Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, Civil rights heritage center in Sweet Auburn district, 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.
The neighborhood carries the name Sweet Auburn and was once known as the richest African American business street in the South. Visitors walk through streets where churches and homes from the era when King grew up remain standing.
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 King Center houses two marble tombs where Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King rest together. The tombs stand on an island in the middle of a shallow pool of water that visitors can view from the outside.
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