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We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s January birthday as a federal holiday every year.
Here are a few bits of knowledge about the renowned civil rights leader (from the Williamson Source website):
• His birth name was Michael, not Martin. King’s father, a Baptist pastor, became inspired by Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther after traveling to Germany. As a result, King Sr. changed his own name, as well as that of his 5-year-old son.
• He entered college at 15. King skipped grades nine and 12 and enrolled in Morehouse College in 1944.
• Initially he didn’t plan to follow his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather into the ministry, until Morehouse president Benjamin E. Mays persuaded him otherwise.
• King was not always a great speaker. He got a C in public speaking in a seminary school class. However, in his final year he got straight A’s and graduated as valedictorian.
• “I have a dream” was improvised in 1963. A draft of the speech prepared by Clarence B. Jones didn’t include the “dream” language, and the speech wasn’t even finalized until about 12 hours before delivery. King said that singer Mahalia Jackson urged him to speak about his “dream,” which he had used earlier in a speech in Detroit.
• King was the youngest Nobel Prize winner at the time. When he accepted the prize in 1964, he was 35 years old. Today the youngest winner on record is Malala Yousafzai, who was 17 when she won the prize in 2014.