Phyo Win Ko Ko - Martin Luther King

King's childhood

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was given the name Michael, his father's first name. After traveling to Germany in 1934, his father changed his first name and his son's name to "Martin." Martin Luther was a prominent religious leader in Germany in the 1500s. King's father was a preacher and admired the German religious leader. He wanted his son to become a successful preacher one day.

Before he started school, he used to play with a white boy. When he was five years old, they went to their own schools. The black boys went to the same schools as the white boys.

He was not allowed to go to school. The white boy's parents forbade "King" from playing with their son. King went home crying. King's parents explained to King the difficult life of black people in the United States. King hated all white people from that moment on.

At school, King was passionate about sports. He was also interested in languages. He also read books. He was very intelligent, so the teachers promoted King twice. He skipped grades 9 and 11 and completed high school at the age of 15.

Born into a family of preachers, King

King's grandfather... Both his maternal grandfather and his paternal grandfather attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, the only black college in the country, and became Baptist ministers at the Ibanez Baptist Church in Atlanta. This was the highest-paying job a black man could have in the American South. King's father was a successful businessman and an important leader of the black community in Atlanta.

Religion was very important to King's childhood. He went to church after school and attended church every Sunday. At the age of 6, he began singing in church, where his mother played the piano. However, by the age of 15, he began to question the teachings of the church. He did not want to become a preacher like his father. This upset his father.

At the age of 15, King began attending Morehouse College. The college's president, Dr. Benjamin Mays, had a profound influence on King's mind, especially regarding his future. At the age of 17, King decided to become a preacher. When he told his father, King's father asked King to preach at his church the following Sunday to test him. King was very afraid, but his sermon was a success.

King worked hard and became a preacher on February 25, 1948. King then began working on Sundays at the Ebenezer Church. King graduated from Morehouse College. He then continued his education at a seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the north. He graduated from that college again in 1951 and remained in the north. He then continued his education at a college in Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1955, he received his Ph.D., becoming Dr. Martin Luther King.

Before he graduated, King had dreamed of living a comfortable life in the North. If he had lived in the North, he could have been a college professor. He wanted to live that way, but the poor blacks in the South needed him. He wrote college papers at night and worked during the day. In January 1954, he returned to the racially segregated South. His first job was as a preacher at the Dester Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he preached to black doctors, teachers, and well-off blacks. The city had about 50,000 blacks and 90,000 whites. Most of the blacks were low-income and poor. King understood their pain. His church was a center of change for them.