I am Martin Luther King Jr.

I am Martin Luther King, Jr.

When I was little, I used to get into a lot of accidents.

One day, my little brother hit me in the head with a baseball bat.

Two other times, I mistakenly got knocked over by a car. Another day, I tumbled over our banister, then bounced through an open door into the basement.

No matter how many times I fell, I kept getting back up.

Even before I could read, I knew I liked books. My dad always talked about how I kept a lot of books around me.

I used to tell my parents: “WHEN I GROW UP I’M GOING TO GET ME SOME BIG WORDS.”

There is a power in words. Big words were in my future.

When I was six years old, one of my best friends was a boy whose father owned a store across the street.

My friend was white; I was black. It didn’t matter to us. We would play games and have fun together.