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The Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King Jr.

Early Life of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. His father, Martin Luther King Sr., was a Baptist minister and his mother, Alberta Williams King, was a school teacher. King was the middle child of three siblings. He grew up in a comfortable middle-class family and attended segregated schools in Georgia.

Education

King was a gifted student and skipped both the ninth and twelfth grades. He entered Morehouse College at the age of 15 and graduated with a degree in sociology. King went on to study theology at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and earned a doctorate in theology from Boston University.

Civil Rights Activism

During his years in college, King was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's principles of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience. King was arrested for the first time in 1955 while protesting against the segregation of buses in Montgomery, Alabama. This led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for over a year and ended with the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

Beliefs and Values

King's early life played an important role in shaping his beliefs and values. Growing up in a segregated society, he experienced racism and discrimination firsthand. His studies in theology and sociology, as well as his exposure to Mahatma Gandhi's teachings, provided him with a framework for his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. King's experiences in Montgomery, Alabama, and his leadership in the Montgomery Bus Boycott helped establish him as a national figure in the Civil Rights Movement.

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