HE MAN, THE MYSTERY: MARTIN LUTHER KING IN THE EYES OF HISTORY
.
SOME SURPRISING FACTS YOU DON'T KNOW
ABOUT HIM
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- Martin Luther King was born Michael Lewis
King. His father changed his own name to
Martin Luther, after the German preacher and
reformist, and he renamed his son the same. - King suffered from depression throughout
much of his life. As a child, he befriended a
white boy whose father owned a business near
his family's home. When the boys were six,
they started school: King had to attend a
school for African Americans and the other
boy went to one for whites. King lost his friend
because the child's father no longer wanted
the boys to play together. - At the age of 12, King blamed himself for
his grandmother's death and attempted suicide
by jumping out of a second-story window but
he survived. - King was a precocious child. He skipped
both the ninth and the twelfth grade, entering
college when he was only fifteen. At 19, he
received a degree in sociology and earned
a PhD in theology seven years later at 26. He
eventually garnered another fifty or so
honorary degrees from various colleges and
universities around the country before his
death at the age of 39. - Martin Luther King was a life-long smoker.
- King was jailed 29 times, charged with
everything from civil disobedience to driving
five miles over the speed limit. - On October 14, 1964, King became the
youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize,
until Malala Yousafzai in 2014, which was
awarded to him for leading nonviolent
resistance to racial prejudice in the U.S. He
donated all $54,123 of the prize money to the
civil rights movement. - King became romantically involved with the
white daughter of an immigrant German
woman. He planned to marry her, but friends
advised against it, saying that an interracial
marriage would provoke animosity from both
blacks and whites. King broke off the
relationship after six months. He never
recovered. - King was 24 and his wife was 26 when they
got married. They had four children together.
Three are still alive. - In 1957, King and other civil rights
activists founded the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC). He led the SCLC
until his death. - King survived an assassination attempt in
1958 after being stabbed in the chest by a
deranged woman. He spent several weeks in
surgery. - In 1963, the FBI, under written directive
from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,
tapped King's telephone line suspecting he was
a Communist. - King organized and led marches for blacks'
right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and
other basic civil rights. Most of these rights
were successfully enacted into the law of the
United States with the passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of - In the 1963 March on Washington, King
delivered a 17-minute speech, later known as
"I Have a Dream''. It came to be regarded as
one of the finest speeches in the history of
American oratory. - On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before
his death—King delivered a speech titled
"Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." He
spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the
war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to
occupy it as an American colony" and calling
the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of
violence in the world today." - Martin Luther King is best known for his
role in the advancement of civil rights using
the tactics of nonviolence and civil
disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and
inspired by the nonviolent activism of
Mahatma Gandhi. - On April 4, 1968, King was fatally shot by
James Earl Ray at 6:01 p.m. The bullet entered
through his right cheek, smashing his jaw, then
traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in
his shoulder. He died at the hospital an hour
later at 7:05 p.m. - President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April
7, 1968 a national day of mourning for the
civil rights leader. - King made a request that at his funeral no
mention of his awards and honors be made,
but that it be said that he tried to "feed the
hungry", "clothe the naked", "be right on the
[Vietnam] war question", and "love and serve
humanity." - King's favourite hymn was "Take My Hand,
Precious Lord". It was sung at his funeral. - On January 17, 2000, Martin Luther King
Jr. Day was officially observed in all fifty U.S.
states. - King’s mother, Alberta Williams King, was
also shot and killed at the age of 69. - As a Christian minister, King's main
influence was Jesus Christ and the Christian
gospels. His faith was strongly based in Jesus'
commandment of loving your neighbor as
yourself, loving God above all, and loving your
enemies, praying for them and blessing them. - King’s autopsy revealed that stress had
taken a major toll on his body. Despite being
just 39 at the time of his death, one of the
doctors noted that he had “the heart of a 60-
year-old”. - In 1977, the Presidential Medal of
Freedom (the highest civilian award of the
United States of America) was posthumously
awarded to King by President Jimmy Carter.
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