His mother took the children to Floyd Chapel Baptist Church to “ease the harsh tone of farm life” according to King (King, Sr., 26). On another occasion he had to subdue his drunken father who was assaulting his mother. King experienced a number of brutal incidents while growing up in the rural South, including witnessing the lynching of a black man. “We had no books, no materials to write with, and no blackboard,” he wrote, “But I loved going” (King, Sr., 37). The eldest son of James and Delia King, King, Sr., attended school from three to five months a year at the Stockbridge Colored School. King, Sr., was born Michael King on 19 December 1897, in Stockbridge, Georgia. Martin Luther King, Jr., credited his father with influencing his decision to join the ministry, saying: “He set forth a noble example that I didn’t following” ( Papers 1:363). In this we find we are to do something about the brokenhearted, poor, unemployed, the captive, the blind, and the bruised” (King, Sr., 17 October 1940). In a speech expressing his views on “the true mission of the Church,” Martin Luther King, Sr., told his fellow clergymen that they must not forget the words of God: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. Bob Fitch photography archive, © Stanford University Libraries
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