Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and death.

King was born in 1929 at a time when government and society leaders treated Black people differently than white people. Bader notes that growing up in the South was difficult for King. When he was a child, his father took him to a shoe store to buy him new shoes, and the shopkeeper ordered them to wait in the back. His father became furious, and they left. He told King that he could not accept that system.

The system, called “segregation,” kept Black and white people socially separate. Growing up, King resolved to fight for change. Bader notes that “it was a peaceful fight” (2). King organized marches and protests, gave speeches, and brought people together in a nonviolent struggle, using “his words, not his fists” (2). King dreamed of all people living together equally and peacefully, and that dream lives on.

King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and was named Michael after his father. When King was five, his father changed both their names to Martin Luther. King had an older sister and a younger brother, and the family had a happy family life. They lived in a big house on Auburn Avenue, a comfortable neighborhood where “no one was very poor or very rich” (5).