SEARCY, AR (LP) — Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944.
He was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but an unmotivated student who floated through his first two years. But in his junior year, King took a Bible class, renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision. In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his Ph.D. and earned his degree in 1955. King was only 25 years old.
On December 1, 1955, 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the “colored” section in the middle of the bus. As the bus traveled its route, all the seats in the white section filled up, then several more white passengers boarded the bus. The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other African American passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated. On the night that Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local NAACP chapter met with King and other local civil rights leaders to plan a Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with solid family connections and had professional standing.
Proud African American Toni Rose states, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an important civil rights activist. He was a leader in the movement to end racial segregation in the United States. His most famous address to the people was the ‘I Have A dream’ speech.”
The bus boycott involved 382 days of walking to work, harassment, violence, and intimidation for Montgomery’s African American community. Both King’s and Nixon’s homes were attacked. But the African American community also took legal action against the city ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court’s “separate is never equal” decision in Brown v. Board of Education. After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated public transportation.
By 1960, King was gaining national exposure. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church but also continued his civil rights efforts. On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested.
Rose states, “It is very disheartening to see especially my race of African Americans not see the barriers that were broken for great opportunities that waits right before them. However, one must want to make a change and have a true desire to follow through in order seek out these accomplishments. Dr. King fought for nonviolence, and yet we continue to see black on black crime, murdering and taking life as if it has absolutely no value/meaning.”
The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Coretta Scott King. Kennedy expressed his concern for King’s harsh treatment for the traffic ticket and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon released.
Freddy Hicks, Searcy High School students says, “To me, MLK is a man that really helped shaped America. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to have some of the opportunities that I have today!”
On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington drew more than 200,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It was here that King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, emphasizing his belief that someday all men could be brothers. On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer and they then turned back.
On April 3, he gave his final and what proved to be an eerily prophetic speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in which he told supporters at the Mason Temple in Memphis, “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.”
The next day, while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper’s bullet. The shooter, a former convict named James Earl Ray, was eventually apprehended after a two-month, international manhunt.
Rose states, “The fight to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a holiday took 32 years, a lot of campaigning and guest appearances included Stevie Wonder, Ted Kennedy, and the National Football League. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday was finally approved as a federal holiday in 1983, and all 50 states made it a state government holiday by 2000.”
Non-essential Government departments are closed on MLK day, as are many corporations. Some schools and colleges close but others stay open and teach their students about the life and work of Martin Luther King.
Hicks states, “We should definitely be out for MLK day the way he broke barriers for the African American community. I learned a lot through high school and it’s pretty much the essentials that everyone needs to know.”
Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.
