Is the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. being forgotten? If you were to sit down and to ask most students about Martin Luther and what he did, they wouldn’t be able to reveal his true achievements that influenced so many people during that time. Before we started going on about this assignment in class, I was in the same boat as those other students. Yes I have learned a little here and there about Martin Luther in Elementary school and Middle school through movies and books but I have without doubt never gone this in depth. King was an amazing orator and presented himself effectively through the use of many types of figurative language. In his “I have a Dream” speech, he used anaphora after anaphora to emphasize his point and make it more memorable to the audience; while he also used metaphors. In his “Loving Your Enemy” sermon, he used many allusions to help show different points of view and again repetition to emphasize his work.
To begin with, Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15th, 1929 and grew up in Atlanta as Michael King Jr. He was the first son of a Baptist Minister and the grandson of a Baptist Minister. His Grandfather and then his Father both served as the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin’s forebears exemplified the African-American social gospel tradition that would shape his career as a reformer. King was the second child in the family, preceded by his sister, Christine King, and later followed by his brother Alfred King. Little Mike began Elementary school first at Yonge Street, then David T. Howard School and by 7th and 8th grade he attended Atlanta University Laboratory High school. All these schools were segregated public schools meaning the blacks were separated from the whites and didn’t have the same privileges as they did. Martin skipped 9th and 10th grade resulting in him graduating from high school at the age of