Martin Luther LEVELED BOOK • P

King Jr. Martin Luther

A Reading A–Z Level P Leveled Book
Word Count: 893
King Jr.

• P •S
M
Written by Bea Silverberg

Visit www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com

for thousands of books and materials.
Martin Luther
Photo Credits:
Front cover, pages 1, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15: © AP Images; back cover: © The
Granger Collection, NYC; page 3: © Betty Tichich/Houston Chronicle/AP Images;
page 4: © Vandell Cobb/Ebony Collection/AP Images; page 5: Courtesy of the

King Jr.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ppmsca-19305];
page 8: © James A. Mills/AP Images; page 9: © Gene Herrick/AP Images;
page 11: © Jack Moebes/Corbis; page 12: © Bettmann/Corbis

Martin Luther King Jr.

Level P Leveled Book Correlation
© Learning A–Z LEVEL P
Written by Bea Silverberg
Written by Bea Silverberg Fountas & Pinnell M
All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 28
www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com DRA 28
 Table of Contents

Life in the South........................................ 4

Starting His Work...................................... 8

Marches and Battles................................ 10

“I Have a Dream”...................................... 13

One Last March....................................... 15

Glossary.................................................... 16 The childhood home of Martin Luther King Jr.

Each January, Life in the South

Americans Martin Luther King Jr. was born on
celebrate Martin January 15, 1929. His father was a
Luther King Day. minister and his mother was a teacher.
We remember Martin and his sister and brother grew
a great African up in a busy, loving family. Martin
American leader did his homework, took music lessons,
who fought for and played sports. When he was nine-
civil rights— teen, he decided to become a minister
full freedom and like his father. After he married, he took
A girl marches in a Martin Luther
equality for all King Day parade. his first job at a church in the state of
people. Who was this man? Alabama.

Martin Luther King Jr. • Level P 3 4

Alabama is in the South, where African These unfair laws robbed blacks of
Americans lived under unfair laws for many rights. Black children had to
many years. Before the Civil War, most attend separate, poorer schools than
blacks had been slaves to white owners. white children. On buses, blacks had to
During the Civil War, President Abraham sit in the back seats—and give up those
Lincoln gave the slaves their freedom. seats if whites wanted them. Blacks and
But Southern states then passed new whites used separate drinking fountains
laws to keep blacks apart, or segregated, and restrooms with signs that read “For
from whites. Colored Only” or “For Whites Only.”

Abraham Lincoln

Children at an integrated school in Washington, D.C., in 1954

In 1954, the United States Supreme

Court decided that schools could not be
segregated by race. The Court ordered
schools to allow both black and white
students to attend. This decision made
some white people angry, including a
group called the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK.

Martin Luther King Jr. • Level P 5 6

Members of the KKK wore white robes Mohandas Gandhi
and hoods to hide their faces. They tried
to keep black people from working for
equality by scaring and hurting them.
Yet many other whites around the
country wanted equality for blacks.
Some worked along with blacks to gain
civil rights.

Starting His Work

Martin had read about Mohandas Gandhi
(mo-HAWN-dus GAWN-dee), the great
leader from India. Gandhi calmly refused
to obey unfair laws. Martin decided that
he, too, would calmly refuse to obey
unfair laws—in this case, the laws of
segregation. If enough people refused
to be segregated, Martin believed they
Hooded and robed KKK members burn a cross at a meeting. could win civil rights for everyone.

Martin Luther King Jr. • Level P 7 8

In 1955, a black woman named Rosa
Parks refused to give up her seat on a
city bus to a white man. After she was
arrested, Martin and other blacks began
a boycott. Instead of riding buses, they
walked or carpooled. They hoped their
boycott would force the city to end
segregation on city buses.

A police
officer takes
Rosa Parks’s
fingerprints in A church-operated station wagon provided transportation
Montgomery, to blacks during the Montgomery bus boycott.
Alabama.

Marches and Battles

Still, violence against blacks continued
The boycott went on for nearly a year. in the South. Several black churches in
Many whites were angry with Martin. Alabama were burned. Martin spoke
Someone even bombed his family’s out, saying, “We will not hate you, but
house. But the boycott ended in victory we will not obey your evil laws.” Brave
for African Americans. Soon after, the Americans kept working together to
Supreme Court decided that Alabama change those laws and win civil rights
buses could not be segregated. for everyone.

Martin Luther King Jr. • Level P 9 10

In 1960, small groups, often students,
began sit-ins at lunch counters where
only white people could be served. (A
sit-in is a form of protest in which people
sit somewhere and calmly refuse to
move.) While the blacks sat in their seats,
angry white people often pushed or beat
them. But the protest was successful.
By the end of the year, more than a
hundred Southern towns had begun
to serve blacks at their lunch counters.
Black marchers run for safety as they are sprayed with fire hoses
during the Birmingham March.

Martin hoped to stop segregation in

Birmingham, an Alabama city known for
its violence against African Americans. In
1963, Martin led the famous Birmingham
March. Many of those who marched were
children. Police officers sprayed them
with powerful fire hoses, and police dogs
attacked them. Some children were badly
hurt, and many were arrested. After
five days, more than 2,000 children filled
A 1960 sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter the jails.

Martin Luther King Jr. • Level P 11 12

 “I Have a Dream”  hey marched from the Washington
T
Sitting at home watching the news, Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.
shocked Americans saw the violence They marched for freedom, rights, and
in Birmingham. More and more people respect for all people. The cheering
understood the terrible ways in which crowd heard Martin give his famous
blacks were being treated. More and “I Have a Dream” speech. He shared his
more people wanted equal rights for dream that one day, the color of their
everyone. When Martin asked people to skin wouldn’t matter. All people would
march on Washington, D.C., more than be “free at last.” The Civil Rights Act,
250,000 black and white Americans which ended segregation in all public
marched with him. buildings, became a law the next year.

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, making it

Martin Luther King Jr. gives his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. a law.

Martin Luther King Jr. • Level P 13 14

 One Last March Glossary
The struggle for equality wasn’t over, boycott (n.) a refusal to buy or take
though. Many blacks were still poor. part in something in
Their lives were still hard. Martin kept order to force a change
working for better homes, schools, and (p. 9)
jobs for them. In the spring of 1968, civil rights (n.) legal, social, and
he went to help out on a strike held by economic rights that
some garbage workers. (During a strike, guarantee freedom
workers refuse to work until they win and equality for all
better pay or working conditions.) While citizens (p. 3)
there, Martin was shot by a white man. equality (n.) the condition in which
He died at age thirty-nine. everyone has the same
rights (p. 3)
People around the world felt shocked
and sad about his death. Martin Luther protest (n.) an action to express
King Jr. is remembered strong disagreement
as a man of peace and or disapproval (p. 11)
a champion of rights segregated (adj.) kept apart based on
and freedom for group differences,
people of every color. often race (p. 5)
This great man made violence (n.) force that hurts or
his dream a reality. destroys (p. 10)

Martin Luther King Jr. • Level P 15 16