Martin Luther King, Jr was born January 15, 1929. He graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA in 1948. In 1953 King married Coretta Scott in Marion, Ala. They had four children: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice.

King most famous speech is called ” I Have A Dream.”  He spoke to 250,000 people in the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. by James Earl Ray in 1968.

On January 20, 1986, the United States celebrated King’s birthday as a holiday for the first time. Martin Luther King Day is observed on the third Monday in January each year. 

I HAVE A DREAM
(Parts of Speech)

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

Read or listen to the entire speech (new window)