50 Fun Facts About Martin Luther King Jr. Trivia for Kids

In which city was Martin Luther King Jr. born?

He was born on January 15, 1929, the second of three children.

What was Martin Luther King Jr.'s first name when he was born?

His father later changed both their names after a trip to Germany, where he visited places linked to the reformer Martin Luther.

Martin had an older sister and a younger brother. What was his sister's name?

His little brother was Alfred Daniel, known as A.D.

Which year of school did young Martin skip entirely?

He was such a strong student that he started college while still a teenager.

At 13, Martin became the youngest assistant manager of a delivery station for what?

The paper was the Atlanta Journal.

Where did Martin study after high school, following his father and grandfather?

He earned a degree in sociology there before training to be a minister.

What job did Martin Luther King Jr. do, besides being a civil rights leader?

He preached at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama and later at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta.

In which city did Martin Luther King Jr. study for his doctorate?

He studied theology at Boston University and helped out at a church there.

Who did Martin Luther King Jr. marry?

They met while he was studying for his doctorate and she was studying music.

What was his future wife studying when she met Martin?

She was at the New England Conservatory of Music and was a talented singer.

How many children did Martin and Coretta have?

Their names were Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice.

How old was Martin when he took charge of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama?

That church was at the heart of the city's Black community.

Which woman was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat, starting a famous boycott?

She is sometimes called the 'mother of the civil rights movement'.

What job did the woman whose arrest started the bus boycott do?

She sewed clothes for a living in Montgomery.

During the 1955 bus boycott, what did Black residents refuse to do?

The boycott began on December 5, 1955, and lasted more than a year.

Which leader from India inspired Martin Luther King Jr.'s peaceful way of protesting?

Gandhi's ideas were partly built on the American writer Henry David Thoreau.

Where did Martin Luther King Jr. give his 'I Have a Dream' speech?

More than 250,000 people came to Washington, D.C., to hear it.

On what date was the 'I Have a Dream' speech given?

It was the high point of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Which singer is said to have shouted 'Tell them about the dream!' during his speech?

She was his friend and later sang his favourite hymn at his funeral.

What big international award did Martin Luther King Jr. win in 1964?

He won it for fighting racial inequality without violence.

Which magazine named Martin Luther King Jr. its Person of the Year for 1963?

In 2000 the same magazine's readers voted him sixth 'Person of the Century'.

From which city's jail did Martin Luther King Jr. write a famous open letter in 1963?

He wrote it after being arrested during peaceful protests in Alabama.

The 1965 Selma marches went from Selma to which city, the capital of Alabama?

The route was about 54 miles long.

The Selma marchers crossed a bridge named after which man?

About 600 marchers set out on March 7, 1965, a day remembered as Bloody Sunday.

What was Martin Luther King Jr. planning in 1968 to help struggling Americans of every race?

It was to be a huge gathering in Washington, D.C.

Whom did Martin Luther King Jr. travel to Memphis to support in 1968?

The city's garbage collectors were on strike for better treatment.

How old was Martin Luther King Jr. when he died in 1968?

He was born in 1929 and died on April 4, 1968.

Which president signed the law creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983?

The holiday was first celebrated three years later, in January 1986.

On which day is Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrated?

It falls close to his birthday, January 15.

Which musician released the song 'Happy Birthday' in 1980 to help make Martin's birthday a holiday?

He also hosted a Rally for Peace press conference in 1981.

Which city holds the largest Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event in the country?

Many people spend the holiday volunteering to help others.

What is the big granite statue of Martin at his memorial in Washington, D.C., called?

The name comes from a line in his most famous speech.

In which year did the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington open to the public?

It took more than twenty years of planning and fundraising to build.

Which award did President Jimmy Carter give Martin Luther King Jr. in 1977, after his death?

He and Coretta were also given the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004.

Which organization did Martin's widow found in Atlanta to carry on his work?

She also worked for years to make his birthday a national holiday.

Where did Martin's future wife study after being top of her high school class?

She had been the top student at her high school, where she played trumpet and piano.

What was the title of Martin's 1958 book about the bus boycott?

He wrote several books; the last was called Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

Which of Martin Luther King Jr.'s children became CEO of the organization his widow founded, in 2012?

Bernice is the youngest of the four.

What was the job of Martin's grandfather Adam Daniel Williams?

He became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1894, and Martin's father later led it too.

While studying in Massachusetts, Martin helped out as an assistant at which historic church?

He worked there with the minister William Hunter Hester.

Which Vietnamese Buddhist monk did Martin nominate for the same award he had won in 1964?

The two men shared a belief in peace and became friends.

By what age had young Martin memorised hymns and Bible verses?

He grew up in a family of preachers, so church was a big part of his childhood.

At Crozer Theological Seminary, Martin was elected to what position?

He also took classes at the nearby University of Pennsylvania.

Which country did Martin's father visit in 1934 before renaming himself and his son?

He went to Berlin for a Baptist congress and saw places linked to Martin Luther; back home he changed both their names.

Where in Atlanta did Martin's father preach, and Martin later serve as co-pastor?

Martin later served there as co-pastor with his father from 1960 until his death.

Which school did young Martin start attending in Atlanta in 1935, aged about six?

He started in September 1935, aged about six, while his white playmate had to go to a separate school.

Martin was the first president of which group, founded in 1957 to organise peaceful protests?

He founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with ministers such as Ralph Abernathy and Fred Shuttlesworth.

In which Alabama town did Martin and Coretta get married, on the lawn of her parents' house?

The wedding was on June 18, 1953; their children were Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice.

How many times was Martin arrested during his life?

His 13th arrest, in Birmingham in 1963, was the one where he wrote the famous Letter from Birmingham Jail.

In 1966 Martin moved into a run-down apartment in which northern city to stand with the poor?

He and Ralph Abernathy lived at 1550 S. Hamlin Avenue in the North Lawndale slums on the city's West Side.