Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, National historical park in Sweet Auburn, Atlanta, United States
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park is a site in Atlanta that brings together several locations from the civil rights leader's life, including his birth home on Auburn Avenue and Ebenezer Baptist Church. The buildings stand close to each other and form a connected area that visitors can explore on foot.
The house on Auburn Avenue was built in 1895 and King was born there in 1929. The church across the street served as the setting for his sermons and his work for the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s, until his death in 1968.
Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King was baptized and where he and his father Martin Luther King Sr. both served as pastors, stands within the park on Auburn Avenue. The church is still used for worship, and its services are open to visitors who come to hear preaching in the building tied to the King family.
The visitor center distributes free entry tickets for guided tours of the birth home in the morning, handed out on a first-come basis. On weekends and holidays, arriving early is advisable because spaces fill up quickly.
The monument is a single white marble block with a stepped base and a slightly peaked top, standing on a circular brick platform in a shallow pool. Its two inscribed panels face forward: King's carries "Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty I'm Free at last"; Coretta Scott King's carries I Corinthians 13:13. An eternal flame burns nearby.
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