Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.? is a 2007 nonfiction children’s book written by Bonnie Bader and illustrated by Elizabeth Wolf. A biography of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., the book traces his life from his formative years to his studies and work as a minister and his activism as a leader in the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1968. Bader is an American author and teacher known for her nonfiction children’s books.

This guide refers to the 2008 e-book edition published by Penguin Random House.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, death, and child death. In particular, they discuss anti-Black racism and racist violence.

Summary

Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, at a time when racism defined Southern society and segregation laws kept Black and white people separate. King grew up in a loving and protective family and had a close relationship with his parents and siblings. His father, Martin Luther King, Sr., was a Baptist minister, and his mother, Alberta Williams, was a former schoolteacher. Growing up, King realized how society operated when his white school friends stopped playing with him. His parents nurtured his consciousness, teaching him to never accept injustice and always know his worth. He was angry about Jim Crow laws and resolved to fight for change.

In college, King was an excellent student and gifted speaker. He studied Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience and Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings on peaceful protest, which defined his ideology as an activist. Initially hesitant to follow in his father’s footsteps, King was inspired by his two university mentors, who were ministers, to study theology and work as a minister himself. For King, sermons became a way to communicate with the Black community and speak out against segregation.

While in college, King met Coretta Scott. They married and settled in Montgomery, Alabama, a highly segregated city. There, King could fight racism at its heart and support the local community. Black people in the South had already started to challenge racism. Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark legal case against segregation in education.

Coretta gave birth to their daughter, and King became a pastor in a Baptist church. Through his sermons, he galvanized the community for voting registration, urging them to join the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization to support Black people’s progress. After Black activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, the Montgomery Bus Boycott started demanding desegregation of public transport. King emerged as the leader of the demonstration, encouraging the community to persist through peaceful protests. The police arrested him as an intimidation tactic, but King and other activists remained resilient. Finally, the boycott succeeded as the Supreme Court banned segregation in public transport.

In 1957, King cofounded and became the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He and his family moved to Atlanta, where King eventually became a minister in his father’s church. However, he initially devoted his time to the growing civil rights movement. As King and other leaders organized peaceful protests demanding civil rights, violence and terrorism against them intensified. The police repeatedly arrested and intimidated King, and his house was firebombed. Nevertheless, activists persisted. Students organized sit-in protests, demanding to be served at segregated lunch counters. For King, such demonstrations indicated the evil of racism. Students from the North, known as Freedom Riders, joined civil rights demonstrations in the South to protest segregation in public spaces. Demonstrators confronted mob violence and police brutality, but King knew that they had to continue the fight.

King and other leaders focused on Birmingham, Alabama (where segregation persisted), launching the Birmingham campaign. They organized nonviolent direct-action protests like sit-ins, boycotts, and marches to demand desegregation. However, the protesters again faced police brutality. While many of King’s supporters and his parents urged him to refrain from the demonstrations, he joined the march. He was arrested again and imprisoned for days. From the Birmingham jail, King published a letter fervently defending nonviolent protest. At the end of the campaign, state officials decided to ban discrimination in public spaces.

In 1963, civil rights leaders organized a march in Washington, DC, to demand a civil rights bill. King was a key speaker at the event, delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech. King expressed hope for a future society free of racism and a society that would judge his children by their character, not their race. After the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, which killed four Black girls, and President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, banning racial discrimination.

King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Even though he was a leader in the civil rights cause, he knew that the award belonged to all the people who fought for civil rights, and he donated the prize money to civil rights organizations. Despite legislative reforms, inequality persisted: Black people still faced obstacles in voting. King and other activists organized voting registration drives and marches, again facing state violence. When protestors became angry, King insisted that they remain peaceful and not retaliate. After repeated protests and violence from white extremists, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Despite the movement’s achievements, struggles continued for Black people. Leaders like Malcolm X challenged King’s nonviolent philosophy, proclaiming Black people’s right to self-defense. As riots broke out in Northern urban centers, King extended his focus beyond the South. Concerned about the increasing violence, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and witnessed the housing and job discrimination against Black people. King understood that Black people engaged in riots out of despair and hopelessness. Realizing the effects of economic inequality, King demanded better jobs and housing for Black people. However, state officials delayed reforms.

King remained active in the community, joining the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968 and defying the constant threats against his life. Ultimately, he was assassinated while standing on the balcony of a motel, and the movement thus lost its greatest leader. A white man named James Earl Ray was arrested as the perpetrator, and he initially confessed to committing the crime but later claimed innocence.

Coretta and their children carried on King’s legacy as activists. Years later, his youngest son, Dexter, visited Ray in prison and, after talking with him, was convinced that Ray did not kill his father.

In his final speech, King wished to be remembered as a man who devoted his life to helping others. His birthday is celebrated as a national holiday every third Monday of January. King’s childhood home in Atlanta is a historical landmark