On Jan. 15, 1929, a baby boy was born in Atlanta to a Baptist minister and his wife. He was named Michael. Later on, the father would change the boy's name to Martin, in honor of Martin Luther, a minister and reformer who had lived in Germany in the 1500s.
The boy admired his father and grandfather, who both were ministers. So when he was old enough, he attended the same college as his father and his grandfather: Morehouse College. Afterward, he graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary and became a Baptist minister himself. He was African American.