Martin Luther King Jr. Biography

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. As a young boy he lived in elegance and comfort. When he was young he was part of a gang and chased after many different ladies. He attended Crozer Seminary in the North. He lived in a new world of ideas unlike that in the South. He had a girlfriend but he was unable to marry her because mixed marriages could be fatal. People tended to degrade black people. Later on King married Coretta Scott. They then moved to Montgomery, Alabama where King became the pastor at Dexter Avenue Parish. MLK was a radiant speaker and captured his audience. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott became involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and MLK soon took a leadership role. Meetings were held at his church and people tried to use coercion to make MLK leave, he began to receive up to fifty threats a day.

 The Montgomery Bus Boycott was considered a success because in 1956 the Montgomery Buses became integrated. Martin Luther King traveled around the country and saw that segregation remained. Traveling he gave a speech “Stride for Freedom.” At one point during his traveling he was traveled like a black women but it turns out that she was just insane. However this reminded MLK of the dangers that threatened him every day. He tried to continue to apply the lessons of the Montgomery boycott to the rest of the south. MLK came across black students that tried to order lunch from a white lunch counter. He coherently decided despite prior warnings to help the students. The perpetuation of his goal to end segregation helped continue in his efforts.  Here he got arrested and thrown into jail, where he was moved to solitary confinement where he was devoid. JFK was running for president and trying to get blacks votes, helped release Martin Luther King from jail. From this JFK was elected president.

 JFK and MLK were weary allies but had many similarities. JFK never demonstrated any oppression towards King. MLK decided to make his stand in the most segregated city of the time, Birmingham. Here he met non- violence with brute force. Martin Luther King was a militant person but believed in non- violent protest. Birmingham police chief was determined to keep Birmingham segregated. He then had his March on Washington when he gave his famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” After this Kennedy and Hoover put MLK under wire tap where they discovered the King had many mistresses. They were going to expose King. Many people exalted King and this would have a negative effect. After this Martin Luther King had a meeting with Hoover.