35 Interesting Facts About Martin Luther King Jr.

Here are 35 Interesting Martin Luther King Jr. facts.

1-5 Martin Luther King Facts

1. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. said to his wife, “This is what is going to happen to me also. I keep telling you, this is a sick society.” – Source

2. 2000 was the first year Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all 50 states. – Source

3. In 1964 the FBI attempted to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. into suicide by threatening to make public his sexual indiscretions. – Source

4. A plaque honoring Martin Luther King Jr. mistakenly thanked his assassin, James Earl Ray, instead of actor James Earl Jones. When officials received their plaque they were horrified to discover that it bore an inscription thanking James Earl Ray for “keeping the dream alive.” – Source

5. In December 1939, a ten-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. was dressed as a slave and sang in a boy’s choir at the premiere of the film “Gone With the Wind.” Two black actresses in the film were prevented from attending the premiere due to segregation laws. – Source

6-10 Martin Luther King Facts

6. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized his dissertation on systematic theology in college. – Source

7. The longest interview Martin Luther King Jr. ever gave to a publication was to Playboy. – Source

8. Samuel L Jackson was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr’s funeral and a year later took Martin Luther King Sr. hostage. – Source

9. There are over 900 streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. – Source

10. Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas celebrate Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s birthday the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. – Source

11-15 Martin Luther King Facts

11. Martin Luther King Jr’s son met James Earl Ray asking him, “I just want to ask you, for the record, um, did you kill my father?” Ray replied, “No-no I didn’t,” and King tells Ray that he, along with the King family, believed him; the King family urged that Ray be granted a new trial. – Source

12. After the death of Martin Luther King Jr., his wife, Coretta Scott King, received many telegrams, including one from the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, which Coretta said touched her the most. – Source

13. Martin Luther King Jr. is engraved over the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey along with nine other ’20th Century Martyrs’. – Source

14. Walmart had to apologize in 2006 for their website recommending “Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream/Assassination of MLK” as a similar item when customers searched for “Planet of the Apes”. – Source

15. Martin Luther King Jr. arguably gave his most emotional speech in which he expressed that he was afraid he wouldn’t see his dreams realized, a day before he was shot. – Source

16-20 Martin Luther King Facts

16. Martin Luther King Jr. was Republican because the Democrat Party was, the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation, and socialism. – Source

17. U2’s lyrics for “Pride (In the Name of Love)” are wrong, because when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed (45 years ago today!), it was 6:05 p.m. and not ““Early morning, April 4.” – Source

18. Martin Luther King Jr. engaged in extramarital affairs throughout his life. “MLK understood and believed in the biblical prohibition against sex outside marriage. It was just that he had a particularly difficult time with that temptation.” – Source

19. Martin Luther King Jr. had a cameo in a (banned) 1967 Swedish Art Film. – Source

20. In 1999, Martin Luther King Jr.’s family won a court case that there was a massive conspiracy to assassinate Reverend King, involving the Memphis police and several government agencies. – Source