GoCertify Pays Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

Today is a holiday in the United States that honors Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who dedicated his adult years to ending racial inequality. Dr. King focused his work on the racial divide in the United States, but his wise words have universal application. You don't have to be an American to appreciate the profound wisdom of a statement like, "The time is always right to do what is right."

Martin Luther King Jr. died April 4, 1968 at the tragically young age of 39, shot by an assassin at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. The federal holiday that commemorates his life and legacy was created during President Ronald Reagan's first term in office and formally assigned to the third Monday in January in 1992 under President George H.W. Bush. For the edification of our readers and in honor of Dr. King, GoCertify offers this short quiz:

NOTE: To view last year's quiz, click here.

1) How many children were born to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King?

2) Which of the following actors has NOT played in Martin Luther King Jr. in a movie or TV program?

A. David Oyelowo

B. James Earl Jones

C. Levar Burton

D. Andre Braugher

3) Where did Martin Luther King Jr. rank in Discovery Channel and AOL's The Greatest American TV program that aired in 2005?

4) What did Martin Luther King Jr. cite as being the three most critical problems facing both the United States and the world in a brief 1967 speech at England's Newcastle University?

5) How many honorary degrees were bestowed on Martin Luther King Jr. by colleges and universities?

6) What happened to the tapes and transcripts generated by the FBI during its five-year surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.?

7) Where did Martin Luther King Jr. meet Malcolm X?

8) How much did Martin Luther King Jr. propose be paid in reparations for slavery?

9) How many U.S. presidential candidates did Martin Luther King Jr. endorse during his lifetime?

10) True or False: Martin Luther King Jr. was an avid supporter of American Indian rights.

(See answers on next page.)

ANSWERS

1) King and Coretta Scott King were the parents of four children, two sons (Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King) and two daughters (Yolanda Denise King and Bernice Albertine King).

2) Andre Braugher has not played Martin Luther King Jr. Oyelowo had a starring role as King in the 2015 feature film Selma, Burton (Star Trek's Geordi La Forge) played King in one scene in the boxing biopic Ali (2001), and Jones played King in the 1982 TV miniseries Freedom to Speak.

3) King was named the third greatest American, ranking just behind No. 1 Ronald Reagan and No. 2 Abraham Lincoln, and just ahead of No. 4 George Washington.

4) Racism, poverty, and war. King said, "There are three urgent and indeed great problems that we face not only in the United States of America but all over the world today. That is the problem of racism, the problem of poverty and the problem of war."

5) Author Mervyn A. Warren estimated in 2001 that King received more than 50 honorary degrees from colleges and universities.

6) In 1977, a U.S. federal judged ordered all tapes and transcripts created during the FBI surveillance of King held at the National Archives and restricted from public access until 2027.

7) King and Malcolm X met just once, on March 26, 1964. They chatted briefly while both were attending a session of the United States Senate where the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was being debated.

8) While King believed it would be impossible to fullly and accurately assess and pay out wages lost during the enslavement of blacks in the United States, he did support a program that would have paid out $50 billion to all disadvantaged groups, including the ancestors of slaves, over a 10-year period.

9) None. Though he generally voted for Democrats, King had a strict policy against endorsing political parties or candidates for office. He once wrote, however, that having voted for John F. Kennedy Jr., he would have endorsed Kennedy's re-election if the famously assassinated president had lived long enough to seek a second term in office.

10) True. In his book Why We Can't Wait, King wrote: "Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society."