Martin Luther King Jr.

* Real life
* 12-year-old
* 15-year-old
* 26-year-old
* 34-year-old

### Quote

"If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

### Voice Actor

Theodore Borders (12 years old)
Jaleel White (15 years old)
LeVar Burton (26 years old)
Dexter King (34 years old)

**Martin Luther King Jr.** (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1954 through 1968.

## Role in the Film

When Miles and Randy are transported back to 1941, they encounter a 12-year-old Martin playing baseball with his friends, Sam and Skip Dale, until their mother arrives and reprimands her sons for integrating with the "coloreds". Martin explains to Miles and Randy that Mrs. Dale's hatred of black people stems from the fact she regards them as "different", but violence would only worsen things.

Later, when the boys travel 3 years in time and meet a teenage Martin on a segregated train, Martin explains to them that blacks and whites are unable to integrate and must use separate bathrooms, restaurants, and waiting rooms. They later have dinner with Martin's family and while he goes to do shut-in rounds with his father, the boys travel forward 11 years and meet Martin, who by now is in his 20s and works as a minister at the church. He is holding a meeting about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, set off after Rosa Parks, a black seamstress refused to give up her seat on a bus and was put in prison for it. As a result, no black adults or children will ride the buses. Just then, Turner alerts him his house has been bombed. He races home, where his wife Coretta Scott King, and newborn daughter Yolanda have escaped unharmed.

Turner announces that in retaliation, they will attack the perpetrators with bricks, guns, Molotov cocktails, and knives, but Martin stops him, reminding the crowd of Gandhi peacefully standing his ground to exile the British colonies from India and of Jesus' teaching love for his enemies. Miles and Randy then travel to the Birmingham riot of 1963 and witness firemen and police officers squirt black protesters with hoses and set German Shepherds on them.

When Miles, Randy, Kyle, and Maria get transported to the March on Washington Movement and meet Martin who is in his 30s, and a young Miss Clark, who at this time is a member of the movement and not yet married, they listen to his famous, "I Have a Dream" speech. When they return, Miles discovers that Martin was murdered. The children travel back to 1941 and bring the 12-year-old Martin back to the present. When they return, only Miles and Martin return together and the present is different. They discover that the museum is now just a burned-down house. They also find out Randy and Kyle are also racists and no longer friends with Miles or know him, his middle school is segregated and named after Robert E. Lee, Miss Clark is treated poorly by the principal, Maria works as a maid and can't speak English and speaks Spanish instead, and he and his mother live in poverty as she now works as a cleaning lady. The next day Miles can't understand what is going on but Martin figures out that because he left his own time, it created an alternate timeline where his civil rights work never happened. Miles realizes the error of his ways and must sacrifice his plans to rescue Martin. Miles bids a tearful farewell but realizes he still has Martin's watch and begs for him to come out of his house. Martin returns to his time, where he is shot and killed at his hotel. At the end of the film, everyone makes a mural to dedicate his memory.