The Boyhood of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1984

foreign [Music] person in all the world who has done the most to work for peace this is the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 1964 in Oslo Norway this honor was awarded to Dr Martin Luther King Jr a 35 year old black American and the youngest man ever to receive the award he weren't because he was a leader of a peaceful movement to gain forever America no matter what color the rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that the constitution promises these are called civil rights the story of this man's life a story of great courage in a search for truth and Justice that would not be stopped began in Atlanta Georgia in the early 1940s with the Boyhood of Martin Luther King Jr ml that's what friends in Atlanta called Martin Luther King Jr when he was a boy his father Martin Luther King senior was one of Atlanta's leading black ministers and so was his grandfather before that everyone in that part of town knew and liked email's family and their house was always open to visitors growing up in many ways was a happy time for you now he lived with his mother father grandmother older sister and younger brother in a comfortable house in a middle-class neighborhood you know I had plenty of good food to eat and nice clothes to wear young Martin had many cremates before he started school some of them were black some of them were white but they enjoyed being together playing together sharing his good friend of color anyone else was then time to change that all too soon in there would learn all about Prejudice an ugly word that means simply to judge someone to be bad or wrong before really finding out anything about that person right people with blue eyes you made you made these bowls of crown or black or green eyes who are afraid of others who are different from him often turned their fear to prejudice against the others then they teach their children [Music] too much hate for any one person to handle Martin was hurt by it then when India was just six years old and was about to enter first grade something happened to his closest friend he was a white boy whose father owned a store across the street from the King home and Elle and his friend had always been together and what happened then wasn't anything they did but they will make friends again because one day his friend's mother told ml he couldn't play with her son anymore all she said was we are right and you are a negro and that was that whites went to White schools blacks to Black schools and friends were forgotten until then ml had felt he was equal to anybody the church was a very early influence on Martin in 1934 when inner was justified the traveling creature came to Atlanta to hold a big religious meeting at the Ebenezer Baptist Church where nl's Dad was pastor during the meeting the players saying [Music] and he clapped and waved their hands and sheltered mother made the origin for the heavy having an ML and grandmother Williams said in the Family Feud well Martin was learning again how people of different ages and backgrounds and abilities would get along [Music] amen [Music] would like to pray and have his prayers answered Maybe you need the Lord maybe your heart is troubled if so just open up your eyes and let the grace of God flow in all you got to do children is lift up your arms the preacher leaned forward and invited anyone who wanted to to come up and join the church come forward brothers and sisters come forward first ml stood up many raised for the pulpit as a boy he couldn't let anyone get buried just a need to keep up well maybe or maybe Martin wasn't in a hurry to let everyone know what was important to him and that church from equally and everyone held her out we were always important to church was in Hell's second home he was there every chance he got for Sunday School classes along with all the other boys and girls from the congregation there was so much he had to learn and this was such an important part of growing up and so were the worship services in church every Sunday then there was Sunday dinner yes ML and the church got along just fine and he gave direction to his Boyhood World it taught him to get along with people something he did as a boy and then for the rest of his life and to help people who needed a hand who had had a heart of life than me to get a fair chance more than most boys his own age ml grew up in an adult world you probably didn't realize how much he was learning at the time about life and about people he learned patience when he sensed something was wrong and he knew he was still too young to do much to change it his parents he learned by their example that all people are important The Young and the old the rich and the poor no matter what the color of their skin or where they came from that everyone should be treated with respect Daniel's father was a man who fought for the things he believed in when Martin was only seven Reverend King singer led the 1936 Atlanta march to fight for voting rights for blacks even earlier he knows grandfather wins had been pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church he also was one of the leaders in getting the city to build the book of T Washington High School the only high school for blacks in all Atlanta when ml was a boy Martin's father had worked his way through this high school and through Morehouse College too to become a minister a bane director a man that people looked up to so much in fact that he became one of the black spokesmen the city always called on in times of crisis Detroit Martin Jr to be proud of himself as a black boy when he took him out of elementary school for two years and sent into a special black school with five teachers from Atlanta University Emil studied hard and got good grades he learned about great black men by Frederick Douglass whom rules and slave to writer and Statesman from George Washington Carver a quiet genius who developed over 300 products from the lowly peanut in 118 from the sweet potato and her Booker T Washington educator leader friend of presidents these and on others were men who spent their lives helping their people they were great models for ML who was growing up fast when the special school closed and the mill came back Washington his grades were outstanding and his grandfather before him ml was to become a man with a doubt to do and Martin's Family taught him the value of working hard and playing hard he learned always to try his best even as a Minister's son ml delivered papers and experiment [Music] tired and he played hard in football and baseball games Finn said he played so hard you couldn't tell whether he was playing or fighting he didn't always we always try his best this way all his life this drive that was to make him a leader when he grew up [Music] as well on the playing field to stand up to competition and to stand up for his rights or others rights for what he believed in everything wasn't always perfect for ML life wasn't always happy long before he was in his teens inout had discovered what it meant to be black in a white man's country he remembered where his father had told him about the way blacks were treated on plantations and as each day passed young Martin made one Discovery after another he was a Preacher's Son but he couldn't buy lunch at downtown stores because he was black if he was thirsty and there wasn't a colored water fountain in sight he just had to stay thirsty if he was riding on the bus he'd have to sit in the back and if a white person got on and every seat was taken he'd have to give up his seat [Music] blacks had to ride in different taxes than whites as we've been told blacks went to separate schools and often the tools to learn were not exactly equal [Music] Prejudice came up again when blacks tried to work no matter how hard they may have trained for a trade they usually had to take work no one else wanted finally even though the Constitution had given blacks the same rights as every other American some people didn't see things that way these are just some of the things Emil had to learn things that have been happening before he was born and I continued as he grew up things that he knew were not fair at all [Music] when he became a man he would say it for everyone to hear [Music] one thing [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] Martin Luther King Jr did much to advance the cause of civil rights in America rights to equal education use of public facilities jobs and voting among others he did it peacefully because he knew he was right and an entire world watched that day in 1964 when the courageous young black American won his Nobel Prize growing up Martin Luther King Jr was like many other children but he learned how to pick a goal and stay with it he found out what was most important to him and he learned to recognize people who were a good influence on his life using your own abilities setting your own goals and sticking to them choosing the right kind of influence you more than you ever dreamed possible 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