Facts about Martin Luther King's March to a Dream

Although Martin Luther King, Junior is not here to enjoy the full impact of his famous words - “I Have a Dream” – they resonate within the heart of America. As the day designated to immortalize King’s teachings dawns this Monday January 15, PRIME Insurance Agency highlights some interesting tidbits about the great and peaceful civil rights leader.

Did you know?

1. Martin Luther King Jr was actually named Michael at birth, after his father. His dad visited Germany in 1931 and was inspired by the teachings of 16^th Century Christian reformer, Martin Luther. Upon his return to the States, the senior King changed his and Jr’s names to that of his historical mentor. 
   
2. Martin Luther King, Jr was an extremely gifted student, displaying a remarkable aptitude and will to learn. He advanced a grade above his class twice in high school and was accepted at Moorehouse College by age fifteen. When he was nineteen-years-old he was awarded his B.A. 
   
3. Martin Luther King, Jr actually smoked cigarettes but tried to never let on about the habit.
   
4. For lack of a more appropriate ‘hotel’ that permitted black newlyweds, King Jr and his wife spent their honeymoon in the elegance of a funeral parlor that was owned by a friend.
   
5. The day of his death was not the first attempt at his life. On September 20th of 1958, King was in the midst of autographing prints of the famous “Stride Toward Freedom” he had written. Izola Ware Curry came up to him, confirmed he was the author and then promptly thrust the sharp end of a letter opener into his chest. Doctors worked 3 hard and long hours to safely extricate the knife and save his life.

    6. In midst of the 385-day Montgomery Bus Boycott in protest of
        Rosa Parks’ arrest for not giving up her seat to a white person,
        Martin Luther King Jr’s home was bombed.

    7. Martin Luther’s ultimate assassination was not the first time the  
        King family had experienced a murder tragedy. In 1974, while
        playing the church organ in Atlanta, Ga, the civil-rights leader’s
        mom, Alberta King, was shot dead by self-proclaimed
        Christian-hater Marcus Wayne Chenault.

     8. Martin Luther King, Jr won the 1964 Noble Peace Prize when he
         was just thirty-five years old – the youngest recipient of that
         time. Upon acceptance of the $54,123 prize, King bequeathed it
         all to the Civil Rights Movement.

      9. Martin Luther King, Jr was also a Grammy-Winner, a
         Congressional Gold Medal-Winner, and a Medal of Freedom-
         Winner. His Grammy win was not for singing talent but for his
         1971 album-recorded speech in regard to why he was against
         the war in Vietnam.

    10. At 39 years of age, Dr. Martin Luther King fulfilled the quote
          repeated by many in his name: “No one really knows why they
          are alive until they know what they’d die for.”  Following his
          assassination, an autopsy was performed. An attending physician
          noted that stress indeed had made a physical impact; King’s
          heart seemed to resemble that associated with a much older
          man.  

PRIME Insurance salutes the extraordinary heroism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr on this day commemorating his many civil rights achievements against racial discrimination. For more on topics of interest and pertinence,

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