MARTIN LUTHER KING JR – DID YOU KNOW?

 

by Desiree Coffey

Most of us know Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist. He played an influential role in the American civil rights movement and was assassinated in April 1968 by James Earl Ray.  But did you know that:

 

  1. The civil rights leader was born Michael King Jr.. His father, travel to Germany and became inspired by the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. As a result, King Sr. changed his own name as well as that of his 5-year-old son.

 

  1. King entered college at the age of 15. King was such a gifted student that he skipped grades 9 and 12 before enrolling at Morehouse College in 1944.

 

  1. At the age of 12, Martin tried to commit suicide. It was May of 1941 when his grandmother died from a heart attack. When his parents informed him, he went up the stairs of his two story house and jumped out the window.

 

  1. Martin was almost assassinated a decade before his actual death. He was at a book signing for his book, Stride Toward Freedom. On September 20, 1958, Martin was approached by Izola Ware Curry.  She reached in her pocket, brought a letter opener out, and stabbed him with it. It took them three hours to get the letter opener out.

 

  1. Although Martin is known for being a great public speaker. He got a C in his public speaking class while in Seminary (a college to become a priest minister or rabbis).

 

  1. The King family did not believe that James Earl Ray acted alone. Ray, a career criminal, pled guilty to Martin’s assassination, but later recanted. Martin’s son, Dexter, met publicly with Ray in 1997 and argued for the case to be reopened. Martin’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 Ray was set to take the blame.

 

  1. Martin’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 Alberta, who died steps from where her son had preached non-violence.

 

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