The name we recognize today as one of the most powerful voices during the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr., was originally not named “Martin Luther.” His father decided to change their names when he was just a toddler. The reason why may shock you.
Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. was on a multinational trip in 1934 with the Baptist World Alliance when he had the idea, according to 1517. He had joined with the Fifth World Congress of Baptist, which attracted clergy and congregations members from several countries to meet in Berlin, Germany. The event was in 1934, one year after Adolf Hitler became chancellor, per the organization. There, King Sr. learned the history of Protestant reformer Martin Luther.
If you didn’t know, the OG Martin Luther was the founder of the Protestant Church from where the Baptist faith was birthed years later. He was known for his criticisms of the unethical practices of the Catholic Church, per the Musée Protestant. While stirring controversy, Luther’s studies in Theology led to the reformation of the Church as well as a new translation of the Bible. His ideas spread like wildfire across Europe, influencing religion and the arts.
Inspired by his work, King Sr. decided to take his name. See, Martin Luther King Sr. was originally Michael King Sr.
“[King Sr.’s] mother insisted that she named him Michael, after the archangel Michael,” said King scholar Patrick Parr, author of “The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age,” per North Jersey.com.
After adopting the name, the reverend also changed his son’s name from Michael King Jr. to Martin Luther King Jr. The future rights leader was just five years old at the time. By the 1960s, in his prime, King Jr. traveled to East Berlin himself to preach and acknowledge the history of his name.
“Dear Christian friends of East Berlin, I come to you not altogether as a stranger, for the name that I happen to have is a name so familiar to you, so familiar to Germany, and so familiar to the world, and I am happy that my parents decided to name me after the great Reformer,” he said to the crowd, per 1517.