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The King in the Making
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Martin Luther King Jr was one of the world’s most distinguished
advocates of social reforms through non-violent means. The boy born
in Atlanta on January 15, 1929 was named Michael Luther King Jr
but was later changed to Martin. He was the first son and second
child born to the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr and Alberta Williams
King. Martin’s roots were in the African-American Baptist church.
He was the grandson of the Rev A D Williams, pastor of Ebenezer
Baptist church and a founder of Atlanta’s NAACP (National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People) chapter. His father succeeded
Williams as Ebenezer’s pastor and also became a civil rights
leader.
America was on the verge of the Great Depression at the time of
Martin’s birth. The depression was to slow down the economy
with rising unemployment, high inflation, and non-availability of
food for all. Martin was five years old when he was moved by seeing
people standing in breadlines. The starvation and unavailability
of primary requirements of life touched the little boy. This and
similar incidents stilled anti-capitalist feelings in him as he
grew old. 
Martin’s mother had to meet head on the discrimination
and seclusion of Negro community in America. She found it difficult
to explain this segregation to a small child. She cultivated in
him a feeling of self-esteem and made him realize that he had to
face a system that based its tradition on inequality and racial
discrimination. She educated him about slavery and how it ended
with the Civil War. She explained the divided system of the South
– the segregated schools, restaurants, theaters, housing, the
white and colored signs on drinking fountains, waiting rooms, lavatories
– as a social condition rather than a natural order. She inculcated
a sense of opposition to this system in King’s mind –
“You are as good as anyone.” The mother, then, perhaps
had no idea that her son would once lead a movement against the
inhumane system. His parents taught him not to hate the white, for
it was his duty as a Christian to love all. He questioned this approach.
It was incomprehensive as to how could he love a race that disliked
him. He was a loner as a child. Always lost in his own world of
thoughts and contemplating over the happenings around, he couldn’t
make many childhood friends.
| He grew up nauseating not only segregation but also the barbaric acts committed, which had become a regular feature. He saw police brutally dealing with the Blacks, and watched Negroes receive the most tragic injustice of the courts. An organization known as the Ku Klux Klan stood on white supremacy, and it used violent methods to preserve apartheid to make Negroes realize their value and place. He passed spots where Negroes had been savagely lynched. These and similar incidents created a deep influence on his personality. |
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He also learnt that racial injustice and economic injustice were
inseparable twins. Although he came from an economically secured
home, he would be worried of the economic insecurity of the Blacks
and the distressing poverty of those living around him. He had his
share of firsthand experience of injustice, when during his late
teens, he worked two summers in a plant that hired both Negroes
and whites. To his stark realization the poor white was exploited
just as much as the Negro. He learnt about a variety of injustices
prevailing in the American society.
Boyhood
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Martin appeared to be non-religious though in the real sense
he wasn’t. He grew up in the church. His father was a preacher,
his grandfather was a preacher, his great-grandfather was also a
preacher, his only brother was a preacher, and his father’s
brother was a preacher too. However, he resented religious emotionalism
and questioned literal interpretations of scripture. Though he admired
black social gospel proponents and saw the church as an instrument
for improving the lives of African Americans.
He found the lessons taught in Sunday school to be fundamental
in nature. None of his teachers ever doubted the inconceivability
of the scriptures. He accepted the teachings as they were offered.
He accepted biblical studies without questioning them until he was
about 12 years old. But this uncritical attitude ceased to prolong
for long given the very nature of his personality. At 13, he startled
his Sunday school class by denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Doubt sprouted henceforth unceasingly.
Education
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His formal education began at the Yonge Street Elementary School
in Atlanta, Georgia; and next he enrolled in David T Howard Elementary
School. He was also a student at the Atlanta University Laboratory
School and Booker T Washington High School. Martin was an exceptionally
bright student and always excelled in his class. Due to his extraordinary
high score on the college entrance examinations in his junior year
of high school, at the age of 15, he enrolled in Morehouse College
without formal graduation from high school.
He earned his BA degree in Sociology in 1948. Same year, he enrolled
in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania as well
as studied at the University of Pennsylvania. Here too the glitter
of this diamond did not remain hidden for long, he won the Pearl
Plafker Award for the most outstanding student. He also received
the J Lewis Crozer fellowship for graduate study at a university
of his choice. He was elected president of the predominantly white
senior class and was honored to deliver the farewell address, providing
a glimpse of his oratorical skills. He was awarded a Bachelor of
Divinity degree from Crozer in 1951. In September, he began his
doctoral studies in Systematic Theology at Boston University. He
also studied for sometime at Harvard University. His dissertation,
“A Comparison of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry
Wieman,” was completed in 1955, and received a PhD degree,
Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology, on June 5, 1955.
Finding the Right Ideology
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Mahatma
Gandhi, the man behind India’s successful freedom
movement, and his theory of non-violence and equality for all races
had incredible influence on Martin. He believed Gandhi was the first
person in history to lift the love ethics of Jesus above mere interaction
between individuals as a powerful and effective social force on
a large scale. Love for Gandhi was a potent instrument for social
and collective transformation. It was in this Gandhian emphasis
on love and nonviolence that he discovered the method for social
reform that he sought. He said, “Gandhi was the guiding light
of our technique for nonviolent social change.” He appreciated
Gandhian philosophy and followed it till his last breath. To King,
Gandhi was an equally inspirational figure as was Jesus Christ a
motivational figure, “Christ furnished the spirit and motivation,
while Gandhi furnished the method.”
To Martin Luther King, nonviolence was not only a method for social
change, but also a positive way of life. He emphasized that it should
become a part of all personal relationships and way of life; in
whatever people do in homes, communities and political and business
life, the principle of nonviolence should be reflected. It should
be a permanent attitude that one practiced in everyday activity
like in the choice and tone of words, in body language and way of
thinking. This philosophy, once accepted and imbibed in him, always
remained the guiding principle of his life.
Marriage
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At Boston, he met Coretta Scott of Alabama and married her on
June 18, 1953. The ceremony took place on the lawn of the Scott’s
home in Marion. His father Rev King, Sr, performed the service.
The Kings had four children. Their first child, Yolanda Denise
was born on November 17, 1955; second was Martin Luther III, born
on October 23, 1957; followed by Dexter Scott on January 30, 1961;
and the youngest Bernice Albertine was born on March 28, 1963.
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