Martin Luther King, Jr. was an influential leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929, King grew up in comfortable family circumstances. His father was a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church who helped shape his son’s religious convictions. King was protected from many of the realities of racism and segregation in the South during his childhood. However, as King grew up, this reality became unavoidable, and his early experiences with discrimination had a profound effect upon him. When he became angry at this inequality, his parents always advised him “that he should not hate” (33) and instilled values of self-worth and compassion in their son. 

King enrolled in college at just 15 years old, and by the time he was 19, he had graduated and been ordained as a minister at his father’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. He received his Ph.D. in theology in 1955. He married Coretta King, and the couple went on to have several children.

King’s involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott catapulted him onto the national stage. His commitment to nonviolent methods characterized his leadership of the civil rights movement. This was a controversial stance even within the movement, as many Black people became impatient with the movement’s slow progress and wanted to fight back against the endless tide of violence they faced.