As a minister, leader, civil rights activist, and effective communicator, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired many by his words of wisdom and life. He helped to change the mindset of generations with his challenge to live free.

But his life was also characterized by hardship and struggle, obstacles and trials. Though his life was not perfect, it’s said that he was most influenced by the words and teachings of Jesus. Through opposition and even through death, Dr. King overcame because of the power of Christ. Through peaceful means, choosing love and forgiveness, willing to stand courageously for what was right, the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. still challenges us today.

•  Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in 1929 and named Michael King, Jr. But after his dad, inspired by a trip to Germany and the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther, changed his own name to Martin Luther King, he also changed his son’s name to Martin Luther King, Jr. at the age of 5.

• At the age of 12, King’s grandmother died of a heart attack. He blamed himself for her death and even attempted suicide afterwards by jumping out of a second story window.

• King wrestled with bouts of depression during his growing up years. Though his father was a preacher, he was originally very skeptical about Christianity and struggled with doubt.

• It’s known that he later concluded the Bible has “many profound truths which one cannot escape” and decided to further his learning at seminary.

• He skipped both the 9th and 12th grades of high school but was able to begin college at the age of 15 after passing the entrance exam. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree at the age of 19.

• Dr. King went on from there to study theology at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he became the student body president. It is said that he made the choice to enter the ministry after deciding that the church offered the most assuring way to answer “an inner urge to serve humanity”.

• He and new wife Coretta Scott King married in 1953 and spent their first wedding night in a funeral parlor owned by a friend, because honeymoon suites were not available for African Americans at that time in history.

• Martin Luther King, Jr. first became a pastor at age 25 at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Then in 1959, five years later, he went on to co-pastor alongside his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA.

• 1956, the King’s home was bombed, in response to his involvement with the Montgomery Bus Boycott the year before. Though his wife and first born daughter were home at the time, no one, thankfully, was injured.

• In 1958, Dr. King was attacked at a Harlem book signing by a mentally ill woman. Reports say, “The stabbing nearly cost Dr. King his life, requiring hours of delicate surgery to remove Ms. Curry’s blade, a seven-inch ivory-handled steel letter opener, which had lodged near his heart. If he had so much as sneezed, his doctors later told him, he would not have survived.”

• He was arrested 30 times during his lifetime.