Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — Civil Rights Leader

Intro

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in nonviolent resistance as the path to gaining equal rights for Black Americans. He stood by this principle through many setbacks, always guiding with words of friendship, understanding, and unity. And as a result, his leadership in the Civil Rights movement helped steer a nation’s conscience, moving equal rights closer to the ideals the U.S. was founded on.

Upbringing

Martin was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15th, 1929. He described the community of his upbringing as wholesome and religious, average in income, and one of little crime. Yet even there, he experienced racism at a young age. When Martin was about six years old, the father of a white playmate refused to let the children continue a friendship because of their different races.

Martin’s parents helped the young boy cope with such experiences. “My mother confronted the age-old problem of the Negro parent in America: how to explain discrimination and segregation to a small child…Then she said the words that almost every Negro hears before he can yet understand the injustice that makes them necessary: ‘You are as good as anyone,’” Martin wrote.