Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

[Thiel]

Next Monday, Americans will enjoy a national holiday in honor of a man who helped shape the second half of the 20th century and American history. So important was Martin Luther King Jr.'s contribution to American life that he is one of only three people to have a national holiday in his honor — the other two being George Washington and Christopher Columbus.

King never operated on any patients because he wasn't that kind of doctor. He was a doctor of the academic variety, earning a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University in 1955. Prior to that he earned a bachelor of divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary.

His father, Martin Luther King Sr. received a bachelor's degree in theology in 1931 and led the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta as its pastor for 40 years.

His birth name was Michael, as was his father's. A 1934 trip to Germany, the birthplace of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, prompted King Sr. to change his first name to Martin. He changed his son's name, too. His son was 5 years old at the time.

MLK Jr's first job was pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. After preaching there for six years, King Jr. served until his death as a co-pastor at his father's church in Atlanta, the city he called home until his assassination.

[Herman]

Americans get a day off work in January. That is what they know. We have Truth and Reconciliation Day in September. Nobody sits and reflects.

[Oliver the Second]

MLK was a trekker and that's good enough for me. He and Roddenberry thought alike.

[Herman]

MLK was a trekker and that's good enough for me. He and Roddenberry thought alike.

King was a trekkie? Damn, I would not have guessed that.