Interesting Facts
- His name was originally Michael, not Martin. His father was also Michael King, hence why Martin Luther King Jr. was originally named Michael King Jr. However, after a trip to Germany in 1931, Michael King Sr. changed his own name in homage to historic German theologian Martin Luther. Michael King Jr. was two years old at the time and King Sr. made the decision to change his son’s name to Martin Luther as well.
- At the age of 12, he seems to have tried to commit suicide. It was May of 1941 when his grandmother passed away after a heart attack. At the time of this event, King Jr. was off disobeying his parents by going to watch a parade when they told him not too. When he came home and learned his grandmother had died, he went upstairs and jumped from the second story window of his house.
- Martin Luther King Jr. skipped two grades in high school, 9th and 11th, and entered college (Moorehouse College) at the age of 15 in 1944.