Michael Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929, to Mrs. Alberta King and Baptist minister Michael L. King Sr. After visiting Europe in 1934, Michael King Sr. changed both his and his son's name in honor of Martin Luther, the 16th Century church reformer. King spent his early years at 501 Auburn Avenue, about a block from Ebenezer Baptist Church where his father was pastor. Auburn Avenue, Sweet Auburn, was the cultural, commercial, and spiritual center of African American life in Atlanta prior to the civil rights movement. King graduated from Booker T Washington High School in 1944.