King’s birth name was Michael. His father, inspired by the German Reformer, changed both their names. The boy was 5 years old.
“You will change your mind; You will change your looks; You will change your smile, laugh, and ways but no matter what you change, you will always be you.”
He skipped 9th and 11th grades, entered Morehouse College at the age of 15, and received a bachelor’s degree in sociology at age 19.
The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’
Elected student body president at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, he graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1951. (He got a C in public speaking his first year.)
“Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.”
King received his doctorate in systematic theology in 1955, aged 25.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
No hotel in Marion, Alabama, would welcome a newly-wed black couple, so Martin and Coretta spent their honeymoon in a funeral parlor’s guest room.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
King was imprisoned nearly 30 times.
“The time is always right to do the right thing.”
King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at the age of 35.
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
Stress took a major toll on King’s body. Despite being only 39 when he died, one of his doctors noted that he had “the heart of a 60 year old”.
“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
Although over 700 streets in the Unites States are named for him (one in almost every major city), it wasn’t until 2000 that all 50 states officially observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Have a thoughtful, peace-filled Martin Luther King Jr Day.