Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther king Jr's birthday was first observed as a national holiday in 1986. However, I researched that his life had become a fixed part of American mythology for years before that. Indeed, to many African Americans whose rights he helped expand, to many other minorities whose lives his victories touched, and to many whites who welcomed the changes his leadership brought, King's life seemed fabulous even as he lived it. He is celebrated as a hero not only for the concrete legislation he enabled, but also for his expression of dreams and hopes shared by many during an era of disruption and change.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in his maternal grandparents' large Victorian house on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the second of three children, and was first named Michael, after his father. They both changed their names to Martin.
As a child, King's encounters with racial discrimination were mild but formative. The first significant one came when h...