Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park

History

The park's core sites were initially designated a National Historic Site and National Historic Landmark on October 10, 1980. A bipartisan effort led by John Lewis expanded the area and reclassified it as a national historical park, with President Donald Trump signing the law on January 8, 2018. The visitor center includes a museum covering the civil rights movement and King's journey. The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change holds the graves of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

Fire Station No. 6, built in 1894, served the Sweet Auburn neighborhood until 1991 and now houses a gift shop and an exhibit about desegregation in Atlanta's fire department. The park also has the "I Have a Dream" International World Peace Rose Garden, a memorial to Mohandas K. Gandhi, and the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame. In 2019, the National Park Foundation bought the King family's 1965 Sunset Avenue home from Coretta Scott King's estate for restoration and eventual public opening.

Large crowds attend annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day events, with speakers including U.S. presidents, local and national politicians, and civil rights leaders. Additional remembrances happen during Black History Month and on the anniversary of King's assassination on April 4, 1968.

Preservation

The area now known as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park was first recognized in 1974 when a historic district, defined by Irwin, Randolph, Edgewood, Jackson, and Auburn avenues, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This district included King’s birthplace, Ebenezer Baptist Church, his granite tomb, shotgun row houses, Victorian homes, the Atlanta Baptist Preparatory Institute site, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Fire Station No. 6, and the Triangle Building.

In 1977, most of this area was designated a National Historic Landmark district. During the late 1970s, the Trust for Public Land bought five houses on Auburn Avenue, the same block where King grew up, and over the next two decades acquired more properties to build a parking lot and a pedestrian greenway connecting the district to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center. Congress authorized the site as a national historic site in 1980, covering 22.4 acres with 35 contributing properties.

The National Register boundary was expanded in 2001, and in 2018 the site was redesignated a national historical park, adding the Prince Hall Masonic Temple to the protected area.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birth Home

The King Birth Home at 501 Auburn Avenue was built in 1895. King's father and mother moved in after their 1926 marriage, and King Jr. was born there in 1929.

The family lived in the house until 1941, after which it became a two-family dwelling; King's brother lived on the second floor in the 1950s and early 1960s. The first level includes a front porch, parlor, study, dining room, kitchen, laundry, bedroom, and bathroom; the second level has four bedrooms and a bathroom. Free tours led by National Park Service rangers are offered with limited availability.

The King Center

Coretta Scott King founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1968 after King's death. Since 1981, the center has been housed in a building on Auburn Avenue adjacent to Ebenezer Baptist Church. A memorial tomb was dedicated in 1977, and King's remains were moved there; Coretta Scott King was interred with him on February 7, 2006. An eternal flame is nearby.

Freedom Hall at 449 Auburn Avenue features exhibits on Dr. and Mrs. King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Rosa Parks, and hosts events related to civil rights. It contains a Grand Foyer, theater, bookstore, resource center, and artworks, with paneling from the sapeli tree. In 1990, the statue Behold was dedicated near the church. As of 2006, the King Center is a privately owned inholding within the park's authorized boundaries, with debate among the King family about selling it to the National Park Service.

Did You Know?

• A statue of Mohandas Gandhi, dedicated in 1998, stands 6'4" and was donated by the government of India.
• The International Civil Rights Walk of Fame, created in 2004, includes footsteps marked in granite and bronze along the Promenade.