1. Home
  2. Parenting & Family
  3. Genealogy
photo of Kimberly Powell

Kimberly's Genealogy Blog

By Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide to Genealogy since 2000

Ancestry of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday April 4, 2008
Martin Luther King, Jr. with wife and children Yolanda and Martin III. Photo: New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)Forty years ago, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking sanitation workers protesting poor wages and working conditions. That visit, unfortunately, ended in tragedy as the 39-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed outside his hotel room on April 4, 1968. While Dr. King was best known as the nation's chief civil rights leader, however, he was first and foremost a pastor - descended from a long line of pastors. His father was a pastor. His maternal great-grandfather was a pastor. Several of his uncles were preachers and pastors. Preaching was very much a part of his family history. I'm sure he made his ancestors proud.

Comments

No comments yet. Leave a Comment

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Explore Genealogy

More from About.com

  1. Home
  2. Parenting & Family
  3. Genealogy

©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.