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TITLES
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born and raised in
Atlanta, Georgia. He studied to become a minister and
inspired many people with his words. King’s dedication to
civil rights and his peaceful protests were the major force
in the desegregation of the U.S. Find out how his peaceful
means made such important changes in our society. See
how he sacrificed everything in the name of equality.
2 0 T H C E N T U RY B I O G R A P H I E S • M A RT I N LU T H E R K I N G J R .
Cesar Chavez
Albert Einstein
Anne Frank
Mahatma Gandhi
Helen Keller
Martin Luther King Jr.
Charles Lindbergh
Rosa Parks
Jackie Robinson
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
S A D D L E B A C K E D U C AT I O N A L P U B L I S H I N G
20th CENTURY BIOGRAPHIES
20th CENTURY BIOGRAPHIES
MARTIN
LUTHER
KINGJR.
HIS
PEACEFUL
PROTESTS
CHANGED
A NATION
SCHRAFF
BY ANNE SCHRAFF
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Development: Kent Publishing Services, Inc.
Design and Production: Signature Design Group, Inc.
SADDLEBACK EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING
Three Watson
Irvine, CA 92618-2767
Web site: www.sdlback.com
Photo Credits: page 14, Flip Schukle/Black Star; page 50,
Black Star Photos; page 56, Library of Congress/National
Archives
Copyright © 2008 by Saddleback Educational Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without the written permission
of the publisher.
ISBN-10: 1-59905-251-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-59905-251-9
eBook:
978-1-60291-612-8
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 10 09 08 07
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TABLE
Page 3
OF
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
.....................4
Chapter 2
.....................9
Chapter 3
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 4
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Chapter 6
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 7
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Chapter 8
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 9
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Bibliography
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
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A
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E
R
1
By the 1950s, African Americans who
lived in the South were segregated in
many ways. They had to ride in the back
of buses and sit in the rear of theaters.
Hotels and restaurants refused service.
African Americans of Montgomery,
Alabama, boycotted their segregated
bus system. A young minister, Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr., led them.
King led a peaceful struggle for civil
rights. He endured beatings and
imprisonment. But he insisted on non4
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violence. King succeeded in making all
of America a more just society.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in
Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929.
His father, Martin Luther King Sr. was
the assistant pastor of Ebenezer Baptist
Church. A former sharecropper, King
Sr. was a tough, strong man. The new
baby was very healthy and was
nicknamed M.L.
M.L.’s mother was Alberta Williams, a
well educated and gentle woman. The
Kings had three children. Willie
Christina was older than M.L., and
Alfred Daniel was younger. The family
lived a happy life in a middle class, black
neighborhood in Atlanta.
M.L. enjoyed playing baseball and
flying kites with his friends. He rode his
bicycle all around the neighborhood.
Sometimes he went sliding down the
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banister of the family’s two story house.
M.L.’s grandmother on his mother’s
side, Grandma Williams, was very close
to M.L. She told the children stories
and always supported them when they
had problems.
When M.L. was a small boy, he was
riding in the automobile with his father.
Then, something happened that he never
forgot. A white police officer pulled the
car over for going through a stop sign.
The police officer came to the
window. He called M.L.’s father “boy,”
even though he was a grown man.
M.L.’s father told the officer to treat
him with the respect he deserved. M.L.
was very proud of his father for standing
up to the white officer.
By the age of five, M.L. had a
wonderful memory. He could recite
long passages from the Bible. At six,
6