Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. come around once in a lifetime to share their wisdom with the world. Years after his assassination, there are still countless pages of truth associated with that wisdom.  Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated each year on the first Monday following his birthdate which is Jan. 15th.  It’s one of the few holidays left that still maintain its original meaning, and one of the last that hasn’t been commercialized beyond recognition.

You can indeed spend days and pages picking apart the many parts of his life that had an impact, going over each ad nauseum. However, on a personal level, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is still a symbol of hope and faith in this day and age where both have faded. Even with Black History Month wavering among the nation each year, Martin Luther King Day has maintained its importance in society. Most people are in agreement on this, and it will continue to be celebrated for generations to come. He is often described as having the best moral compass of any leader in history, and when you consider his legacy, it all fits.

He was almost guaranteed a life of greatness, thanks to the great lineage of his family. Both his father and grandfather were pastors at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Along with that family tradition intact, he also graduated from Morehouse College, like his father and grandfather before him. He was a man of sound principles that stuck to his morals of nonviolent action, even when violence was used against him and other people. Of note is that he was arrested 20 times, assaulted four times, and had his house bombed while promoting nonviolence as a peaceful figure and civil rights leader.

Dr. King Jr. is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient for all of the right reasons. In keeping with who he was, after winning the $54,123 associated with the honor, he donated it all to the civil rights movement. At the age of 35, he was the youngest recipient to receive such an honor at the time; therefore, turning over that kind of small fortune to your cause shows great respect. His legacy has impacted on not only African Americans, but the global community as a whole.

Source

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

http://old.seattletimes.com/special/mlk/king/biography.html