Each year, on the third Monday of January, Americans honor the life of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Born in Atlanta on Jan 15, 1929, the Baptist minister was one of the most influential leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, a gifted orator, and a passionate humanitarian.
Decades after his assassination in 1968, those of us who were not around during his lifetime are still keenly attuned to his legacy. We learn about him in elementary school, watch YouTube videos of his speeches, and share memes of his most powerful quotes. (Here’s one, while we’re on the topic: “Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be the sun, be a star, for it isn’t by size that you win or you fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”)
Few reading this will need reminding, then, that King was a Nobel Peace Prize-winning proponent of nonviolent activism or that he preached the power of forgiveness. A vast number of us can likely recite some portion of his iconic March on Washington address, and many are even aware that its most famous portion almost wasn’t uttered at all.
But did you know he was a big-time Trekkie? Yes, that’s right, a Trekkie — as in, a Star Trek fan. The TV series premiered in 1966, and apparently, it was the only one King let his kids stay up late to watch — in part because of its progressive representation of African Americans. In honor of today’s holiday, we rounded up lesser-known facts like this one to shed more light on the activist’s personal life. Keep reading to learn more.
Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t his original name
When baby MLK greeted the world, he was given the name Michael King Jr. But in 1934, his father, Michael King Sr., who was also a pastor, traveled to Berlin to attend the World Baptist Alliance.
On that trip, he visited locations associated with the 16th-century German theologian Martin Luther, who sparked the Protestant Reformation by challenging corruption in the Catholic Church. Inspired by the religious leader, King Sr. changed both his and his son’s names upon his return to the States.
He entered college at age 15
It’s evident to anyone who’s read “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” just how intelligent King was. That profound acuity — along with an enrollment decline due to World War II — helped him gain acceptance to Morehouse College at age 15. But while he’d been a standout in earlier education, he initially struggled at the higher level institution.
The following is excerpted from his autobiography, which was compiled and published posthumously: “I shall never forget the hardships that I had upon entering college, for though I had been one of the top students in high school, I was still reading at only an eighth-grade level. I went to college from the eleventh grade. I never went to the twelfth grade, and skipped another grade earlier, so I was a pretty young fellow at Morehouse.”
King graduated in 1948 with a bachelor’s in sociology, and was ordained that same year.
He’s one of only two people whose birthdays are honored with federal holidays
George Washington is the only other individual whose birthday is honored with a federal holiday — meaning mandated as a paid day off for federal employees. The holiday was established in 1983, signed into law by President Ronald Regan, after a 15-year campaign. The legislation was originally introduced just four days after his assasination in 1968.
It is currently the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service, an encouragement for “all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities,” per the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
He had his first conversation with wife Coretta Scott King over the phone
In 1952, King was living in Boston when he was introduced to Coretta Scott after asking a friend if she knew any “nice, attractive young ladies” she could set him up with, per King’s autobiography. The friend provided Scott’s phone number, and the pair “met over the telephone,” talking for “a while” before deciding to go on a date.
When they met in person, King was impressed to find that Scott — who was a singer and student at the New England Conservatory of Music — wanted to discuss racial equality and peace, and he learned she was already active in movements addressing both issues. According to King, his mind was made up “after an hour,” at which point he said to her: “So you can do something else besides sing? You’ve got a good mind also. You have everything I ever wanted in a woman. We ought to get married someday.’” The pair wed the following year and went on to have four children.
The King family paid the hospital bills for Julia Robert’s birth
A few years back, a clip of Julia Roberts sharing the story of her family’s connection to the Kings made the rounds on social media, but many people still aren’t in the know. As the actor explained during a live event in September 2022, the King family met the Roberts family through an integrated theater school the latter ran in Atlanta in the 1960s, per NPR.
“And one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school, ’cause they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids, and my mom was like, ‘Sure come on over,'” Roberts said. “And so they all just became friends and they helped us out of a jam.”
That “jam” was Roberts’ parents being unable to afford the hospital bills upon her birth in 1967, so the Kings covered the cost. After the sweet anecdote went viral, Bernice King — Martin and Coretta’s youngest daughter — tweeted about how touching it was to hear again: “I know the story well, but it is moving for me to be reminded of my parents’ generosity and influence.”
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