King Young Martin grew up in the segregated South. He graduated in 1955 with a doctorate degree. Following the path of Doctorate degree, he attended David T. Howard Elementary School and Atlanta University Laboratory School, graduated from Booker T. Washington High School, attended Atlanta’s important Morehouse College to pursue degree in sociology, studied religion at the Crozer Theological Seminary, and received his seminary degree in 1951. School education was hard for him because at that time African-American were not able to attend school with white children. King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He wanted to end the racism. In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962. He successfully organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. He also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. He became a part of topics for the television news. The, he established his reputation as in America. After all those important activities, On October 14, 1964, at just the age of thirty-five, King was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. His work didn’t end after this award and he kept on working to give rights to peoples. He played vital role in ending the poverty and the Vietnam War.
King was awarded at least fifty honorary degrees from colleges and universities. On October 14, 1964, King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1965, he was awarded the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Committee, in 1957, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, in 1966, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America awarded him the Margaret Sanger Award for "his courageous resistance to bigotry and his lifelong dedication to the advancement of social justice and human dignity", in 1971 he was posthumously awarded a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for his Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam, in 1977, the Presidential Medal of Freedom was posthumously awarded to King by President Jimmy Carter, In 1963, he was named Time Person of the Year, and in 2000, he was voted sixth in an online "Person of the Century" poll by the same magazine.
Martin’s most popular activity is his leading role in helping Rosa Parks. In Alabama, a bus driver ordered her to give her seat in the colored section of a bus to a white male passenger. Rosa refused to obey bus driver and was fined $10 plus court costs ($4) for violating a city ordinance. After she was arrested, the NAACP organized a bus boycott in support of Rosa and racial equality. The bus boycott demonstrated the power of nonviolent mass protest and brought Dr. Martin Luther King to national attention as one of the leaders of the cause. Because he was young, well-trained with solid family connections, King led the boycott which continued for 381 days! Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the segregation laws in Alabama were unconstitutional.
Martin married Corretta on June 18, 1953. With relationship with her, he had four children: Youlanda Denise King, Martin Luther III, Dexter Scott Kink and Bernice Albertine King.
Kings last protest march was a gathering of striking garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was shot dead. He was there on April 4, 1968. He assassinated in April 1968. The Lorraine Hotel, where he was shot, is now the National Civil Rights Museum. And his birthday, January 15, is recognized as a national holiday. King’s wife, Corrette, died at the age of 78 on January 31, 2006. She stayed being widow of Martin for more than 40 years.
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