Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was one of the most prominent leaders of America's Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 60s. His words and actions have left a lasting mark on America and the world as a whole, with a powerful legacy that is as undeniable as it is inspiring. These 30+ facts about Martin Luther King, Jr. help us learn more about this incredible man. Dr. King had been a part of the civil rights movement for about a decade by the time the Civil Rights Act (forbidding segregation in businesses and public places, and making discriminatory practices in employment illegal) was passed on July 2, 1964. Born and raised in Georgia, he attended segregated schools. Growing up, he attended Ebenezer Baptist Church, where his grandfather and then his father served as pastors (his great-grandfather had been a pastor as well but at a different church). Dr. King himself served as associate pastor of Ebenezer starting in 1960. Also, like his father, he served on the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Sadly, his work as a non-violent civil rights activist was cut short when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday of January each year Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday. This year, the observance takes place on Monday, January 20, 2025. Those are some of the basic MLK facts, but keep reading for more Martin Luther King, Jr. trivia! These Dr. King facts for kids and adults help us all as we celebrate and honor his lasting legacy. Related: 55 Famous Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes for MLK Day
Fascinating Martin Luther King, Jr. Facts That You Probably Didn't Know
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2. Dr. King's father traveled to Germany in 1929 and became inspired by Martin Luther, a Protestant Reformation leader. So much so that he changed both his first name and his five-year-old son's name, from Michael to Martin, also adding Luther as a middle name.
3. Dr. King graduated from high school at the age of 15. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College (like his grandfather and father). In 1951, he was awarded a Bachelor of Divinity from Pennsylvania's Crozer Theological Seminary. He received a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955.
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6. Both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were influenced by Henry David Thoreau, a 19th-century American essayist and philosopher who wrote about his philosophy of civil disobedience in a popular essay, "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."
8. The Kings had four children: Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter and Bernice.
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11. Upon his death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's remains were carried in a farm wagon drawn by mules to Southview Cemetery—the oldest African-American cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1970, Dr. King's remains were removed from Southview Cemetery, and placed in a family crypt, faced with Georgia marble, at the King Center.
13. Beginning in 2001, Ebenezer Baptist Church's sanctuary and fellowship hall were restored to their style from the 1960's period.
15. Six years before his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington, Dr. King gave another speech at the Lincoln Memorial. He joined other civil rights leaders at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom on May 17, 1957, and spoke then.
17. Not quite a year later, on April 12, 1963, he was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. While there, he wrote the historic "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
19. Eventually, Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was published as a pamphlet distributed by the American Friends Service Committee.
21. William Fitts Ryan (D-NY) introduced the letter before Congress as testimony, and it was published in the Congressional Record.
23. The bulk of Dr. King's civil rights work occurred over an 11-year period. During that time, he traveled over six million miles, gave more than twenty-five hundred talks or speeches, and wrote five books, as well as numerous articles.
25. One of the most famous lines from this speech, drawn from material he'd used over the years in various sermons and speeches, is this: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
27. The Nobel Prize money amounted to $54,123, which King donated to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
29. Malcolm X, another civil rights leader at the time who called for a more militant approach to achieve equality, met with Martin Luther King, Jr. only one time (in Washington D.C. on March 26, 1964). The meeting was a short one, and less than a year later, Malcolm X was assassinated.
30. Martin Luther King, Jr. held meetings with three U.S. Presidents; Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
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