When Martin Luther King, Jr and his brother were playing at their home, his brother slid down a banister into their grandmother.  Their grandmother fell unconscious from the impact.  Martin thought his grandmother was dead and blamed himself for the tomfoolery that knocked her down.  Distraught over his guilt, Martin attempted suicide by jumping from a second story window.  He, thankfully, did not die nor did his grandmother.  

Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up the son of a Baptist preacher.  A preacher who believed in spare the rod, spoil the child and therefore, did not spare the rod.  King’s father would routinely whip his children and at times he would have the children whip each other.  By the time, King was 13, King began to question his upbringing and become skeptical of his Christian beliefs. 

In high school, King gave his first public competitive speech.  He won the contest.  But on the ride home from Atlanta, the bus was full and the driver demanded King and his high school teacher give their seats to fellow white passengers.  Fearing being arrested, King and his teacher stood the entire bus ride back to Atlanta from Dublin, Georgia.  King later wrote that this moment in time never left his memory.  The incident left him angry.  However, King took his anger and turned it into good.  

King became a legend.  He advanced civil rights for people of color through nonviolence.  Even though he had begun to doubt his Christian faith, he, drawing on Christian beliefs, led nonviolent protests against discrimination throughout the United States.  

Through it all, mistreatments, bombings, and an attempted suicide, Martin Luther King, Jr. learned to carry on. 

“If you can’t fly, then run.  If you can’t run, then walk.  If you can’t walk, then crawl but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.