Martin Luther King Jr.

==Religious education==
[[File:OldMainUpland.JPG|alt=A large facade of a building|thumb|King received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from [[Crozer Theological Seminary]] in 1951 (pictured in 2009).]]
{{see also|Martin Luther King Jr. authorship issues}}
King enrolled in [[Crozer Theological Seminary]] in [[Upland, Pennsylvania]],<ref name="mercer">{{cite book| title=To See the Promised Land: The Faith Pilgrimage of Martin Luther King, Jr.| page=[https://archive.org/details/toseepromisedlan0000down/page/150 150]| last=Downing| first=Frederick L.| publisher=Mercer University Press| year=1986| isbn=0-86554-207-4| url=https://archive.org/details/toseepromisedlan0000down/page/150}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance|last=Nojeim|first=Michael J.| page=179|isbn=0-275-96574-0| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2004}}</ref> and took several courses at the [[University of Pennsylvania]].<ref name="kinginstitute upenn">{{cite web|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-audits-courses-university-pennsylvania|title=King audits courses at University of Pennsylvania|publisher=Stanford University Archives and Records Center|work=The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute|access-date=July 21, 2023|url-access=subscription|archive-date=August 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230814040507/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-audits-courses-university-pennsylvania|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kinginstitute edu">{{cite web |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/mlk-topic/martin-luther-king-jr-education?page=2|title= Martin Luther King, Jr. – Education |publisher=Stanford University Archives and Records Center | work =The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612184435/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/mlk-topic/martin-luther-king-jr-education?page=2 |archive-date=June 12, 2018  }}</ref> At Crozer, King was elected president of the student body.{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=20–22}} At Penn, King took courses with [[William Fontaine]], Penn's first African-American professor, and [[Elizabeth F. Flower]], a professor of philosophy.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/martin-luther-king-jrs-time-studying-penn | title=Martin Luther King Jr.'s time studying at Penn | date=April 4, 2018 | access-date=September 11, 2023 | archive-date=October 6, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231006232419/https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/martin-luther-king-jrs-time-studying-penn | url-status=live }}</ref> King's father supported his decision to continue his education and made arrangements for King to work with [[J. Pius Barbour]], a family friend and Crozer alumnus who pastored at [[Calvary Baptist Church (Chester, Pennsylvania)|Calvary Baptist Church]] in nearby [[Chester, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baldwin |first1=Lewis V. |title=There is a Balm in Gilead: The Cultural Roots of Martin Luther King, Jr. |date=1991 |publisher=Fortress Publishing|isbn=0-8006-2457-2 |pages=281–282 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oeMI9gxa2QC |access-date=July 5, 2018}}</ref> King became known as one of the "Sons of Calvary", an honor he shared with [[William Augustus Jones Jr.]] and [[Samuel D. Proctor]], who both went on to become well-known preachers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baldwin |first1=Lewis V. |title=There is a Balm in Gilead: The Cultural Roots of Martin Luther King, Jr. |date=1991 |publisher=Fortress Publishing |isbn=0-8006-2457-2 |page=167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oeMI9gxa2QC |access-date=July 5, 2018}}</ref>

King reproved another student for keeping beer in his room once, saying they shared responsibility as African Americans to bear "the burdens of the Negro race". For a time, he was interested in [[Walter Rauschenbusch]]'s "social gospel".{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=20–22}} In his third year at Crozer, King became romantically involved with<ref name="Sanneh">{{cite magazine |last1=Sanneh |first1=Kelefa |title=The Voice |magazine=The New Yorker |date= |issue=May 15, 2023 |pages=62–63}}</ref> the white daughter of an immigrant German woman who worked in the cafeteria. King planned to marry her, but friends, as well as King's father,<ref name="Sanneh" /> advised against it, saying that an interracial marriage would provoke animosity from both blacks and whites, potentially damaging his chances of ever pastoring a church in the South. King tearfully told a friend that he could not endure his mother's pain over the marriage and broke the relationship off six months later. One friend was quoted as saying, "He never recovered."{{sfn|Frady|2002|pp=20–22}} Other friends, including [[Harry Belafonte]], said Betty had been "the love of King's life."<ref name="Sanneh" /> King graduated with a [[Bachelor of Divinity]] in 1951.<ref name="mercer"/> He applied to the University of Edinburgh for a doctorate in the School of Divinity but ultimately chose Boston instead.<ref>{{Cite web|date=January 28, 2015|title=To Hugh Watt|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/hugh-watt|access-date=January 21, 2022|website=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute|publisher=Stanford University|language=en|archive-date=January 21, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121103429/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/hugh-watt|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1951, King began doctoral studies in [[systematic theology]] at [[Boston University]],<ref name=Radin/> and worked as an assistant minister at Boston's historic [[Twelfth Baptist Church, Boston|Twelfth Baptist Church]] with William Hunter Hester. Hester was an old friend of King's father and was an important influence on King.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Baldwin|first1=Lewis V.|title=The Voice of Conscience: The Church in the Mind of Martin Luther King, Jr.|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-538031-6|url=https://archive.org/details/voiceofconscienc0000bald|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/voiceofconscienc0000bald/page/42 42]}}</ref> In Boston, King befriended a small cadre of local ministers his age, and sometimes guest pastored at their churches, including [[Michael E. Haynes]], associate pastor at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury. The young men often held bull sessions in their apartments, discussing theology, sermon style, and social issues.

At the age of 25 in 1954, King was [[religious calling|called]] as pastor of the [[Dexter Avenue Baptist Church]] in [[Montgomery, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/nationaldaysnati0000unse |url-access=registration | page=[https://archive.org/details/nationaldaysnati0000unse/page/314 314] | last=Fuller | first=Linda K. | publisher=Greenwood Publishing| year=2004| isbn=0-275-97270-4 | title=National Days, National Ways: Historical, Political, And Religious Celebrations around the World}}</ref> King received his PhD on June 5, 1955, with a [[dissertation]] (initially supervised by [[Edgar S. Brightman]] and, upon the latter's death, by [[Lotan Harold DeWolf]]) titled ''A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of [[Paul Tillich]] and [[Henry Nelson Wieman]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A comparison of the conceptions of God in the thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman|url=https://buprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ALMA_BOSU121651367690001161&vid=BU&search_scope=default_scope&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US&context=L&isFrbr=true|access-date=July 6, 2020|publisher=Boston University Library|archive-date=July 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706155623/https://buprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ALMA_BOSU121651367690001161&vid=BU&search_scope=default_scope&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US&context=L&isFrbr=true|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Radin/>

An academic inquiry in October 1991 concluded that portions of his doctoral dissertation had been [[plagiarism|plagiarized]] and he had acted improperly. However, {{nowrap|"[d]espite}} its finding, the committee said that 'no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King's doctoral degree,' an action that the panel said would serve no purpose."<ref name=Snopes>{{cite web |url=https://www.snopes.com/history/american/mlking.asp |title=Four Things About King |last=Mikkelson |first=David |date=July 19, 2003 |website=Snopes |access-date=March 14, 2011 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727202900/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/four-things-about-king/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Radin>{{cite news |title=Panel Confirms Plagiarism by King at BU |first=Charles A. |last=Radin |work=The Boston Globe |date=October 11, 1991 |page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html |title=Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King |date=October 11, 1991 |work=The New York Times |access-date=November 13, 2013 |archive-date=November 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131108033759/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/11/us/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The committee found that the dissertation still "makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship." A letter is now attached to the copy of King's dissertation in the university library, noting that numerous passages were included without the appropriate quotations and citations of sources.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol2/550415AComparisonOfTheConceptionsOfGod.pdf|title=King's Ph.D. dissertation, with attached note |access-date=November 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107223114/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol2/550415AComparisonOfTheConceptionsOfGod.pdf |archive-date=November 7, 2014}}</ref> Significant debate exists on how to interpret King's plagiarism.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ling |first=Peter |date=October 1996 |title=Plagiarism, preaching and prophecy: the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the persistence of racism [Review] |journal=[[Ethnic and Racial Studies]] |volume=19 |number=4 |pages=912–916 |doi=10.1080/01419870.1996.9993942 }}</ref>