Martin
Luther King was born on the 15th of January, 1929, inAtlanta, Georgia,
in the deep South. He lived with his parents, grandmother, brother and sister.
He was an intelligent boy. When he was young, Martin often went to church
because his family was very religious.
Martin's first experience of racism was when
a white woman told him not to play with her little boys. But Martin didn't
think he was inferior, because his parents always told him that black and white
people were equal.
At the age of fifteen, he made an excellent
speech at school and won a prize. On the way home from school, the bus was full
and the driver told Martin and his teacher (who was also black) to give their
seats to two white passengers. Martin didn't want to and the driver insulted
him. In the end Martin stood up, but he never forgot the experience.
When he was at college he read a lot and the
person who influenced him most was the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Martin
liked his ideas about peaceful protest.
In 1965 Martin started to organize a boycott
of buses. Black people stopped using the buses because they had to give up
their seats to whites. White extremists attacked black people and bombed
Martin's house. In the end blacks and whites were able to sit together in
buses. In was Martin Luther King's first victory. In the 1960s there was
terrible racial violence between blacks and whites in the USA. Martin
organized marches and peaceful demonstrations. He went to prison seventeen
times.
In 1963 he organized a match to Washington and a quarter
of million of people came to the meeting. This is where he made his famous
speech. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in
a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the
content of their character… all God's children, black men and white men,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of
that old Negro spiritual "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty,
we are free at last!"
In 1964 Martin Luther King received the Nobel
Peace prize. But there were more problems and more marches. In 1968 a white extremist
killed him.
II.Point out if the statement is
true (T) or false (F).
1.Martin Luther King was from the South
of the United States
2.Martin's first experience of racism
was with a bus driver.
3.He started making speeches when he
was at school.
4.Gandhi influences his ideas about
peaceful protest.
5.In 1964 he organized a successful
boycott of buses.
6.He went to prison sixteen times for
organizing protests.
7.He organized a march to Washington in 1963.
8.He made a famous speech there
beginning with the words: "I have a dream that…"
9.He received a Nobel Peace Prize in
1965.
10. A white extremist killed him in 1968.
III.Answer
the questions:
1.Was Martin Luther
King born in the North or in the South of the USA?