Martin Luther King Jr. Essay
by Alexis Yepez-Perez
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta,Georgia at January 15,1929.His real name was Michael Luther King Jr.,but later he had his name changed to Martin.He has a older sister,Christine King Farris,and a younger brother,Alfred Daniel Williams King.Martin Luther graduated from high school at the age of 15 and received a degree in 1948 from Morehouse College.While in Boston he met Coretta Scott,a young singer from Alabama.They both married in 1953 and they both drove to Montgomery,Alabama.
White and colored people didn’t get along with each other,every white person hated the colored & so did the colored people.The white people had more control than the colored people.On December 1,1955,Rosa Parks,secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus & she was arrested.During these days of boycott,Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and his home was bombed.Many colored people wanted to fight back but king said it is wrong to fight.
Martin Luther King Jr. worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to start the March on Washington and for freedom.200,000 to 300,000 people participated in the event of the history of the American civil rights movement.At that moment,Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out his“I Have A Dream” speech at Washington on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.His speech has spread all over the world like a pack of lions listening to the roar of their king.Later that year,he was Man of the Year.In 1964,he became the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
James Earl Ray came from a poor family in Alton,Illinois.In 1949,he was caught breaking in someone’s home in California.In 1959,he was caught stealing $120 in a store and was in prison for 20 years.After he went out of prison,he drove to Atlanta,Georgia.In his mail,he found a newspaper about Martin Luther King Jr..The paper said that Martin Luther King Jr. planned to return to Memphis,Tennessee, which was scheduled for April 1,1968.He shot Martin Luther King Jr. at the neck with a single rifle shot.
On the evening of April 4,1968,Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis.In 1968,King’s Assassination had spreaded all over the world.The person who assassinated Martin was James Earl Ray.Months later,he was caught in a airport in London using a false name for the passport.After the arrest, people who cared about Martin took him and buried him under the memorial of him.The location of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial is in Washington DC. near Lincoln Memorial.In 1983,after years of thinking,President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr..In 1986,Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday was first celebrated.He has succeeded to make the world a better place.