Martin Luther King – What You May Not Know
We all know who Martin Luther King, our nation’s most prominent civil rights activist, and iconic orator who took a stand on civil rights and dedicated 
his life to ending racial segregation, racial discrimination through non-violent civil disobedience.
4 days after King was assassinated Congressman and Democrat, John Conyers introduced legislation to name a holiday after this great man and his unrelenting work for the civil rights movement.
It took 15 years of petitions, boycotts and public pressure from the nation’s people before being signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
The holiday was supposed to be on King’s birthday, January 15, but it was deemed too close to Christmas, so it was agreed to be held on the third Monday in January.
Born Michael King, he changed his name to Martin Luther King Jr. after his father when he was a teenager.
At 14 years old, King graduated high school and went on to receive his B.A. from Moreouse Collage.
King received his Doctorate from Boston University in 1953.
King got his ideals from Christianity and the teachings of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
On August 28, 1963, King delivered his most famous speech, “I Have A Dream” at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.to 250,000 people.
The last paragraph of “I Have a Dream”
When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Today, let us all "have a dream" and take action for something we believe in the way Martin Luther King, Jr. did!
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