THE MAN, THE MYSTERY: MARTIN LUTHER KING IN THE EYES OF HISTORY

HE MAN, THE MYSTERY: MARTIN LUTHER KING IN THE EYES OF HISTORY
.
SOME SURPRISING FACTS YOU DON'T KNOW
ABOUT HIM
.

1. Martin Luther King was born Michael Lewis
   King. His father changed his own name to
   Martin Luther, after the German preacher and
   reformist, and he renamed his son the same.
2. King suffered from depression throughout
   much of his life. As a child, he befriended a
   white boy whose father owned a business near
   his family's home. When the boys were six,
   they started school: King had to attend a
   school for African Americans and the other
   boy went to one for whites. King lost his friend
   because the child's father no longer wanted
   the boys to play together.
3. At the age of 12, King blamed himself for
   his grandmother's death and attempted suicide
   by jumping out of a second-story window but
   he survived.
4. King was a precocious child. He skipped
   both the ninth and the twelfth grade, entering
   college when he was only fifteen. At 19, he
   received a degree in sociology and earned
   a PhD in theology seven years later at 26. He
   eventually garnered another fifty or so
   honorary degrees from various colleges and
   universities around the country before his
   death at the age of 39.
5. Martin Luther King was a life-long smoker.
6. King was jailed 29 times, charged with
   everything from civil disobedience to driving
   five miles over the speed limit.
7. On October 14, 1964, King became the
   youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize,
   until Malala Yousafzai in 2014, which was
   awarded to him for leading nonviolent
   resistance to racial prejudice in the U.S. He
   donated all $54,123 of the prize money to the
   civil rights movement.
8. King became romantically involved with the
   white daughter of an immigrant German
   woman. He planned to marry her, but friends
   advised against it, saying that an interracial
   marriage would provoke animosity from both
   blacks and whites. King broke off the
   relationship after six months. He never
   recovered.
9. King was 24 and his wife was 26 when they
   got married. They had four children together.
   Three are still alive.
10. In 1957, King and other civil rights
    activists founded the Southern Christian
    Leadership Conference (SCLC). He led the SCLC
    until his death.
11. King survived an assassination attempt in
    1958 after being stabbed in the chest by a
    deranged woman. He spent several weeks in
    surgery.
12. In 1963, the FBI, under written directive
    from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy,
    tapped King's telephone line suspecting he was
    a Communist.
13. King organized and led marches for blacks'
    right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and
    other basic civil rights. Most of these rights
    were successfully enacted into the law of the
    United States with the passage of the Civil
    Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of
15. In the 1963 March on Washington, King
    delivered a 17-minute speech, later known as
    "I Have a Dream''. It came to be regarded as
    one of the finest speeches in the history of
    American oratory.
16. On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before
    his death—King delivered a speech titled
    "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." He
    spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the
    war, arguing that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to
    occupy it as an American colony" and calling
    the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of
    violence in the world today."
17. Martin Luther King is best known for his
    role in the advancement of civil rights using
    the tactics of nonviolence and civil
    disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and
    inspired by the nonviolent activism of
    Mahatma Gandhi.
18. On April 4, 1968, King was fatally shot by
    James Earl Ray at 6:01 p.m. The bullet entered
    through his right cheek, smashing his jaw, then
    traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in
    his shoulder. He died at the hospital an hour
    later at 7:05 p.m.
19. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April
    7, 1968 a national day of mourning for the
    civil rights leader.
20. King made a request that at his funeral no
    mention of his awards and honors be made,
    but that it be said that he tried to "feed the
    hungry", "clothe the naked", "be right on the
    [Vietnam] war question", and "love and serve
    humanity."
21. King's favourite hymn was "Take My Hand,
    Precious Lord". It was sung at his funeral.
22. On January 17, 2000, Martin Luther King
    Jr. Day was officially observed in all fifty U.S.
    states.
23. King’s mother, Alberta Williams King, was
    also shot and killed at the age of 69.
24. As a Christian minister, King's main
    influence was Jesus Christ and the Christian
    gospels. His faith was strongly based in Jesus'
    commandment of loving your neighbor as
    yourself, loving God above all, and loving your
    enemies, praying for them and blessing them.
25. King’s autopsy revealed that stress had
    taken a major toll on his body. Despite being
    just 39 at the time of his death, one of the
    doctors noted that he had “the heart of a 60-
    year-old”.
26. In 1977, the Presidential Medal of
    Freedom (the highest civilian award of the
    United States of America) was posthumously
    awarded to King by President Jimmy Carter.