Martin Luther King Jr.

===Birth===
Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in [[Atlanta]]; he was the second of three children born to [[Martin Luther King Sr.|Michael King Sr.]] and [[Alberta Williams King|Alberta King]] ({{Nee|Williams}}).<ref name="marshall">{{Cite book |last=Ogletree |first=Charles J. |url=https://archive.org/details/alldeliberatespe00ogle/page/138 |title=All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education |publisher=W. W. Norton & Co |year=2004 |isbn=0-393-05897-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alldeliberatespe00ogle/page/138 138]}}</ref><ref name="bf"/><ref name="bio" /> Michael Jr. had an older sister, [[Christine King Farris]], and a younger brother, [[A. D. King|Alfred Daniel "A. D." King]].{{sfn|King|1992|p=76}} Alberta's father, Adam Daniel Williams,<ref name="The King Center">{{Cite web |title=Upbringing & Studies |url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122161058/http://www.thekingcenter.org/upbringing-studies |archive-date=January 22, 2013 |access-date=September 2, 2012 |publisher=The King Center}}</ref> was a minister in rural [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], moved to Atlanta in 1893,<ref name="bio">{{cite web |title=Martin Luther King Jr. |url=https://www.biography.com/activist/martin-luther-king-jr |date=March 9, 2015 |website=Biography |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC |access-date=January 22, 2020 |archive-date=March 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310135126/https://www.biography.com/activist/martin-luther-king-jr |url-status=live }}</ref> and became pastor of the [[Ebenezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, Georgia)|Ebenezer Baptist Church]] in the following year.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=6}} Williams married Jennie Celeste Parks.<ref name="bio"/> Michael Sr. was born to [[sharecroppers]] James Albert and Delia King of [[Stockbridge, Georgia|Stockbridge, Georgia;]]<ref name="bf">{{cite web |title=Birth & Family |url=http://www.thekingcenter.org/birth-family |website=The King Center |publisher=The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change |access-date=January 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122161032/http://www.thekingcenter.org/birth-family |archive-date=January 22, 2013}}</ref><ref name="bio"/> he was of African-[[Irish American|Irish]] descent.<ref>{{cite web|title=King, James Albert|url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_james_albert_1864_1933/|access-date=June 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217012826/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_james_albert_1864_1933/|archive-date=December 17, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Nsenga|first=Burton|title=AfricanAncestry.com Reveals Roots of MLK and Marcus Garvey|date=January 13, 2011|url=https://www.theroot.com/africanancestry-com-reveals-roots-of-mlk-and-marcus-gar-1790862357|access-date=May 29, 2020|archive-date=January 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118095620/https://www.theroot.com/africanancestry-com-reveals-roots-of-mlk-and-marcus-gar-1790862357|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Alondra|last=Nelson |author-link=Alondra Nelson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W5nhDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA160 |title=The Social Life of DNA | quote= "Kittles informed King that his Y-chromosome DNA analysis traced to Ireland and his mtDNA analysis associated him with the Mende." |pages=160–161 |date=2016 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-2718-9}}</ref> As an adolescent, Michael Sr. left his parents' farm and walked to Atlanta, where he attained a high school education,{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=11}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=10}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=2}} and enrolled in [[Morehouse College]] to study for entry to the ministry.{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=2}} Michael Sr. and Alberta began dating in 1920, and married on November 25, 1926.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=12}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}} Until Jennie's death in 1941, their home was on the second floor of Alberta's parents' [[Victorian house]], where King was born.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=4}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=12}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}

Shortly after marrying Alberta, Michael King Sr. became assistant pastor of the Ebenezer church.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}} Senior pastor Williams died in the spring of 1931{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}} and that fall Michael Sr. took the role. With support from his wife, he raised attendance from six hundred to several thousand.<ref name="bio"/>{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=7}}{{sfn|Eig|2023|p=43}} In 1934, the church sent King Sr. on a multinational trip, one of the stops on the trip was [[Berlin]] for the Congress of the [[Baptist World Alliance]] [BWA]).<ref name="deneen">{{cite news|first=DeNeen L.|last=Brown|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=January 20, 2019|title=The story of how Michael King Jr. became Martin Luther King Jr.|date=January 15, 2019|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/01/15/story-how-michael-king-jr-became-martin-luther-king-jr/|archive-date=December 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231120621/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/01/15/story-how-michael-king-jr-became-martin-luther-king-jr/|url-status=live}}</ref> He also visited sites in [[Germany]] which are associated with the [[Reformation]] leader [[Martin Luther]].<ref name="deneen"/> In reaction to the rise of [[Nazism]], the BWA made a resolution saying, "This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of [[God]] the [[God the Father|Heavenly Father]], all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward colored people, or toward subject races in any part of the world."<ref name="ajc">{{cite news |last1=Nancy Clanton |first1=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |title=Why Martin Luther King Jr.'s father changed their names |url=https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/why-martin-luther-king-father-changed-their-names/5ClNJ60MUtgsAZyCB4A4IN/ |access-date=February 3, 2020 |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=January 17, 2020 |language=en |archive-date=January 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120172044/https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/why-martin-luther-king-father-changed-their-names/5ClNJ60MUtgsAZyCB4A4IN/ |url-status=live }}</ref> After returning home in August 1934, Martin Sr. changed his name to Martin Luther King Sr. and his five-year-old son's name to Martin Luther King Jr.<ref name="deneen"/>{{sfn|King|1992|pp=30–31}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=12}}{{efn|King Jr's birth certificate was later altered to read "Martin Luther King Jr." on July 23, 1957, when he was 28 years old.<ref name="deneen"/><ref name="ajc"/>{{sfn|King|1992|p=31}}}}