Martin Luther King Jr.

===Early childhood===
[[File:Martin Luther King's Boyhood Home.jpg|thumb|left|King's childhood home in [[Atlanta]]]]

At his childhood home, Martin King Jr. and his two siblings read aloud the [[Bible]] as instructed by their father.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=5}} After dinners, Martin Jr.'s grandmother Jennie, whom he affectionately referred to as "Mama" told lively stories from the [[Bible]].{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=5}} Martin Jr.'s father regularly used [[whipping]]s to discipline his children,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}} sometimes having them whip each other.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}} Martin Sr. later remarked, "[Martin Jr.] was the most peculiar child whenever you whipped him. He'd stand there, and the tears would run down, and he'd never cry."{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=14}} Once, when Martin Jr. witnessed his brother A.D. emotionally upset his sister Christine, he took a telephone and knocked A.D. unconcious with it.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} When Martin Jr. and his brother were playing at their home, A.D. slid from a banister and hit Jennie, causing her to fall unresponsive.{{sfn|Oates|1983|pp=8–9}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} Martin Jr. believing her dead, blamed himself and attempted [[suicide]] by jumping from a second-story window,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} but rose from the ground after hearing that she was alive.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}}

Martin King Jr. became friends with a white boy whose father owned a business across the street from his home.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}} In September 1935, when the boys were about six years old, they started school.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. |first=Alan |last=Pierce |url=https://archive.org/details/assassinationofm0000pier |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/assassinationofm0000pier/page/14 14] |year=2004 |publisher=Abdo Pub Co |isbn=978-1-59197-727-8 }}</ref> King had to attend a school for black children, Yonge Street Elementary School,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=13}} while his playmate went to a separate school for white children only.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=13}} Soon afterwards, the parents of the white boy stopped allowing King to play with their son, stating to him, "we are white, and you are colored".{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=4}} When King relayed this to his parents, they talked with him about the history of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] and [[Racism in the United States|racism in America]],{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=14}} which King would later say made him "determined to hate every white person".{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=10}} His parents instructed him that it was his [[Christians|Christian]] duty to love everyone.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=14}}

Martin King Jr. witnessed his father stand up against [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] and [[Discrimination based on skin color|discrimination]].{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=15}} Once, when stopped by a police officer who referred to Martin Sr. as "boy", responded sharply that Martin Jr. was a boy but he was a man.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=15}} When Martin Jr's father took him into a shoe store in downtown Atlanta, the clerk told them they needed to sit in the back.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=9}} Martin Sr. refused asserting "we'll either buy shoes sitting here or we won't buy any shoes at all", before leaving the store with Martin Jr.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=10}} He told Martin Jr. afterward, "I don't care how long I have to live with this system, I will never accept it."{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=10}} In 1936, Martin Sr. led hundreds of African Americans in a [[civil rights]] march to the [[city hall]] in Atlanta, to protest [[voting rights]] discrimination.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=8}} Martin Jr. later remarked that Martin Sr. was "a real father" to him.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=12}}

Martin King Jr. memorized [[hymns]] and Bible verses by the time he was five years old.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}} Beginning at six years old, he attended church events with his mother and sing hymns while she played piano.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}} His favorite hymn was "I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus"; his singing moved attendees.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=9}} King later became a member of the junior choir in his church.<ref>{{cite book|title=Martin Luther King Jr.: Young Man with a Dream|first=Dharathula H.|last=Millender|pages=[https://archive.org/details/martinlutherking00mill_0/page/45 45–46]|year=1986|isbn=978-0-02-042010-1|publisher=Aladdin|url=https://archive.org/details/martinlutherking00mill_0/page/45}}</ref> He enjoyed opera, and played the piano.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=13}} King garnered a large vocabulary from reading dictionaries.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} He got into physical altercations with boys in his neighborhood, but oftentimes used his knowledge of words to stop or avoid fights.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=13}} King showed a lack of interest in grammar and spelling, a trait that persisted throughout his life.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=13}} In 1939, King sang as a member of his church choir dressed as a [[slave]], for the all-white audience at the Atlanta premiere of the film ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]''.<ref name="katznelson">{{cite book| last=Katznelson| first=Ira| page=[https://archive.org/details/whenaffirmativea00katz/page/5 5]| title=When Affirmative Action was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America| isbn=0-393-05213-3| year=2005| publisher=WW Norton & Co| url=https://archive.org/details/whenaffirmativea00katz/page/5}}</ref>{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=11}} In September 1940, at the age of 11, King was enrolled at the Atlanta University Laboratory School for the [[seventh grade]].{{sfn|Boyd|1996|p=23}}<ref>{{cite web |title=King enters seventh grade at Atlanta University Laboratory School |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-enters-seventh-grade-atlanta-university-laboratory-school |website=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=September 17, 2020 |date=June 12, 2017 |archive-date=April 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427032434/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-enters-seventh-grade-atlanta-university-laboratory-school |url-status=live }}</ref> While there, King took violin and piano lessons and showed keen interest in history and [[English studies|English]] classes.{{sfn|Boyd|1996|p=23}}

On May 18, 1941, when King had sneaked away from studying at home to watch a parade, he was informed that something had happened to his maternal grandmother.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=12}} After returning home, he learned she had a heart attack and died while being transported to a hospital.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}} He took her death very hard and believed that his deception in going to see the parade may have been responsible for God taking her.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}} King jumped out of a second-story window at his home but again survived.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=14}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=15}} His father instructed him that Martin Jr. should not blame himself and that she had been called home to God as part of God's plan.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=16}} Martin Jr. struggled with this.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}} Shortly thereafter, Martin Sr. decided to move the family to a two-story brick home on a hill overlooking downtown Atlanta.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=13}}