20 Interesting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Facts
1) His name was originally Michael, not Martin. His father was also
Michael
King, hence why Martin Luther King Jr. was originally named Michael King
Jr.
However, after a trip to Germany in 1931; Michael King Sr. changed his own
name in homage to historic German theologian Martin Luther. Michael King
Jr. was two years old at the time and King Sr. made the decision to change
his son's name to Martin Luther as well.
2) At the age of 12, he seems to have tried to commit suicide. It was May
of 1941 when his grandmother passed away after a heart attack. At the time
of this event, King Jr. was off disobeying his parents by going to watch a
parade when they told him not too. When he came home and learned his
grandmother had died, he went upstairs and jumped from the second story
window of his house.
3) King wasn't the only one to die at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on
April
4, 1968. After he was killed, one of the hotel workers, Lorraine Bailey
(who was also the wife of the motel owner and who it was named after),
upon
seeing King get shot, had a heart attack and later died from this. This
was
partially why there was such a delay in getting an ambulance as Lorraine
was
also the switchboard operator and so when Reverend Samuel Kyles attempted
to
call an ambulance using the phone in the motel room, nobody was at the
switchboard to make that happen. In Reverend Kyle's own words,
"I ran into the room and picked up the phone to call an operator or to
call
an ambulance. But, the operator had left the switchboard. There was nobody
on the switchboard. I was saying, "Answer the phone, answer the phone,
and answer the phone." And there was nobody on the switchboard. So the
phone
was not answered. (I learned later that the operator had gone out into the
courtyard to watch Dr. King. When she saw what happened, she had a heart
attack. She was the motel owner's wife, and she died subsequently.) The
police were coming with their guns drawn, and I hollered to the police,
"Call an ambulance on your police radio. Dr. King has been shot." They
said,
"Where did the shot come from?". While waiting for the ambulance to come,
I
took a spread from one of the beds and covered him from his neck down. . I
cannot tell you the feelings I had seeing my friend there on that balcony
bleeding to death. Finally the ambulance came and took him away.
4) Also on the day King was killed, he was out on the balcony for a smoke.
While you'll be hard pressed to find a picture of him smoking, he smoked
regularly, though had a habit of hiding this partially due to the stigma,
particularly within the church at the time, but also because he didn't
want
his kids to take up smoking, and so didn't like pictures of himself doing
it, nor did he like to smoke when they were around. According to Reverend
Kyles, after King was shot but before he was taken away by the ambulance,
Kyles removed the package of cigarettes from King's pocket and got rid of
the cigarette butt, partially to attempt to hide the fact that King was
smoking at the time he was shot.
5) Martin Luther King Jr. was nearly assassinated a decade earlier than
his
ultimate death. While on a book tour, signing copies of his book Stride
Toward Freedom, on September 20, 1958, King was approached by Izola Ware
Curry who asked him if he was Martin Luther King Jr., which he of course
replied affirmatively. When he said he was, she said "I've been looking
for
you for five years." She then pulled out a letter opener and stabbed him
in
the chest.
It took three full hours to remove the blade. The reason? The sharp point
end of the blade was pressing against his aorta and the doctors had to be
extremely careful while removing it because of this. The doctor, Dr.
Maynard, told him after, "If you had sneezed during all those hours of
waiting, your aorta would have been punctured and you would have drowned
in
your own blood."
6) King Jr. skipped two grades in high school, 9th and 11th, and entered
college (Moorehouse College) at the tender age of 15 in 1944. By 19, he
received a bachelor's degree in sociology.
7) He almost didn't become a minister. After graduating from college, he
still had serious doubts about Christianity and the Bible and told his
father (who was a Baptist minister, as his grandfather had also been) that
he didn't want to be a minister and instead was considering becoming a
doctor or a lawyer. He later decided that the Bible had "many profound
truths which one cannot escape" and chose to become a minister, entering
seminary at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He graduated with
his PhD at the age of 25.
8) Although King today is often remembered as being an amazing public
speaker, he got a C in public speaking during his first year at seminary.
This likely isn't because he was actually bad at public speaking at this
point. His father noted that even before going to seminary King Jr. was
one
of the best public speakers he'd seen. Whatever caused his professor to
give him a C, by his final year King had straight A's, was the
valedictorian
of his class, and the student body president.
9) His honeymoon was spent at a funeral parlor. Not because someone died,
simply because a friend owned the parlor and offered to let him use it for
his honeymoon.
10) King convinced "Uhura" on Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols (who
incidentally
later went on to work for NASA), to continue on with the role after the
first season. Nichols stated he told her not to leave the show because she
was not only playing a black person as a main character on TV, but she was
also playing a character that didn't conform to the stereotypical black
person of the day, usually portrayed. Rather, Uhura was portrayed as an
intelligent member of the crew and an equal to those around her.
This seems to have had the intended effect. Whoopi Goldberg once stated
when she first saw the character of Uhura on TV, she said "Momma! There's
a
black lady on TV, and she ain't no maid!" It was partially because of this
that Goldberg became a huge Star Trek fan and later pushed so hard to get
a
character on Star Trek the Next Generation, despite the disbelief of the
producers that she'd actually want to be on the show.
Astronaut Ronald McNair, the second black person in space (who also died
in
the Challenger explosion), was inspired to become an astronaut because of
the character of Uhura. McNair's brother stated, Now, Star Trek showed
the future where there were black folk and white folk working together. I
just looked at it as science fiction, 'cause that wasn't going to happen,
really.' But Ronald saw it as science possibility. He came up during a
time
when there was Neil Armstrong and all of those guys; so how was a colored
boy from South Carolina - wearing glasses, never flew a plane - how was he
gonna become an astronaut? But Ron was one who didn't accept societal
norms
as being his norm, you know? That was for other people. And he got to be
aboard his own Starship Enterprise."
11) King is to date the youngest male to win a Nobel Peace Prize, winning
it
in 1964 at the age of 35 (at the time he was the youngest overall for the
Peace Prize). The youngest ever to win the Peace prize today is Tawakkol
Karman of Yemen who was just 32 when she won the prize in 2011.
12) King donated all of the $54,123 (about $400,000 today) he received for
his Nobel Peace Prize to the Civil Rights movement. During his acceptance
speech, he stated "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love
will
have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is
stronger than evil triumphant."
13) King won a Grammy and was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal and a
Medal
of Freedom. The Medal of Freedom and the Gold Medal make sense, but how on
Earth did he win a Grammy, you say? He won it in 1971 for Best Spoken Word
Album for "Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam".
14) His house was once bombed. This was during the Montgomery Bus Boycott,
which lasted a total of 385 days.
15) His mother, Alberta Williams King, was also murdered. She was killed
while attending church in Atlanta in 1974 by a 23 year old man, Marcus
Wayne
Chenault, who believed "all Christians are my enemies". He shot and killed
her while she was playing organ at the church.
16) King Jr.'s autopsy revealed that stress had taken a major toll on his
body. Despite being just 39 at the time of his death, one of the doctors
noted that he had "the heart of a 60 year old".
17) It wasn't until the year 2000 that all 50 states officially observed
Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The last states to join up were Arizona in
1992, New Hampshire in 1999, and Utah in 2000. The holiday itself was
originally signed into federal law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983,
with
the first MLK holiday on January 20, 1986.
18) His "I Have a Dream" speech painted an even bigger target before on
his
back, not just with certain people in the general public, but with the
FBI.
This was a memo circulated throughout the FBI offices after the speech:
In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands heads
and shoulders over all other Negro leaders put together when it comes to
influencing great masses of Negros. We must mark him now, if we have not
done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation
from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security.
The FBI later discovered King was supposedly having numerous affairs and
sent him various anonymous letters stating such things as "You are a
colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that" and threatening to
blackmail him. In another anonymous letter supposedly from the FBI, they
stated, The American public, the church organizations that have been
helping-Protestants, Catholics and Jews will know you for what you are-an
evil beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done. King, there
is
only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34
days in which to do (this exact number has been selected for a specific
reason, it has definite practical significant). You are done. There is but
one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy fraudulent self
is bared to the nation.
Many of the FBI's surveillance records, written and audio records,
concerning King are currently held in the National Archives, but are
sealed
from public access until 2027.
19) There are only two other people in American history that have a
national
holiday in their honor, George Washington and Christopher Columbus. As
such, Martin Luther King Jr. is the only native born United States citizen
to have a national holiday in his honor. (*note: While Washington was born
in Virginia, obviously the United States did not yet exist. For reference,
the first President to be born in the country of the United States was
Martin Van Buren. He was also the first President not of Irish or British
ancestry- his ancestors were Dutch.)
20) Today over 700 streets in the United States are named after Martin
Luther King Jr., with one such street in almost every major city. This is
not even counting the amazing number of buildings, schools, and the like
named after him.
I'll end this post with the following quote from the great Dr. Martin
Luther
King Jr. on non-violent resistance:
Non-violent resistance is not for cowards. It is not a quiet, passive
acceptance of evil. One is passive and non-violent physically, but very
active spiritually, always seeking ways to persuade the opponent of
advantages to the way of love, cooperation, and peace.
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