MLK: 10 Things You Might Not Know
Martin Luther King changed the course of American history, but were you aware of these fascinating facts?
In honor of Martin Luther King Day, here are 10 things you might not know about the lauded civil rights leader who changed history:
1. Martin Luther King Jr. was christened Michael King Jr. When his father became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1931, he adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. -- in honor of Protestant leader Martin Luther -- and his son followed suit. However, King never legally changed his name.
2. The first assassination attempt on King was made in 1958 when a mentally ill woman named Izola Curry stabbed him in the chest with a steel letter opener while he was signing books at a Harlem department store. The knife wound was so close to his aorta that doctors said a sneeze could have killed him.
3. King skipped the ninth and eleventh grades and never graduated from high school. He enrolled in Morehouse College in 1944 when he was just 15. He completed his doctorate at Boston University when he was 25.
4. The NAACP leaders in Montgomery, Ala., chose King as their spokesman for the city bus boycott following Rosa Park's arrest because while he was well-educated, well-spoken and young, he was also new to town and knew few people.
5. The first time King was arrested was Oct. 19, 1960, during a lunch counter sit-in in Atlanta. The city's mayor, fearing bad publicity, had all those arrested quickly released. However, King was jailed very soon thereafter for violating his release terms by committing a traffic violation. It was only after word got out that presidential candidate John Kennedy had called King's wife to express his concern that King was again released.
6. A bill to make King's birthday a national holiday was introduced days after his 1968 assassination. However, it wasn't signed into law until 1983. Still, many states resisted, some naming the holiday "Civil Rights Day" and "Human Rights Day," and others honoring Confederate leaders on the same day. Utah was the last state to officially adopt Martin Luther King Day in 2000. In South Carolina, state employees can still choose between it and three Confederate-related days as a paid holiday.
7. King suffered recurrent episodes of severe depression, and once tried to commit suicide at age 12 following the death of his grandmother in 1941. King had snuck out of the house to watch a parade, against the wishes of his parents, during which time his grandmother died. He was so upset that he jumped from a second-story window of his family home.
8. After his death, King's autopsy found that while he was just 39 years old, he had the heart of a 60-year-old. Doctors concluded the pressure he had experienced in his career had stressed and aged his heart.
9. When noted writer and essayist Dorothy Parker died in 1967 with no heirs, she left her literary estate to King because she admired his work. When King died just a year later, the bequeath went to the NAACP, which continues to receive royalties from her work.
10. Actress Nichelle Nichols, who made history playing the first non-black stereotype role on a television show, planned to quit Star Trek after the first year when her role as Uhura was reduced to a supporting character. It was only after King sought her out at an event to tell her he was a huge fan -- and entreated her to stay when she told him of her imminent departure -- that she reconsidered and stayed.
Sources: www.biography.com, www.factmonster.com, wsj.com, stanford.edu, www.psychologytoday.com, www.dorothyparker.com, http://list25.com
READ MORE: Martin Luther King Day in Joliet
boozer mcgee
7:33 am on Monday, January 21, 2013
Does anyone remember back in '68 that they raised all the bridges in Joliet in fear that the blacks from the East side would come to the West side and retaliate from MLK's death!?
John Roberts
8:31 am on Monday, January 21, 2013
Or the fact MLK daughter said " if their going to act like this I would rather have my dad back"
Mark Donahue
11:08 am on Monday, January 21, 2013
No mention of all his plagiarizing of others.
No mention of his womanizing ways.
The man wasn't perfect, and who among us is, but it kind of bothers me how the media salivates all over this man, and this day, as if he was.
Kristine Neumann
12:19 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
What has always bothered me was that when President Kennedy died there was no mention of a National holiday, but when MLK died they made it a national holiday.
MRJChannahon
1:45 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
Possibly some of the people leaving comments here don't remember what it was like back before MLK.
I remember as a young fellow growing up amid the corn fields of NW Ohio watching on television as tanks rumbled down the streets of Detroit and other American cities, as buildings all around burned.
I can't say that as a young white kid growing up in the mostly rural midwest, I fully understood the issues that that were driving the literal wars in the streets of our cities, but I soon came to understand that perpetuating second & third class citizenship on people solely because of the color of their skin was terribly wrong.
The EASY thing to do was fight such injustice with violence, and many took that route. But MLK, even with his human faults & weaknesses, was was more Christian, humane, farsighted & just. He advocated change & improvement in the human condition through peaceful resistance and education.
I don't suppose we will ever really know whether it was the fear of violence & destruction or the strength of resistance & rational thinking that brought about change. Maybe it was MLK's appeal to fairness, justice & Christian kindness that made the difference. America is a different place today because of the struggle that Dr. King was a part of. We're still not perfect and never will be, but at least that one aspect of life in America is better today... second-class citizenship based on skin color is no longer almost automatic... a change we can be proud of.
vicki
11:54 am on Friday, February 1, 2013
Amen Maynard!
Rusty Shackleford
11:54 am on Friday, February 1, 2013
Extremely well spoken Maynard!!!!!! People do not understand what it was like to live in a society where you were judged by skin color instead of the content of your character, IT truly is a better place to live today, Unfortunately it seems there is still a deep wound in our side as Americans that i can only hope will one day heal. I think racial intolerance is still alive and well even in this little city of ours, and until we recognize that and deal with it, it may always be. Until our younger people remember the many sacrifices and lives lost so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we have today,until we learn as a people to respect one another regardless of race,gender, religion, nationality,political party, or beliefs we cannot truly become a nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. MLK, was for civil rights for every man woman and child in this country, and i can only pray that we as a people continue to strive for the dream that he had for us in order to keep that dream alive and not let his vision, life and death be all but in vain...
boozer mcgee
6:29 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
The Chicago Bulls win a championship, Chicago has cars over turned in the streets, building set on fire, looting...very destructive behavior...The Chicago Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup, very civilized behavior...any comments???
Nobody_cares
9:00 pm on Monday, January 21, 2013
That's because no one cares about the Blackhawks. Hockey is the fourth ranked sports in the United States barely beating out soccer. Nobody celebrated hard cause no-one cared.
Ihaveaname
7:23 am on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
no one cares about the Blackhawks, except for the 1 million people walking the streets in Chicago after they won and their league leading attendance......
Linda Carson
9:46 am on Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Now that we have a black president, anyone who plays the race-card is a fool. Asians immigrate here and have a few shops open in a few years and they don't speak the language. Why? Because they help each-other out.