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What Martin Luther King Jr. Was Like as a Child
by
Lily Rothman
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Lily Rothman
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Rothman is managing editor at TIME.
Jan 15, 2015 12:00 PM CUT
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking before crowd of 25,000 on March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Ala.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking before crowd of 25,000 on March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Ala.Stephen F. Somerstein—Getty Images
by
Lily Rothman
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Rothman is managing editor at TIME.
Jan 15, 2015 12:00 PM CUT
First, he was named Michael. Though Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed in the United States on Jan. 19 this year, it was on Jan. 15, 1929, that Michael Luther King, Jr., was born. As TIME recounted in a 1957 profile of the Civil Rights leader, he was six when his father — a pastor in Atlanta — decided that the two should switch out their first names for Martin, in honor of Martin Luther, the priest who brought about the Protestant Reformation. His childhood home (a two-story yellow brick house, according to TIME’s profile) was a religious one, where the younger Martin would recite from the Bible at dinnertime.
The early article provides a rare glimpse at how the leader was discussed before he was known throughout the world.
And, even if he didn’t always want to be a minister, it’s clear that his childhood shaped the rest of his life:
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Read the full article here, in the TIME Vault: Attack on the Conscience