1929 - 1968

His grandparents, Jennie Celeste and Reverend (A.D.) Adam Daniel Williams built Ebenezer Baptist church from the ground up. A.D. was also a founder of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP. His father, Martin Luther King, Sr. was an early civil rights leader who succeeded Williams as Ebenezer’s pastor.

King’s father was the great moving factor in Martin Jr’s. decision to become a minister. In 1948, he received his bachelor of arts in sociology from Morehouse College and was ordained and appointed associate pastor at Ebenezer. Three years later he graduated from Crozer with a bachelor of divinity degree, as valedictorian and student body president. In 1953 he married Coretta Scott. Two years later, King received his doctorate in systematic theology.

In 1955, five days after Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to obey the city’s policy of segregation on buses, King was elected president of the Mont-gomery Improvement Association and thrown into the national spotlight regarding their boycot. In December of 1956, the United States Supreme Court declared Alabama’s segregation laws unconstitutional.

The late 1950’s and early 1960’s ushered in a series of speeches throughout the nation on the social changes that were needed throughout America.

King spent his Easter weekend of 1963 in jail for refusing to end a demonstration on racial segregation and discrimination. While in solitary confinement he responded to a letter written by eight leading clergymen from his Birmingham City jail cell where he courageously stated, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963, King delivered his eloquent “I Have a Dream” oratory to over 250,000 supporters. His passionate message said it all. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

Fame and accolades followed in 1964 as King was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year and was awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

King’s non-violent speeches, marches, protests, boycotts and demonstrations helped create an awareness for social change throughout the nation that eventually lead Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

On April 4, 1968 King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The bullet cut short the life of one great man, but will never cut short the seeds he planted in his unstoppable dream for a better America.

The epitaph on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s., tombstone reads, “Free at last; free at last; thank God Almighty I’m free at last.”