Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist, and Baptist clergyman is best known for his use of civil disobedience to gain equal rights for African-Americans. As the first non-president to have a national holiday named after him in the United States, you’d think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be well-known. However, what most people know about the iconic civil rights activist only scratches the surface. So let’s talk about the 12 facts you didn’t know about Martin Luther King Jr.
He Attempted To End His Own Life
Martin Luther King, then just 12 years old, made the decision to attend a parade rather than babysit his younger brother AD, who was 6 at the time. AD slid down a banister unsupervised, ran into their grandmother, and knocked her out cold. She had a heart attack as a result of the incident and eventually passed away. Even though being knocked unconscious had nothing to do with her passing away, Martin nevertheless held himself responsible. The future civil rights leader, overcome with grief, attempted suicide by jumping out of a second-story window of his family’s house. Later, Martin’s father recalled that he had been troubled for a long time after his grandma passed away and had begun to have trouble sleeping.
King Attended College At 15
Nobody will likely be surprised to learn that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a clever man and a smart kid. Young Martin actually performed so well in school that he was permitted to skip grades 9 and 12, and at the age of 15, he was even admitted as a freshman to college.
He went to Morehouse College in 1944, much like his father and grandfather before him. Despite the fact that King’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all been called to the ministry, he initially had little interest in becoming a Baptist preacher. However, King was ultimately convinced to reverse his decision by Benjamin E. Mays, the president of Morehouse. King also graduated from college with a degree in sociology before going on to Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he earned his second bachelor’s degree in theology. He graduated from Boston University with a PhD in systematic theology when he was 25 years old.
He Fell In Love With A German Cafeteria Worker
Martin Luther King Jr. was enrolled in a Pennsylvania seminary in the 1940s. While he was there, he began dating Betty Moitz, a German woman who worked in the cafeteria. Martin’s friends advised him to stop his relationship with Betty, warning him that his father would disapprove of their mixed-race union and of Martin seeing someone of lower social standing. David Garrow, the author of Bearing the Cross, claims that King struggled to move on after his breakup with Betty.
The change, though, wasn’t really helpful. In the end, King’s father did not really care for Coretta Scott, his son’s future wife. Was this simply a matter of a father not believing anyone was suitable for his son? No. Actually, he was hoped Martin Jr. would wed Mattiwilda Dobbs, an opera singer.
King Saw Racial Equality First Hand Working In Tobacco Fields
In the area of Hartford, Connecticut, young Martin had secured a summer job picking tobacco. Coming from a middle-class Southern family, he was shocked to discover that not everyone in the US viewed African-Americans as inferior citizens. He wrote in a letter to his father, “On our way here, we saw some things I had never anticipated to see. After we passed Washington, there was no discrimination at all. The White people here are very nice. We go to any place we want to and sit anywhere we want to.” He added in a note to his mother, “I never thought that a person of my race could eat anywhere. But we ate in one of the finest restaurants in Hartford and we went to the largest shows there.”
King Applied For A Permit To Carry A Gun
Dr. Martin Luther King really filed for a license to carry a concealed firearm in the 1950s, before he started promoting passive resistance. He had a number of guns for self-defense, and he frequently had armed guards around him to watch out for his family.
King actually owned so many guns that one of his associates, fellow civil rights activist Glenn Smiley, even referred to King’s house as an arsenal. To be clear, King wasn’t only into collecting weapons. He had several legitimate reasons to worry for his life. For instance, he was regularly receiving death threats and the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama had set a premium on his head. Additionally, bombs had been detonated near his home and churches in Montgomery.
He Was Nearly Assinated By A Letter Opener
Danger was nothing new to Martin Luther King, Jr. Numerous threats were made against him, and he at least narrowly escaped one really, really close assassination attempt.
In 1958, it was a book signing. A woman named Izola Ware Curry approached King saying, “I’ve been looking for you for five years.” She then drew out a letter opener and stabbed him in the chest. The letter opener was going to be pulled out of the wound by well-meaning spectators, almost probably killing King. Fortunately, two police officers from New York City stopped them. Instead, the medical staff at Harlem Hospital laboriously tried to remove the weapon for three hours. It turned out that it was inserted in a hazardous location near King’s aorta, where even the smallest slip could have killed him.
Curry appeared to have a number of mental disorders, which may explain why she attacked King. Curry would spend the remainder of her life in psychiatric hospitals in nursing homes after being later identified as a paranoid schizophrenic.
He Was Arrested 29 Times
Fighting the system frequently entails doing some time. King was also detained a lot throughout his long career as a social activist. In reality, he spent 29 times in jail over the course of his life, primarily for acts of civil disobedience. A few arrests that were highly dubious also occurred. One example happened in 1956. King was imprisoned in Montgomery, Alabama, for exceeding the speed limit by 5 mph.
King Loved Star Trek
Yes, it is correct. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a well-known figure in the Civil Rights Movement and the author of some of the most well-known speeches on racial issues in human history, was a fan of Star Trek.
Actually, it’s not that shocking. In its day, Star Trek was a pioneering program that dared to venture where no television program had gone before. For instance, the first interracial kiss on television appeared on the program. King was so engrossed in it that it can actually be said that he convinced Nichelle Nichols to continue as Uhura on Star Trek after the conclusion of season one. Nichols claims that King wanted her to stay on the show not just because she was a black woman portraying a major role on television, but also because her character wasn’t created using common stereotypes. The other crew members thought Nichols’ character was intelligent and treated her equally.
He Predicted His Own Death
On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. Strangely, the night before he passed away, he gave a speech to a group of people at Mason Temple Church and warned them that he might not live to see them enter the promised land. King said, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.”
King Was Smoking When He Was Shot
Despite his reputation as a frequent smoker, there aren’t many images showing Martin Luther King Jr. holding a cigarette in his mouth. King hid his habit extremely actively. He did this for two key reasons. First of all, smoking cigarettes was considered socially unacceptable, especially because he was a minister. Second, he didn’t want his kids to start smoking after seeing him participate in the habit.
But regardless, he couldn’t manage to break the habit. King was smoking a cigarette on his hotel’s balcony the day he was killed. King’s close friend, the Reverend Samuel Billy Kyles, allegedly took a pack of cigarettes out of King’s pocket after he passed away to hide the fact that he had been smoking at the time of his death.
His Mother Was Also Murdered
His mother, Alberta Williams King, was murdered in 1974, six years after Dr. King was assassinated. When Marcus Wayne Chenault Jr. stood up in the front pew of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Alberta was playing the organ. He reached for two pistols and started shooting. Chenault wanted to assassinate King’s father, but since Alberta was nearer to him, he killed her instead. She died suddenly in the congregation where her son gave a sermon about nonviolence. Chenault was initially sentenced to death for his crime, but King’s family requested that he be given life in prison instead since they were against the death penalty.
King Won A Grammy Award
Martin Luther King Jr. won a Grammy, but not for wailing out a few hot tunes. He didn’t possess a secret singing ability that we know of. Following his death, King won a Grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album of 1971. He received the honor for his album Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam. If you’re wondering why he opposed the war in Vietnam, he said, “I see this war as an unjust evil, and futile war. I preach to you today because my conscience leaves me with no other choice.”
