Surname 1
Name
Professor
Course
Martin Luther King Jr.
Childhood and Family Background
Martin Luther King Jr. was the second born in a family of three children. He was born on
15 January 1969 in the house of his maternal grandparents in Auburn Avenue, Atlanta state of
Georgia. He was born as Michael, after his father’s name, but both later changed their names to
Martin. Kings Jr. Grandfather on the paternal side was called James Albert King and worked in a
nearby town as a sharecropper who like other fellow sharecropper did a lot of work and earned
little. King, Sr., king, Jr. father was the second born of ten children in the family and had limited
education having attained sixth grade.
At a tender age of sixteen years, King Sr. left town Stockbridge for Atlanta with only a
pair of shoes. While in Atlanta, he did odd jobs and went to school while he gradually developed
a reputation that saw him become a preacher. As he preached in two of Atlanta’s small churches,
he met Christine William, his future wife, and King Jr.’s mother. She had studied in Atlanta’s
Spellman College and Huffton Institute in Virginia and had gone back to Atlanta to work as the
teacher after her graduation. Her father was a reverend in one of the well-established churches in
Atlanta (the Ebenezer Baptist Church) (Kirk 23)
After taking their vows, the couple moved to William’s home in Auburn Avenue Street
which was the African American business district. After living together for a while, reverend
Surname 2
asked King Jr. to serve in the Ebenezer church as assistant pastor, an offer he willingly accepted.
After the demise of the senior pastor in 1931 after a heart attack prompted King Jr. to assume his
responsibilities as the senior pastor.
King, Jr. together with his siblings were born and raised in a middle-class family that was
financially stable enabling them to obtain better education compared to average children of their
race. King, Jr. recognized that privilege and made him choose a life of social protest making sure
that the opportunities he had enjoyed while growing extended to people of his race. King, Jr.
emulated his courageous father who was part of the local chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). King, Sr. had been involved in the successful
campaign that demanded equal salaries for both black and white teachers in Atlanta (Kirk 54).
