Martin Luther King Jr: A True American Hero

In this notable men’s article we’re are going to be talking about Martin Luther King Jr and why he was such an influential person that helped shaped America for the better.

Even though most of the stuff I’ll be covering here is what a lot of us already know about him I’ll try to cover some information that you might not know as well.

Who Was He MLK Jr

MLK was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Many people look at MLK and think he is the sole person for truly help end segregation, even though this isn’t true there were many people that played major parts in helping end segregation he was the most important in my opinion.

Out of everything about MLK the one true word that really comes to mind when thinking about him is “a leader”.

People looked to him for advice on what to do & potentially what not to do and even though I’m sure he wasn’t sure what to do sometimes he never backed down from leading the people who followed him.

What Did MLK Jr Do

Well as we sort of touched on he was the leader through the civil rights movement who really was one of the key people that helped end segregation in the south.

Not only what he did is impressive but how he did it was what really stuck out to me. Most people, myself included would want to take on a situation such as this through confrontation, as in physically fighting to achieve “victory”.

That was not MLKs stance on how to go about making change and knew that doing this would not result in any changes but would also lead to making things worse.

History shows that most things that lead to change in any sort of way was through some sort of actual fighting, war if you will.

Very few times do you see a real victory through anything peaceful but that was the stance MLK took and he made it work through his very impressive speaking ability which led to many great speeches.

I for one have a hard time with public speaking, like a lot of other people do as well, so him even being able to not only talk in front of hundreds of thousands of people was impressive to me but he really moved people with his words that really resonated his message with the people listening to him.

In Memory Of MLK Jr

There has been numerous amounts of tributes and memorials created in his name since his death.

These monuments aren’t just located in the United States either, you can find them across the world dedicated to him.

Here is a good article listing some of them.

Out of all the things in remembrance to MLK the one thing that stands out the most to me is seeing & hearing his niece, Alveda King on t.v.

The way she presents her message on whatever issue she is talking about when I see her on the news is incredible.

No matter how complex the situation may be she seems to be able to layout a very easy to understand message on why she feels the way she does & what should be done (depending on the issue at hand).

That ability to do that is a natural ability in my opinion, not something you can teach and this is where I really see MLK traits really reflect through his niece.

Things You Might Not Have Known About Martin Luther King Jr

  • His birth name was Michael, not Martin.
  • He entered college at the age of 15.
  • He was jailed 29 times.
  • He narrowly escaped an assassination attempt a decade before his death.
  • King suffered from depression throughout much of his life.
  • He had a Ph.D

These are just to name a few, there are obviously many more in which you can find through websites like www.history.com & Wikipedia to name a few.