41 Facts About Martin Luther King

1. Martin Luther King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

2. In 1968, Martin Luther King was planning a national occupation of Washington, DC, to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee.

3. Martin Luther King became friends with a white boy whose father owned a business across the street from his family's home.

4. In 1939, Martin Luther King sang as a member of his church choir in slave costume, for the all-white audience at the Atlanta premiere of the film Gone with the Wind.

5. In September 1940, at the age of 11, Martin Luther King was enrolled at the Atlanta University Laboratory School for the seventh grade.

6. Martin Luther King struggled with this, and could not fully believe that his parents knew where his grandmother had gone.

7. In 1942, when Martin Luther King was 13 years old, he became the youngest assistant manager of a newspaper delivery station for the Atlanta Journal.

8. In high school, Martin Luther King became known for his public-speaking ability, with a voice that had grown into an orotund baritone.

9. Martin Luther King proceeded to join the school's debate team.

10. Martin Luther King continued to be most drawn to history and English, and chose English and sociology to be his main subjects while at the school.

11. But, he relied on his sister, Christine, to help him with his spelling, while Martin Luther King assisted her with math.

12. Martin Luther King developed an interest in fashion, commonly adorning himself in well polished patent leather shoes and tweed suits, which gained him the nickname "Tweed" or "Tweedie" among his friends.

13. In 1944, at the age of 15, Martin Luther King passed the entrance examination and was enrolled at the university for the school season that autumn.

14. The summer before his last year at Morehouse, in 1947, the 18-year-old Martin Luther King chose to enter the ministry.

15. At Crozer, Martin Luther King was elected president of the student body.

16. Martin Luther King applied to the University of Edinburgh to do his doctorate in the School of Divinity.

17. In 1951, Martin Luther King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University.

18. In Boston, Martin Luther King befriended a small cadre of local ministers his age, and sometimes guest pastored at their churches, including Michael Haynes, associate pastor at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury.

19. At the age of 25 in 1954, Martin Luther King was called as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

20. In December 1959, after being based in Montgomery for five years, Martin Luther King announced his return to Atlanta at the request of the SCLC.

21. Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King was called to be a minister in 1954, was influential in the Montgomery, Alabama, African-American community.

22. The SCLC's 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom was the first time Martin Luther King addressed a national audience.

23. Izola Curry—a mentally ill black woman who thought that Martin Luther King was conspiring against her with communists—stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener, which nearly impinged on the aorta.

24. Martin Luther King received first aid by police officers Al Howard and Philip Romano.

25. On May 4, 1960, several months after his return, Martin Luther King drove writer Lillian Smith to Emory University when police stopped them.

26. On May 7, 1964, Martin Luther King spoke at Saint Francis College's "The Negro and the Quest for Identity," in Biddeford, Maine.

27. Martin Luther King opposed the Vietnam War because it took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare at home.

28. On January 13, 1968, Martin Luther King called for a large march on Washington against "one of history's most cruel and senseless wars.

29. In 1967, Martin Luther King gave a famous speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, his first to publicly question the US involvement in Vietnam.

30. Martin Luther King quoted from Henry George and George's book, Progress and Poverty, particularly in support of a guaranteed basic income.

31. Martin Luther King felt that Congress had shown "hostility to the poor" by spending "military funds with alacrity and generosity.

32. On March 29, 1968, Martin Luther King went to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, who were represented by AFSCME Local 1733.

33. In September 1959, Martin Luther King flew from Los Angeles, California, to Tucson, Arizona.

34. At the reservation Martin Luther King met with all the tribal leaders, and others on the reservation then ate with them.

35. In 1964, Martin Luther King urged his supporters "and all people of goodwill" to vote against Republican Senator Barry Goldwater for president, saying that his election "would be a tragedy, and certainly suicidal almost, for the nation and the world.

36. Martin Luther King's changed her mind after talking to King who was a fan of the show.

37. Martin Luther King explained that her character signified a future of greater racial harmony and cooperation.

38. Martin Luther King told Nichols, "You are our image of where we're going, you're 300 years from now, and that means that's where we are and it takes place now.

39. FBI having concluded that Martin Luther King was dangerous due to communist infiltration, attempts to discredit Martin Luther King began through revelations regarding his private life.

40. The bureau sent anonymous letters to Martin Luther King threatening to reveal information if he did not cease his civil rights work.

41. Martin Luther King made our nation stronger because he made it better.