Martin Luther King Jr.

===Morehouse College===
During King's junior year in high school, [[Morehouse College]]—an all-male [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black college]] that King's father and maternal grandfather had attended{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=19}}{{sfn|Davis|2005|p=10}}—began accepting high school juniors who passed the [[entrance examination]].{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Schuman|2014|loc=chpt. 2}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=9}} As [[World War II]] was underway many black college students had been enlisted,{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Schuman|2014|loc=chpt. 2}} so the university aimed to increase their enrolment by allowing juniors to apply.{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Schuman|2014|loc=chpt. 2}}{{sfn|Fleming|2008|p=9}} In 1944, aged 15, King passed the examination and was enrolled at the university that autumn.{{efn|There is some disagreement in sources regarding precisely when King took and passed the entrance exam in 1944. Oates (1993) and Schuman (2014) state that King passed the exam in the spring of 1944 before graduating from the eleventh grade and then being enrolled in Morehouse that fall. Manheimer (2005) states that King graduated from the eleventh grade, then applied and took the entrance exam before going to Connecticut, but did not find out he had passed until August 1944 when he was admitted. White (1974) states he took and passed the exam upon his return from Connecticut in 1944.}}{{sfn|Oates|1983|p=16}}{{sfn|Schuman|2014|loc=chpt. 2}}{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=19}}{{sfn|White|1974|p=25}}

In the summer before King started at Morehouse, he boarded a train with his friend—Emmett "Weasel" Proctor—and a group of other Morehouse College students to work in [[Simsbury, Connecticut]], at the [[tobacco farm]] of Cullman Brothers Tobacco.<ref name="tewa">{{cite news |last1=Tewa |first1=Sophia |title=How picking tobacco in Connecticut influenced MLK's life |url=https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/How-picking-tobacco-in-Connecticut-influenced-12802478.php |access-date=October 18, 2020 |work=Connecticut Post |date=April 3, 2018 |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124043013/https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/How-picking-tobacco-in-Connecticut-influenced-12802478.php |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="ctnbc">{{cite news |title=MLK Worked Two Summers on Simsbury Tobacco Farm |url=https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-worked-two-summers-on-simsbury-tobacco-farm/1947510/ |access-date=October 18, 2020 |work=NBC Connecticut |date=January 19, 2015 |archive-date=November 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129041936/https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-worked-two-summers-on-simsbury-tobacco-farm/1947510/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This was King's first trip into the [[Racial integration|integrated]] north.<ref name="jc"/><ref name="mk">{{cite news |last1=Kochakian |first1=Mary |title=How a Trip To Connecticut Changed Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life |url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2000-01-17-0001181153-story.html |access-date=October 18, 2020 |work=The Hartford Courant |date=January 17, 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230030434/https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2000-01-17-0001181153-story.html |archive-date=December 30, 2019}}</ref> In a June 1944 letter to his father King wrote about the differences that struck him: "On our way here we saw some things I had never anticipated to see. After we passed Washington there was no discrimination at all. The white people here are very nice. We go to any place we want to and sit anywhere we want to."<ref name="jc"/> The farm had partnered with Morehouse College to allot their [[salaries]] towards the university's [[tuition]], housing, and fees.<ref name="tewa"/><ref name="ctnbc"/> On weekdays King and the other students worked in the fields, picking tobacco from 7:00am to at least 5:00pm, enduring temperatures above 100&nbsp;[[Fahrenheit|°F]], to earn roughly USD$4 per day.<ref name="ctnbc"/><ref name="jc">{{cite news |last1=Christoffersen |first1=John |title=MLK Was Inspired by Time in Connecticut |url=https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-was-inspired-by-time-in-connecticut/1885278/ |access-date=October 18, 2020 |work=NBC Connecticut |date=January 17, 2011 |archive-date=May 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513091409/https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/mlk-was-inspired-by-time-in-connecticut/1885278/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On Friday evenings, the students visited downtown Simsbury to get milkshakes and watch movies, and on Saturdays they would travel to [[Hartford, Connecticut]], to see theatre performances, shop and eat in restaurants.<ref name="ctnbc"/><ref name="mk"/> On Sundays they attended church services in Hartford, at a church filled with white congregants.<ref name="ctnbc"/> King wrote to his parents about the lack of segregation, relaying how he was amazed they could go to "one of the finest restaurants in Hartford" and that "Negroes and whites go to the same church".<ref name="ctnbc"/><ref name="brindley">{{cite news |last1=Brindley |first1=Emily |title=Martin Luther King Jr.'s time in Connecticut was pivotal, but has never been thoroughly documented; that's about to change |url=https://www.courant.com/community/simsbury/hc-news-simsbury-martin-luther-king-jr-tobacco-20191113-mcp3mzoevbf37io2yixwp4fojq-story.html |access-date=October 19, 2020 |work=courant.com |date=November 13, 2019 |archive-date=July 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724083647/https://www.courant.com/community/simsbury/hc-news-simsbury-martin-luther-king-jr-tobacco-20191113-mcp3mzoevbf37io2yixwp4fojq-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="jc"/>

He played freshman football there. The summer before his last year at Morehouse, in 1947, the 18-year-old King chose to enter the [[Christian ministry|ministry]]. He would later credit the college's president, [[Baptists|Baptist]] minister [[Benjamin Mays]], with being his "spiritual mentor".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kelly|first=Jason|date=January 1, 2013|title=Benjamin Mays found a voice for civil rights|url=https://www.uchicago.edu/features/benjamin_mays/|access-date=June 6, 2020|website=The University of Chicago|language=en|archive-date=March 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309041036/https://www.uchicago.edu/features/benjamin_mays/|url-status=dead}}</ref> King had concluded that the church offered the most assuring way to answer "an inner urge to serve humanity", and he made peace with the Baptist Church, as he believed he would be a "rational" minister with sermons that were "a respectful force for ideas, even social protest."{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=18}} King graduated from Morehouse with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in sociology in 1948, aged nineteen.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Finkelman|first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UVgKAgAAQBAJ&q=MLK+BA+sociology&pg=PA889|title=Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-94704-0|language=en}}</ref>