The identify we acknowledge immediately as one of the vital highly effective voices in the course of the Civil Rights Motion, Martin Luther King Jr., was initially not named “Martin Luther.” His father determined to alter their names when he was only a toddler. The explanation why could shock you.
Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. was on a multinational journey in 1934 with the Baptist World Alliance when he had the concept, in accordance with 1517. He had joined with the Fifth World Congress of Baptist, which attracted clergy and congregations members from a number of nations to fulfill in Berlin, Germany. The occasion was in 1934, one 12 months after Adolf Hitler grew to become chancellor, per the group. There, King Sr. discovered the historical past of Protestant reformer Martin Luther.
In case you didn’t know, the OG Martin Luther was the founding father of the Protestant Church from the place the Baptist religion was birthed years later. He was recognized for his criticisms of the unethical practices of the Catholic Church, per the Musée Protestant. Whereas stirring controversy, Luther’s research in Theology led to the reformation of the Church in addition to a brand new translation of the Bible. His concepts unfold like wildfire throughout Europe, influencing faith and the humanities.
Impressed by his work, King Sr. determined to take his identify. See, Martin Luther King Sr. was initially Michael King Sr.
“[King Sr.’s] mom insisted that she named him Michael, after the archangel Michael,” stated King scholar Patrick Parr, writer of “The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age,” per North Jersey.com.
After adopting the identify, the reverend additionally modified his son’s identify from Michael King Jr. to Martin Luther King Jr. The longer term rights chief was simply 5 years outdated on the time. By the Nineteen Sixties, in his prime, King Jr. traveled to East Berlin himself to evangelise and acknowledge the historical past of his identify.
“Expensive Christian buddies of East Berlin, I come to you not altogether as a stranger, for the identify that I occur to have is a reputation so acquainted to you, so acquainted to Germany, and so acquainted to the world, and I’m pleased that my mother and father determined to call me after the good Reformer,” he stated to the gang, per 1517.