Martin Luther King Jr. Reading Comprehension Lesson

Early Life and Education

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in a middle-class family; his father was a Baptist minister and his mother was a schoolteacher. Martin was an exceptionally gifted student. He skipped two grades and entered Morehouse College at the age of 15. After graduating from Morehouse, he earned a divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary and then a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University. He was deeply influenced by the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, who had led nonviolent resistance movements in India.

As a young man, Martin experienced racial segregation firsthand. In the Jim Crow South, Black Americans were legally required to use separate schools, restaurants, water fountains, and buses. Discrimination was enforced not just by law but by violence and intimidation. Despite the injustice around him, Martin committed himself to changing the world through peaceful means — a philosophy he called nonviolent direct action.

In 1954, Martin Luther King Jr. became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Just a year later, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus. King was chosen to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott — a 381-day protest in which Black residents refused to ride city buses. The boycott ended with a Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. King was just 26 years old, and he had already become a national figure.

The March on Washington and Legacy

Dr. King became the central leader of the Civil Rights Movement, organizing and speaking at marches, sit-ins, and demonstrations across the South. He was arrested multiple times, his home was bombed, and he received death threats regularly. Yet he never wavered from his commitment to nonviolence. In April 1963, he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” while imprisoned for leading a nonviolent protest, arguing that people have a moral duty to disobey unjust laws.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. King addressed more than 250,000 people at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom — one of the largest political demonstrations in American history. It was there, standing at the Lincoln Memorial, that he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, describing his vision of an America where people would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The speech is widely considered one of the greatest in American history. The following year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize — the youngest person ever to receive it at the time.

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old. His death sent shockwaves across the nation and the world. Today, the third Monday of January is celebrated as Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a federal holiday in his honor. His dream of equality, justice, and human dignity continues to inspire people around the world.

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