Dr. Martin Luther King, whose birthday we commemorate this weekend, was a scholar from an early age. Skipping two grades, he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15! He then went on to divinity school and received his degree in 1951, at age 22 from Crozer Theological Seminiary. By 26 he received his doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University.
During these years of study King was a voracious reader and digester of many schools of thought in religion and philosophy. From his early study and readings he “drew certain conclusions that have remained with me as convictions” (The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. 20). From his autobiography we learn some of the many writers that were to influence his thinking and actions:
