--- title: Martin Luther King Jr. Born Jan. 15, 1929 — What Was He Like as a Kid? description: Remembering his youth on what would have been his birthday canonical: https://time.com/3660258/mlk-childhood/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-15T12:00:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:24:58.789Z article:section: History og:title: Martin Luther King Jr. Born Jan. 15, 1929 — What Was He Like as a Kid? og:description: Remembering his youth on what would have been his birthday og:url: https://time.com/3660258/mlk-childhood/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacd0c12900c31c0d/698778f2e53abae09d4d6ee8/mlk.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Martin Luther King Jr og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Martin Luther King Jr. Born Jan. 15, 1929 — What Was He Like as a Kid? twitter:description: Remembering his youth on what would have been his birthday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacd0c12900c31c0d/698778f2e53abae09d4d6ee8/mlk.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Martin Luther King Jr. Was Like as a Child  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking before crowd of 25,000 on March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Ala. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking before crowd of 25,000 on March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Ala.Stephen F. Somerstein—Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jan 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC First, he was named Michael. Though Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed in the United States on Jan. 19 this year, it was on Jan. 15, 1929, that _Michael_ Luther King, Jr., was born. As TIME recounted in a 1957 profile of the Civil Rights leader, he was six when his father — a pastor in Atlanta — decided that the two should switch out their first names for _Martin_, in honor of Martin Luther, the priest who brought about the Protestant Reformation. His childhood home (a two-story yellow brick house, according to TIME’s profile) was a religious one, where the younger Martin would recite from the Bible at dinnertime. The early article provides a rare glimpse at how the leader was discussed before he was known throughout the world. And, even if he didn’t always want to be a minister, it’s clear that his childhood shaped the rest of his life: --- > “” --- **_Read the full article here, in the TIME Vault:_** [Attack on the Conscience](http://time.com/vault/issue/1957-02-18/page/19/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3660258/mlk-childhood/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3660258/mlk-childhood/"},"headline":"What Martin Luther King Jr. Was Like as a Child","datePublished":"2015-01-15T12:00:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:24:58.789Z","description":"Remembering his youth on what would have been his birthday","url":"https://time.com/3660258/mlk-childhood/","keywords":["MLK","Civil Rights","martin luther king jr","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacd0c12900c31c0d/698778f2e53abae09d4d6ee8/mlk.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacd0c12900c31c0d/698778f2e53abae09d4d6ee8/mlk.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Martin Luther King Jr","caption":"Martin Luther King Jr","creditText":"Stephen F. Somerstein—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3660258/mlk-childhood/","name":"What Martin Luther King Jr. Was Like as a Child"}}]}] ```