A poster commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the hallway of Paul Robeson High School. Photo by Delilah Baker.

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by a student in our Urban Youth International Journalism Program in partnership with Donoghue Elementary School. The UYIJP is generously funded by the McCormick Foundation.

Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the civil rights movement. Sadly, he was shot. He was a great leader and a pastor following in his father’s footsteps. King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was very little when he first wondered why blacks and whites were segregated. He didn’t graduate from high school, but instead went straight to Morehouse College at the age of 15.  Then, in 1954, he became a pastor at the age of 25.

He married Coretta Scott and had four children, named Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice. King was very passionate. He met Rosa Parks at the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was angry about the way blacks were treated and how the whites were treated better than them.

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