Exploring the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park & Preservation District

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park & Preservation District in Atlanta, Georgia, shares the story of how a young Black boy born into the segregated South became a national icon for Civil Rights. The park consists of several blocks along Auburn Avenue. Here you’ll find the Visitor Center, Martin Luther King, Jr’s birth home, and the BEHOLD monument. Other historic sites include Fire Station No. 6, The King Center, where Dr. and Mrs. King are buried, and Freedom Hall. The historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church

Our tour began with the Church Talk at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. The ranger shared the history of the church which was built in 1922. However, Baptist Paster John A. Parker founded the congregation in 1886. Adam Daniel Williams pastored Ebenezer in 1925 when his young co-pastor, Michael King, married Williams’ daughter, Alberta Christine.

Over the years, the church witnessed many sad events, including the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 9, 1968, and John Lewis on July 30, 2020. Here, during a Sunday service in 1974, Marcus Wayne Chenault Jr. assassinated Mrs. Alberta King, the mother of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and church deacon Edward Boykin. Chenault, a Black follower of a radical group that believed Christianity was evil, was sentenced to death, but later appealed and was sentenced to life in prison for the assassinations.

Today, Senator Raphael Warnock is the pastor. He preaches regularly at the new Ebenezer Baptist Church across the street.

Birth Home Block Photo: Kathleen Walls

MLK’s Birth Home

Located at 501 Auburn Avenue, the Birth Home is a two-story frame 1895 Queen Anne Victorian house. Rev. Adam Daniel Williams purchased it in 1909. When King married Alberta Christine, he moved in with her and her parents. The Kings had three children which were born in the home: Willie Christine, Michael Jr., and Alfred Daniel.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and his father were both originally named Michael King. In 1934, Ebenezer Church sent its young co-pastor to Europe for a Baptist World Alliance meeting in Berlin. While there, King, Sr. witnessed the rise of Nazi Germany under its new chancellor, Adolf Hitler. When he returned home, King decided to change both his name and his son’s from Michael to Martin Luther, after the German Protestant leader who began The Reformation.

Nowell Home Photo: Kathleen Walls

Sweet Auburn District

Although private homes, the homes along both sides of the block are labeled, telling who lived in them. Many belong to the National Park Service. One example is the rambling two-story home at 530 Auburn, labeled the Nowell Family Home.

Jettie Nowell purchased the home in 1936. She rented rooms to borders and was listed in the Negro Motorist’s Green Book that listed Black friendly businesses during the Jim Crow Era. Jettie was friends with the Kings and sometimes babysat the King children.

Gail Goodwin, the great-granddaughter of Jettie Nowell, is mentioned on the placard telling how her father played with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when they were children. At the ceremony when the home was transferred to the Park Service, she attended and said, “I moved away when I was four years old, but I came back every summer and moved back for good in 1969 to go to school. There are so many wonderful memories here. I can still see my grandmother and great-grandmother on the porch. I still see all the people from the neighborhood.”

Tomb of Dr. & Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. Photo: Kathleen Walls

The King Center

Shortly after Dr. King’s assassination in 1968, Mrs. Coretta Scott King established The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., to honor his legacy of nonviolent social change. When you enter the Center, a wall lists the six principles of non-violence that Dr. King lived by.

Strolling along the garden path, there are several things to notice. The tomb of Dr. and Mrs. King is placed atop a circular base in a beautiful reflecting pool. At the base of the pool are the words from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water.”

The Eternal Flame burns bright on a brick patio surrounded by a black wrought-iron fence. At the base are the words, “The Dream Lives, The Legacy Continues.”

The Coretta Scott King Monument honors the memory of Mrs. King with a sculpture of microphones under a podium placed on a mosaic of a rose. Saya Woolfalk, the artist who created the sculpture, commemorated Mrs. King’s singing talent. Before marrying Dr. King, she planned to pursue a musical career. Although she never sang professionally, she incorporated music into her civil rights activism. One microphone is live so that you can have your say.

Visitor Center

A Rose Garden graces the entrance to the Visitor Center. Inside, the museum tells the story of the ongoing struggle for civil rights for all. The exhibits tell of MLK’s struggle for peaceful equality, his life work, and his assassination. One of the most applicable comments during his protest of the Vietnam War still rings true today. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

The museum also features exhibits on others who fought for equality. There are exhibits about President Jimmy Carter, John Lewis, Coretta Scott King, and the many unnamed persons who marched to gain civil rights for all.

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