De Kay - Meet Martin Luther King, Jr.

The freedom riders held a huge meeting in a church in Montgomery.

Martin Luther King rushed to Montgomery to speak. While he spoke, a crowd of angry white people tried to break into the church. King asked his people to sing the black freedom song We Shall Overcome. As stones and bottles hit the church, the blacks inside sang, We are not afraid.

Copyright 1969, 1993 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in slightly different form by Random House, Inc., in 1969. This revised edition originally published by Random House, Inc., in 1993.

Photo credits: Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs were provided by Flip Schulke. Schulke Archives, .

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
De Kay, James T.
Meet Martin Luther King, Jr. / written by James T. de Kay; illustrated with photographs.
p. cm. (Landmark books)
SUMMARY : Highlights the life of the man largely responsible for uniting American blacks in the fight for civil rights.
eISBN: 978-0-307-77217-6

1. King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968Juvenile literature.

2. Afro-AmericansBiographyJuvenile literature.

3. BaptistsUnited StatesClergyBiographyJuvenile literature.

[1. King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968. 2. Civil rights workers.
3. Afro-AmericansBiography.] I. Title. II. Series.
E185.97.K5D43 1989 323.40924dc19 88-26383

v3.1

With special thanks to the Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies

Martin Luther King, Jr., a man of God and a man of action.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a fighter. He fought people who used guns and bombs against him. But he did not use a gun. He did not use violence of any kind. He fought with words and ideas. He believed words and ideas could beat guns.

He fought for fair laws. He fought for an end to hate. He fought for a better life for all Americans. Thousands of people knew he was right. Thousands followed him. And slowly America began to change.

Martin Luther King lost his life in the fight to change America. But his words and ideas live on.

Martin was born and grew up in this house.

When Martin Luther King, Jr., was born, he didnt yell like most babies. He lay very still. He was so quiet, the doctor thought he was dead.

Smack! The doctor gave the fat baby a hard spank. At last Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his first cry.

The peaceful baby was born at home in Atlanta, Georgia. January 15, 1929, was a cold, gray Tuesday.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a big name for a little boy. Everyone called him M. L.

M. L.s fathers name was also Martin Luther King. He was the assistant pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. It was a large church, and he played an important part in the lives of its many members. It was a center of hope for a better life.

M. L.s mother was Alberta King. Her father, Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, was the head pastor of the church. She had been a teacher before her children were born. M. L. had an older sister, Christine, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel.

The Kings lived in a large, comfortable house. They had nice clothes. There was always plenty to eat. But M. L. grew up knowing that many people in Atlanta were poor and didnt have these things.

His fathers church was a very big part of M. L.s life. As a tiny boy he sang hymns there. He sang all by himself in front of hundreds of people.

And his father made his children learn verses from the Bible by heart. M. L., Christine, and Alfred Daniel each had to say their Bible verses aloud at dinner. The verses had big words and a special rhythm.

M. L. (on right) with his parents, grandmother, brother, and sister.

From the time he was a little boy, M. L. loved words. He loved to hear his father speak in church. He would watch the way people listened. He could see how strong words were.

When he was little, he said to his mother, You just wait and see. Im going to get me some big words.

M. L. loved to play, too. He was small for his age. But he played hard. Some of his friends thought he played too hard.

One time, when he was five, he was playing on the stairs. Suddenly he slipped and fell. Crash! He dropped 20 feet to the floor. He landed on his head and tumbled into the cellar. But he was not hurt!

Two other times cars smashed into his bicycle. Both times he was thrown to the ground. But he was not hurt either time.

Once he and his brother were playing baseball. His brother swung the bat hard. It slipped out of his hands and hit M. L. on the head. M. L. fell down, but he got right up. Once again he was not hurt!

Years later Martin Luther King thought of all the times he was hit on the head. God was looking out for me even then, he said with a grin. He must have given me a hard head.

M. L. was a happy little boy. But when he was about five, something happened that made him very sad. There was a small grocery store across the street from his house. Every day M. L. went over to play with the grocers two little boys. They were good friends.

Then a strange thing happened. One day M. L. went to play as usual. But the boys didnt come out. Their mother came instead. She said her two boys could never play with M. L. again. She sent him home.

M. L. wanted to cry. He didnt understand. He ran home to his mother and asked what was wrong. Mrs. King sighed and looked sad. She picked him up and put him on her lap. Then she explained.

She said everyone in the grocers family had light skin. They were called white people. But everyone in M. L.s family had dark skin. They were called Negroes or black people or colored people.

Then she said that some white people didnt like black people. She told him how, long, long ago, whites brought blacks from Africa to America. They made them work in fields as slaves. She told M. L. how cruel some white slave-owners were. They beat the blacks with whips. They bought and sold them like animals.

Then came the Civil War. The Southern states decided to form a separate country with different laws from those of the United States. The states in the North were against slavery. The states in the South were for it.

Many soldiers on both sides were killed and wounded. A unit of free black soldiers fought and died bravely for the North. After many bloody battles, the North won.