Backgroud Information

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929, in near proximity to the Great Depression, into a Christian family. He later in his life became a Minister and eventually led the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated.

Everyone knows the story of Martin Luther King Jr. However, here are the following facts that you may not know about this very important historical figure.

Facts about MLK:

1. King’s birth name was not Martin, but actually Michael. His father decided to change his name after he traveled to Germany and discovering the protestant reformation leader Martin Luther.
2. Martin Luther King Jr was imprisoned nearly thirty times. Most of these arrest were from trumped-up charges and civil disobedience, such as that one time he went to Montgomery Prison for going 30 miles per hour on a road with a 25 miles per hour speed limit.
3. George Washington is the only other American to have had his birthday observed as a national holiday. In 1983 President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that created a federal holiday to honor King. The holiday, first commemorated in 1986, is celebrated on the third Monday in January, close to the civil rights leader’s January 15 birthday.

   

    Sources:

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-martin-luther-king-jr