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TEACHER MATERIALS · PRE-INTERMEDIATE (A2-B1)

MARTIN LUTHER KING

Transcripts

3. Before you listen

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. He was born into a religious family,
and his father was a preacher. When King was growing up, black people in the southern part of
the US did not have equal rights. But he believed in non-violent solutions to this problem, and he
was involved in many social and political events. He went to a good religious school in Pennsylvania
where his teachers saw him as an excellent student. Later, he was accepted by many universities,
including Yale, but he chose to go to Boston University. He graduated at the age of 25 and became
a pastor in Alabama.

King was very good at public speaking. He became a leader for many black people who believed in
freedom for everyone. In 1960, he and 50 other African Americans went into a department store
and asked to be treated like white people. At that time, African Americans could purchase items
from the store but they were not allowed to try on clothes or sit at a table in the restaurant, which
was called the Magnolia Room. The 51 protesters sat in the Magnolia Room until the police arrived
and arrested every one of them.

King worked hard to organize a big demonstration in 1963 in Washington D.C. There were over
200,000 people and it was there that he gave his famous speech ‘I have a dream’. This started a big
change across the country, and in 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr King wanted bigger and faster changes. He wanted white and black people to live together in
peace.

On April 4th 1968, while standing on a balcony in Memphis, he was shot dead by a sniper. After his
murder, people of different skin colour were crying and equal treatment finally began.

Today Americans celebrate his birthday every year, on the third Monday of January.

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