Who Is Martin Luther King Jr.? Age, Family and Legacy

The Short Answer: Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. is the Baptist minister and civil rights leader. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 and died at 39 on April 4, 1968.

If you searched 'who is martin luther king jr', this is the person: Martin Luther King Jr.

The full verified biography — career, family, and the facts behind the fame — follows below.

Martin Luther King Jr.: Biography Snapshot

According to Wikipedia, martin Luther King Jr.

The broader picture fills in from there. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights for in the United States through the use of nonviolence and sometimes civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of legalized discrimination, which most commonly affected African Americans. A Black church leader, King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and was the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), leading the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helping organize nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, and helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches during the 1965 Selma voting rights movement. There were dramatic standoffs with segregationist authorities, who often responded violently.

Taken together, those verified details trace a life story that is unusually well documented: every date, place, and milestone above comes from Martin Luther King Jr.'s published biographical record, and the sections below break the story into its key chapters.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Career Highlights

According to Wikipedia, king won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.

That body of work is what made Martin Luther King Jr. a household name — and it is also why questions about Martin Luther King Jr.'s age and family keep drawing millions of searches.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Family Life

Martin Luther King Jr.'s published biography does not foreground a marriage in its summary — the focus of the public record is on Martin Luther King Jr.'s professional life, and the family details that are documented appear below.

Beyond what the biographical summary confirms, Martin Luther King Jr. has kept family matters largely private — a common choice for figures whose fame rests on their work rather than their personal life.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Age in Context: A Timeline

One useful way to feel what Martin Luther King Jr.'s age means is to line up the verified career milestones against the calendar. Here is Martin Luther King Jr.'s life in years:

Reading the table top to bottom shows a career unfolding in real time — each row is a documented fact from Martin Luther King Jr.'s published biography, with the age derived directly from the birth date.

Martin Luther King Jr.: Fast Facts

For readers in a hurry, here is every key fact about Martin Luther King Jr. in one place — each verified against the published biographical record:

The sections above unpack each of these facts in full; the FAQ below answers the most common follow-up questions.

Why Everyone Asks About Martin Luther King Jr.

Searches for 'who is martin luther king jr' number in the thousands every month — and the reason is simple: Martin Luther King Jr. occupies that particular corner of fame where the work is universally known but the personal facts stay just out of reach. People encounter Martin Luther King Jr. through the Baptist minister and civil rights leader, and the next thing they want to know is the human context: how old, where from, who with.

That curiosity follows a pattern. For beloved public figures, age becomes a proxy for the passage of time itself — fans who grew up watching Martin Luther King Jr. want to calibrate their own memories against the calendar. 'How old is Martin Luther King Jr.' is really a way of asking: how long has this person been part of our lives, and where are they in their story now?

This article answers the question the thorough way: not just the number, but the verified birth date behind it, the family around it, and the career that filled the years in between — every fact traceable to the published biographical record.

Martin Luther King Jr.: In Greater Depth

For readers who want the fuller picture, here is what the published biographical record documents beyond the summary — the early years, the turning points, and the details that fill in the portrait:

In his final years, he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty and the Vietnam War. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was convicted of the assassination, though it remains the subject of conspiracy theories. King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2003.

Day was established as a holiday in cities and states throughout the United States beginning in 1971; the federal holiday was first observed in 1986. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011. Early life and education Birth Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, the second of three children of Michael King and Alberta King (née Williams). Alberta's father, Adam Daniel Williams, was a minister in rural Georgia, moved to Atlanta in 1893, and became pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in the following year.

Michael Sr. was born to sharecroppers James Albert and Delia King of Stockbridge, Georgia; he was likely of Mende (Sierra Leone) descent. He enrolled in Morehouse College to study for entry to the ministry. Michael Sr. and Alberta began dating in 1920, and married on November 25, 1926. Until Jennie's death in 1941, their home was on the second floor of Alberta's parents' home, where King was born.

Michael Jr. had an older sister, Christine King Farris, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel King. Shortly after marrying Alberta, King Sr. became assistant pastor of the Ebenezer church.

Those details come straight from the documented record of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, and they add depth to every fact in the sections above.

How These Facts Were Verified

Every factual claim in this article traces to a documented source — no estimates presented as facts, no rumors presented as news. The backbone is the published biographical record for Martin Luther King Jr., primarily the Wikipedia biography, which compiles birth dates, career milestones, and family details from primary reporting.

Relationship and family specifics are cross-checked against reputable outlets (Wikipedia, Britannica, Biography), the same publications that originally reported the marriages, births, and milestones described above. Where those outlets document a detail differently — a wedding with two ceremonies, for example — this article notes what each source confirms.

Ages are not looked up; they are computed directly from the verified birth date against the current date, so the number is exact rather than approximate. And where the public record is silent — a private family detail, an unconfirmed relationship — this article says so plainly instead of filling the gap. That discipline is what makes the answer trustworthy.

Where Is Martin Luther King Jr. Now?

Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011.

That is the verified picture of Martin Luther King Jr. in 2026: the Baptist minister and civil rights leader, died at 39, and a public record that keeps generating questions — the ones answered above, and the ones in the FAQ below.

Frequently Asked Questions

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