Bearing the Cross Characters & Character Analysis

Bearing the Cross Important People

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born Michael Luther King Jr. in January of 1929, the son of Michael and Alberta King. King's grandfather and father were both pastors. Williams, King's grandfather, made a name for himself as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time of his death, King's father took over the church and saved it from bankruptcy in less than a year. It was in this atmosphere that King grew up, exposing him to the power of preacher's sermons. King was a born orator, but briefly considered a career in the law or medicine due to a crisis of faith. However, college helped King to see religion in a light different from the one with which he grew up.

King was highly intelligent, and entered college at an early age thanks to an experimental school he attended that pushed his academic achievements higher than...
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