10 things you didn’t know about Martin Luther King Jr

His illustrious career as a civil rights activist yielded rich returns for generations of African Americans as he was instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Here are 10 little known facts about Dr Martin Luther King:

1. He puts the FUN in Funeral. Martin Luther King Jr and his wife Coretta Scott King spent their wedding night at a funeral palor. In the 1950s, the law prevented African Americans from staying in hotel suites owned by whites so Dr King called up a good friend who owned a funeral parlor and made arrangements to spend his wedding night with his new wife there.

2. He won a Grammy. Dr King was awarded for Best Spoken Word Album by the Recording Academy. The civil rights activist was known for his impressive oratory skills and was justly honoured posthumously in 1971 for his album Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam.

3. There are over 900 streets named in his honour all over the world. In the United States alone, there are over forty states with roads named after him. A seemingly fitting tribute since it has been reported that he had travelled over six million miles between 1957 until the year he passed in 1968.

4. He was the youngest person to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize. At the age of 35, Dr King made history which is ironic since he was beaten and arrested over 30 times.

5. His favourite food was fried chicken while he listed pecan pie as his favourite dessert.

6. Though his cause of death was listed as ‘assassination by firearm’, he has brushed death many times during his 39 year existence. At 12, it is alleged that King Jr jumped out the window of a two storey building – an act of attempted suicide as he tried to grapple with the death of his grandmother, Jennie.

7. He originally shared names with another famous Michael. In the 1930s, his father Michael Sr traveled to Europe and was inspired by Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. After changing his own name, he legally changed his son Michael Luther King to Martin.

8. Dr King was an outstanding student. At the age of 15, he skipped two grades in high school and enrolled as a freshman at Morehouse College. In 1948, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology.

9. Smoking may have contributed to his death in April 1968. A lifetime smoker, Martin never smoked around his wife and children. On the day of his assassination, James Earl Ray administered the fatal blow after the civil rights leader stepped onto the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

10. The “I Have a Dream” Speech was not King’s prepared speech. When Martin Luther King Jr stepped to the microphone on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, he began his prepared speech. Singer Mahalia Jackson reportedly shouted from behind the podium “Tell ’em about the dream, Martin!”. King Jr. then stopped his prepared remarks and began his now famous and largely improvised “I Have a Dream” speech, in front of the 250,000 people in attendance that day as well as for the news cameras from all across America.