Minister's Home / Dr. Martin Luther King
Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church
Side A
House built circa 1912. It has been the home of the ministers of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church since 1919. Its most famous occupant, Dr. Martin Luther King , lived here from Sept. 1954-Feb. 1960. During this time he lead the Bus Boycott launching an outstanding career as a world leader for civil rights and humanitarian causes. When a bomb damaged the house on January 31, 1956, Dr. King returned from a Boycott meeting and calmed an angry crowd from the porch, averting possible violence. From 1947-1952 the house was occupied by Dr. Vernon Johns, an earlier advocate of civil rights.
Side B
Dr. King became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in September, 1954. He led the Bus Boycott of 1955-56 as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. Leaving Montgomery in 1960 He went on to national leadership in civil rights, advocating non-violence. Accomplishments include: president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference: Selma -Montgomery March: March on Washington: Nobel Peace Prize. His work brought on a world social-humanitarian movement. He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, during an effort to secure laborers' rights.
Marker is on South Jackson Street, on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
