Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the son and grandson of Baptist ministers, was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia.  He was educated in Atlanta public schools, and at age fifteen, entered Morehouse College where he earned a baccalaureate degree in sociology in 1948. He was licensed and ordained as a minister of the Gospel and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, while also attending the University of Pennsylvania.

The world remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., best for his efforts to eradicate racism and segregation, and for his philosophy of nonviolence. However, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was an erudite Baptist minister, a devoted father and husband, a man of great faith, a visionary, philsopher, theologian, teacher, dynamic and charismatic civil rights leader, a martyr, a pioneer, and the social conscience of the nation during some of its darkest hours. His vision of world peace, the brotherhood of mankind, and racial equality, conflicted with the social order of this nation, particularly given the dehumanizing status and treatment to which African Americans have been subjected throughout America's history. His views, principles, beliefs and deeds pricked the social consciousness of the country at the heart of its hypocrisy. Dr. King's fight for freedom took him from Montgomery to Selma and through boycotts, sit-ins, marches, and rallies to the Nobel Peace Prize. The principles he espoused and his dream of a higher and better world social order - "The Beloved Community" - have been kept alive by the indelible mark of his life on the soul of this nation.

Excerpt courtesy of the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Commission.  To learn more, visit http://mlkcommission.dls.virginia.gov/mlk/mlk_bio.html