Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend and Mrs. Martin Luther King Sr. King Jr. had a strong religious background from the very start. He was the grandson of the Reverend A. D. Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church, and a founder of Atlanta’s NAACP chapter. Sr. succeeded Williams as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church and, later, was active as a civil rights leader as well. Even though Martin Jr. questioned literal interpretation of scripture and resented religious emotionalism, King still admired black social gospel lea

The first protest involving King was in 1955, when a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus for a white passenger. King was the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, and was convicted along with the other boycott leaders for conspiring to interfere with the bus company’s operations. During this time, King gained attention and national prominence for his great public speaking ability and his courage. In December of 1956, after 381 days of boycotting, the United States Supreme Court said that the segregation laws in Alabama were unconstitutional (Carson 2). Victory was theirs. It was progress, but not success. The first step of a long journey had been made to gain equality in a country trying to suppress the movement in any way.

King maintained his path toward racial equality throughout difficult times. King had been attacked on several occasions. His house and church had been bombed, he was stabbed in the chest at a book signing, stoned and beaten on several occasions, not to mention verbal slurs and attacks. These things were not enough to stop King. He felt that the importance of the marches and demonstrations were more important than his own personal safety. He understood that the marches would make TV news casts all over the world and people would see the brutality by police and other white citizens (Stephanie 5).

During the next few years, King was jailed several times for crimes ranging from, “obstructing the sidewalk,” to, “failing to obey an officer” (Carson 2). King’s persistence was incredible. His strong and steady pursuit of equality kept him going from one protest to another. The March on Washington, on August

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