There are many people in this world who have shown great courage and tried to make the world a better place. Among these people, one of them is Martin Luther King Jr. He made the world a better place for black citizens by doing non-violent movements and marched towards freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta Georgia as Michael King Jr., but changed his name to Martin Luther King Jr. in honor of the Protestant Martin Luther. Through his activism, King played a critical role in ending legal discrimination against African American citizens. During his childhood, Martin Jr.'s father strongly viewed racism and segregation as an affront to God's will and strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children. This left a lasting impression on Martin Luther King Jr. When Martin was 12 years old, his grandmother died of a heart attack. He was so distraught by the news that he attempted suicide in his family home in May 1941 (Martin Luther King Jr., Biography). He blamed himself for his grandmother's death because her 6-year-old son, while he should have been at home watching his 6-year-old brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King, was out watching a parade, and his younger brother caused his senses to his grandmother as she slipped down a railing (8 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Martin Luther King Jr., Bijan C. Bayne). Martin began to grow into his late teens, early twenties, and became much more mature. On December 1, 1955, 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus after work. He sat in the front row of the colored section. When she was asked to move, she refused, resulting in her arrest. The night Rosa Parks was arrested, the head of the local NAACP put me...... at the center of the paper ......and the interests of the poor of all races. In 1968, King announced that the Poor People's March would gather in Washington on April 22. Meanwhile, in Memphis, Tennessee, black workers were demanding and protesting for better wages and working conditions. This protest soon spread across the city, with unjust treatment ranging from police brutality to intolerable school conditions. In March, King traveled to Memphis to lead the protest. The march ended due to vandalism and looting by young, frustrated blacks. On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther spoke at a rally. He spoke about the threats to his life and encouraged his followers to continue the nonviolent struggle, whatever happened to him. The following night, at 6pm, King was on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel when he was hit by a rifle bullet. At 7pm he was identified dead at a Memphis hospital.