Back in the Day: MLK was Michael before Martin

So, what is with Michael whom most of us know as Martin? I learned some years ago that the name on his original birth certificate, filed April 12, 1934, five years after King was born, was not Martin nor was it Luther. In fact, for the first years of his life, he was Michael King. A piece posted Jan. 17, 2022, at NorthJersey.com, titled “The Interesting History of the Real Name of Martin Luther King Jr – and Why It Was Changed” by Jim Beckerman provided insight into this name change.

King’s mother insisted on the name Michael after the archangel Michael, according to King Scholar Patrick Parr. But a trip to Germany in 1934 by both “Daddy King” and his 5-year-old son, lead to both father and son becoming Martin. This name change for them was a result of Daddy King becoming newly aware of the history of Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Church. It was not until July 23, 1957 at age 28 that Martin changed the name on his birth certificate after reconciling issues with a German priest and resolving mixed feelings about his new name.

Lily Rothman in a Times Magazine internet posting on Jan. 15, 2015 titled “What Martin Luther King, Jr. Was Like As A Child” provides insight into his early years. Rothman reports on two incidents that were indicative of Dr. King’s “turning the other cheek” philosophy at an early age. A school bully walloped him and Martin failed to fight back even though his brother encouraged him to do so. In a store, a white woman slapped him while crying and calling him the N-word when he accidentally stepped on her foot. Martin did nothing! These early memories of Dr. King revealed that he had an aversion to violence in all forms, back in the day, as he demonstrated later in life.

You may be surprised to learn what Harrison Smith wrote on Jan. 9, 2018, in a Washington Post Child’s internet piece, “What Was Martin Luther King Jr. Like As A Child: A Prankster and An Ordinary Kid” as it does not reflect the Martin Luther King, Jr. we have come to know. He would pop off the heads of his sister’s dolls and use them as baseballs. He frightened people walking down the street by tying one of his mother’s fox furs to a stick and poking it through a bush, pretending it was an animal. In an attempt to get out of piano lessons, he and his younger brother would fix the stool so that it collapsed when the music teacher sat down. Harrison Smith further pointed out that Dr. King hated doing dishes, loved ice cream and enjoyed the board game “Monopoly.” He was required to recite a Bible verse at the dinner table before eating, Smith said, and for several years his favorite was the shortest, simplest verse he could find — John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”

Yes, he was a real prankster and liked goofing off after school. “Still he was an ordinary kid,” said Marty Smith, a park ranger in the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, in an observation that appeared in the Harrison Smith article. Atlanta, like other cities in the south, was segregated, which meant that white and “colored” children could not typically use the same parks, schools, restaurants and stores. African American men and women were often treated with disrespect. According to Smith, King’s father taught him respect and the importance of standing up for what he felt was right. Smith shared a story of Dr. King and his father once shopping at a store where a clerk referred to his father as a “boy,” and his father said, “My son is a boy and I am a man, and you don’t speak to me that way.” Smith described another occasion when Dr. King and his father went to purchase new shoes. The clerk told them that they had to go to the back of the store as they “do not serve coloreds in the front of the store.” They proceeded to leave the store because they knew that this was disrespectful treatment. At home, Martin’s mother told him, “even though some people make you feel bad or angry, you should not show it. You are as good as anyone else.”

Dr. King was a strong student and began elementary school before the legal age but was not permitted to continue his education until he reached the age of six. He spent but two years in high school as he skipped the 9th and 12th grades and graduated from high school at age 15. He scored so high on his college entrance examine that he did not formally finish high school, and went to college in his junior year. Interestingly, while in school he wanted to be a fireman, and for a period focused on law before following in his family’s tradition by turning to religion. One subject in which he struggled in school was speech. It may surprise you to learn that in spite of Dr. King’s strong oratory skills, he received a C in public speaking while in divinity school.

As you reflect on the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps this glimpse of his life may provide hope that in spite of challenges in your life, or the lives of your children and grandchildren, the future can be significantly better in spite of the trials and tribulations suffered, and yes, prankster like behavior, back in the day.