Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. With 30 Fascinating Facts About the Civil Rights Icon

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was one of the most prominent leaders of America's Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s. His words and actions have left a lasting mark on America and the world as a whole, with a powerful legacy that is as undeniable as it is inspiring. These 30 facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. help us learn more about this incredible man.

Dr. King had been a part of the civil rights movement for about a decade by the time the Civil Rights Act (forbidding segregation in businesses and public places, and making discriminatory practices in employment illegal) was passed on July 2, 1964. Born and raised in Georgia, he attended segregated schools. Growing up, he attended Ebenezer Baptist Church, where his grandfather and then his father, served as pastors (his great-grandfather had been a pastor as well, but at a different church). Dr. King himself served as associate pastor of Ebenezer starting in 1960. Also like his father, he served on the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His work as a non-violent civil rights activist was cut short when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.

And in 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday of January of each year would be Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday. This year, the observance takes place on Monday, January 16, 2023. Those are some of the basic MLK facts, but keep reading for more Martin Luther King, Jr. trivia! These Dr. King facts for kids and adults help us all as we celebrate and honor his lasting legacy.

Related: 55 Famous Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes for MLK Day

30 Fascinating Martin Luther King, Jr. Facts

1. Guests can tour the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr. at 501 Auburn Avenue, located in Atlanta's "Sweet Auburn" residential section. This was the home of his maternal grandparents, and he lived there for the first twelve years of his life.

2. Dr. King's father traveled to Germany in 1929, and became inspired by Martin Luther, a Protestant Reformation leader. So much so that he changed both his first name and his five-year-old son's name, from Michael to Martin, also adding Luther as a middle name.

Related: The Vintage Recipe That Was One of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Favorite Desserts

3. Dr. King graduated from high school at the age of 15. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College (like his grandfather and father). In 1951, he was awarded a Bachelor of Divinity from Pennsylvania’s Crozer Theological Seminary. He received a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955.

4. Dr. King held two pastorates. While finishing his doctoral dissertation, he was appointed pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He resigned from this role in 1960, in order to dedicate more of his time to civil rights. He remained a local pastor by partnering with his father at the church of his childhood, Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta.

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5. Mahatma Gandhi, who fought for Indian independence from British rule using nonviolent methods, had a great influence on Dr. King. He visited India in 1959, eleven years after Gandhi was assassinated, and wrote a short story about that trip, entitled "My Trip to the Land of Gandhi."

6. Both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were influenced by Henry David Thoreau, a 19th-century American essayist and philosopher who wrote about his philosophy of civil disobedience in a popular essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."

7. On June 18, 1953, Dr. King married Coretta Scott on the lawn of her mother's home in Marion, Alabama. They met through a mutual friend the year prior, and were married for 15 years.

8. The Kings had four children: Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter and Bernice.

9. Coretta Scott King opened the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in the basement of their home just two months after her husband's assassination.

Related: Learn About Racial Activist, Coretta Scott King

9. Eventually, this organization became the King Center, and moved to its own campus east of Ebenezer Baptist Church.

10. Upon his death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's remains were carried in a farm wagon drawn by mules to Southview Cemetery—the oldest African-American cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1970, Dr. King’s remains were removed from Southview Cemetery, and placed in a family crypt, faced with Georgia marble, at the King Center. 

11. The King Center added an Eternal Flame, symbolizing Dr. King's dream of the "Beloved Community," in 1977.

12. Beginning in 2001, Ebenezer Baptist Church's sanctuary and fellowship hall were restored to their style from the 1960's period.

13. Visitors to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Park, in Atlanta, Georgia, can tour a visitor's center, the DREAM gallery, the BEHOLD monument, Dr. King's birthplace, Ebenezer Baptist Church's "Heritage Sanctuary", the "I Have a Dream" world peace rose garden, the historic Fire Station No. 6, and the King Center.

14. Six years before his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington, Dr. King gave another speech at the Lincoln Memorial. He joined other civil rights leaders at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom on May 17, 1957, and spoke then.

15. Dr. King was arrested at least thirty times—mostly for his involvement with various civil rights actions. For example, he was arrested and jailed on July 27, 1962, for holding a prayer vigil in Albany, Georgia.

16. Not quite a year later, on April 12, 1963, he was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. While there, he wrote the historic “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

17. The original recipients of this Birmingham jail letter were eight white Alabama clergymen, who had "A Call for Unity," a statement made against Dr. King and his methods, smuggled into the jail.

18. Eventually, Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was published as a pamphlet distributed by the American Friends Service Committee.

19. Magazines such as Christian Century, Christian and Crisis, the New York Post, and Ebony, published the "Letter from Birmingham" in articles as well.

20. William Fitts Ryan (D-NY) introduced the letter before Congress as testimony, and it was published in the Congressional Record.

21. Finally, in 1964, Dr. King revised the letter and it became a chapter in his memoir, Why We Can't Wait, written about the Birmingham events.

22. The bulk of Dr. King's civil rights work occurred during an 11-year period. During that time, he traveled over six million miles, gave more than twenty-five hundred talks or speeches, and wrote five books, as well as numerous articles.

23. On August 28, 1963, before more than 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., King gave perhaps his most famous speech, "I Have A Dream." Each speaker was allotted fifteen minutes, but King's landmark statement on civil rights in America emerged as timeless.

24. One of the most famous lines from this speech, drawn from material he'd used over the years in various sermons and speeches, is this: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

25. In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population." At the age of 35, he was, at the time, the youngest man to ever receive this honor.

26. The Nobel Prize money amounted to $54,123, which King donated to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

27. King first appeared on the cover of Time Magazine on February 18, 1957, for his role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Since then, he has been on the cover at least twenty times.

28. Malcolm X, another civil rights leader at the time who called for a more militant approach to achieve equality, met with Martin Luther King, Jr. only one time (in Washington D.C. on March 26, 1964). The meeting was a short one, and less than a year later, Malcolm X was assassinated.

Related: 55 of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Most Inspiring Motivational Quotes

29. Martin Luther King, Jr. held meetings with three U.S. Presidents; Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

30. In April 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis, Tennessee, showing support for the city's sanitation strike. The night before he died, he delivered the following words in his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple Church: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

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