foundation on Non-Violence, Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), NAACP, National Council of Negro Women, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNNC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) – to aid in the progress of the civil rights movement.
14. The FBI tapped him Partly as a result of his friendship with Stanley Levinson, a New York attorney who had ties to the Communist Party USA, the FBI monitored him heavily. After his “I Have a Dream” speech he was declared “the most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country.” Despite rumors, there is no evidence he had Communist Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the late 70’s, however, that the FBI admitted to not finding any evidence to incriminate him.
15. Advocated against the Vietnam WarAlthough he is most famously remembered for his work towards racial equality, he also gave several speeches condemning the Vietnam War shortly before his death.
16. He was a Trekkie. OK, he probably didn't own any Mr. Spock ears, but he was enough of a fan of the original "Star Trek" show to persuade actress Nichelle Nichols (who played Uhura) to stay on when she thought of leaving after the first season.
17. King’s last public speech foretold his death. King had come to Memphis in April 1968 to support the strike of the city’s black garbage workers, and in a speech on the night before his assassination, he told an audience at Mason Temple Church: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” 18. Members of King’s family did not believe James Earl Ray acted alone. Ray, a career criminal, pled guilty to King’s assassination but later recanted. King’s son Dexter met publicly with Ray in 1997 and argued for the case to be reopened. King’s widow, Coretta, believed the Mafia and local, state, and federal government agencies were deeply involved in the murder. She praised the result of a 1999 civil trial in which a Memphis jury decided the assassination was the result of a conspiracy and that Ray was set up to take the blame. A U.S. Department of Justice investigation released in 2000 reported no evidence of a conspiracy.
19. King’s mother was also slain by a bullet. On June 30, 1974, as 69-year-old Alberta Williams King played the organ at a Sunday service inside Ebenezer Baptist Church, Marcus Wayne Chenault Jr. rose from the front pew, drew two pistols, and began to fire shots. One of the bullets struck and killed King, who died steps from where her son had preached nonviolence. The deranged gunman said that Christians were his enemy and that although he had received divine instructions to kill King’s father, who was in the congregation, he killed King’s mother instead because she was closer. The shooting also left a church deacon dead. Chenault received a death penalty sentence that was later changed to life imprisonment, in part due to the King family’s opposition to capital punishment.
20. King is the only non-president to have a national holiday in his name. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that would establish a nationally observed holiday in remembrance of King. He is the only non-president to have received such an honor – the only other American to have a holiday commemorated in his name is George Washington. The holiday was first celebrated in 1986 on the third Monday in January, close to MLK’s birthday on January 15th. Despite being enacted in 1983, all fifty states didn’t observe MLK day until 17 years later.
21. Washington Mall MemorialHe is the only non-president with a memorial located on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
22. MLK Day in other countriesThere are two places outside of the United States that celebrate MLK Day: Toronto, Canada, and Hiroshima, Japan.
23. There are approximately 900 streets named after MLK in the US. According to Derek Alderman, head of the geography department at the University of Tennessee, there are approximately 900 streets named after King in the US. After his assassination in 1968, cities across the nation began naming and renaming streets in his honor; even countries such as Italy and Israel followed suit. The number of streets increases every year, with 70 percent in Southern states: Alabama, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina. Of course, we have a street right here in Northeast Portland named after him.
24. Won posthumous Grammy and Medal of FreedomHis speech Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam went on to win him a posthumous Grammy and he has also been awarded the Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honors an American civilian can receive.

Recommended Media

Web Resources: Print

• MARTIN LUTHE KING & DEPRESSION: https://www.cugmhp.org/five-on-friday-posts/what-martin-luther-king-jr-knew-but-never-said-2/ • COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT 1999 CONSPIRACY TRIAL: https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKACT/• RAY FAMILY REACTION TO JAMES EARL RAY DEATH: http://www.cnn.com/US/9804/24/ray.autopsy.pm/

Web Resources: Video

• MLK’s NOBEL PRIZE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r98tT0j1a0• MLK WAS A TREKKIE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLOZxOo5Czo• NICHELLE WILLIAMS and MLK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSq_UIuxba8• THE COMPLETE “I HAD A DREAM” SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UV1fs8lAbg• MLK on the VIET NAM WAR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyE4eo_leX8• EXCERPT from “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08rlDmVhkSc• COMPLETE “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZvkHpX_Q4• MLK: THE THREE EVILS OF SOCIETY: (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1967 speech at the National Conference on New Politics in Chicago. Here, he speaks about what he calls the Triple Evils: War, Racism and Poverty.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8d-IYSM-08• MLK: STREET SWEEPER SPEECH: (New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois, on 9 April 1967): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlV_ODrEL0k• MLK: "The Frank McGee Sunday Report: Martin Luther King Profile," NBC News, May 7, 1967: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDNV8dxYe-g• MLK (Interview at age 28): VIOLENCE vs. NON-VIOLENCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74XJJ3Tq5ew DECEMBER 7 LONDON SPEECH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iiFNj3D_K4

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