Storytime with K - Kid Story Podcast
💭 I Am Martin Luther King, Jr. 💭 Stories for Kids Read Aloud [ READ ALONG VIDEO ON SPOTIFY ]
19 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the introduction to the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Hi there, and welcome to Storytime with Kay! Today we will read I Am Martin Luther King, Jr. by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. This book was published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2016. I Am Martin Luther King, Jr. When I was little, I used to get into a lot of accidents. One day, my little brother hit me in the head with a baseball bat.
Two other times, I mistakenly got knocked over by a car. Another day, I tumbled over our banister, then bounced through an open door into the basement. Whoa, amazing fall. You okay? I'm okay! No matter how many times I fell, I kept getting back up. Even before I could read, I knew I liked books. My dad always talked about how I kept a lot of books around me.
I used to tell my parents, when I grow up, I'm going to get me some big words. There is a power in words. Big words were in my future. When I was six years old, one of my best friends was a boy whose father owned a store across the street. Tag, you're it!
Chapter 2: How did Martin Luther King, Jr. experience childhood challenges?
No, you're it! No, you're it! No, you're it! My friend was white. I was black. It didn't matter to us. We would play games and have fun together. But when we started going to school, everything changed. He went to a school where all the kids were white. I went to a school where everyone was black. Soon after, he told me, I can't play with you anymore. Why? My dad said so.
He doesn't want us being friends. But why? You're one of my best friends, aren't you? Aren't you? I didn't understand. It didn't make sense. At dinner, my parents explained, it's because you're black and he's white. I was so mad that day. How could someone treat me differently just because of the color of my skin? I wanted to hate my friend and his father.
But my parents told me to do the opposite, that I should love my friend even though he hurt me. They taught me that it's better to have more love in your life than more hate. Then my mother taught me one of the most important lessons of all. You are as good as anyone. You must never feel that you are less than anyone else. I wanted to believe it, but every day I saw the opposite.
I saw you could be treated unfairly just because of the color of your skin. If you were right, you went to a good school with great playgrounds and plenty of books. If you were black, your school was small, sometimes with no desks or even windows. Check it out, a playground. Check it out. Where's our playground? It wasn't just the schools.
Black people had to use different water fountains, different elevators, even different bathrooms. In fact, on a hot day when everyone wanted ice cream, if you were white, you could sit at the counter and eat from a nice dish. But since I was black, if they served me at all, it was through a side window, and they put my ice cream in a flimsy paper cup. This ice cream is perfect.
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Chapter 3: What lessons did Martin Luther King, Jr. learn about friendship and race?
This ice cream is melted. It got even worse when I was 14. I had just won a speech competition. My speech was about being fair to all people. I was so excited. Then, on the bus ride home, a few white people got on board. You need to give up your seats to the whites. At first, I stayed put. It didn't seem fair. But my teacher convinced me to move.
We spent the rest of the ride standing and getting tossed in every direction. It was the angriest I have ever been. Every day, this is what life was like. Black people were treated terribly. The only question was... What could I do about it? At the age of 15, I started college. By 19, I became a minister and entered seminary school to study religion.
Over those years, I read the works of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi. Thoreau taught me about civil disobedience, how an evil system could be changed without violence. Gandhi opened my mind to the power of love. Nonviolent resistance? What's that? It's using love and peaceful methods to change unfair things in society. It was a lesson I wanted to share with everyone.
In no time at all, I got my chance. In Alabama, a black woman named Rosa Parks was told to give up her bus seat to a white man. It was just like what happened to me. But unlike me, Mrs. Parks refused. She was arrested. Early the next morning, I got a phone call from a local community leader. It's time to take a stand.
We should boycott the buses so everyone knows that we won't accept this treatment anymore. You know, that's not going to be easy. Do not ask if it's easy. Ask if it's right. It was just like Thoreau taught. Instead of using violence to protest the unfair rules, black people would use a peaceful method. We would not ride the public buses.
Without our money, the bus companies would go out of business.
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Chapter 4: How did Martin Luther King, Jr. respond to injustice in his youth?
Now the only question was, would it work? On the first day of the protest, my wife called me to the window. The buses are all empty. It's working. We had to keep it going. As the head of the bus boycott, I gave one of the most important speeches of my life. The room was packed. Camera crews were filming. I had only 20 minutes to prepare. I didn't use notes.
But by speaking from my heart, I found out how big words can be. We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. When the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say there lived a race of people, a black people, who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights.
The police put me in jail, saying I was breaking the law. Other folks bombed my house, but instead of using my fists, I kept my calm. Don't you want to fight back? I am a man of nonviolence, and I know I do not stand alone. We are with you all the way, Reverend. If no one rides these buses, we'll go out of business. You're finally getting that, huh?
For more than a full year, every black person in the city, and some white people too, refused to ride the buses. That meant some people had to walk for miles, but they kept going. There was a power in standing together. Eventually, our peaceful protests worked. The rules were changed. Public buses could no longer separate people based on the color of their skin. That was only the beginning.
Soon our peaceful protests sparked other peaceful protests. At lunch counters, college students organized sit-ins where they would not stop until everyone could eat together. Our methods of nonviolence were so powerful, I was invited to meet with the president at the White House. But sometimes the hardest problems were right at home. Daddy, look! An amusement park! Please, can we go?
I'm sorry, Yoki. We can't. Funtown is not open to black people. Seeing my daughter cry was one of the most painful moments of my life. It only made me work harder for change. Was it easy?
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Chapter 5: What inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. to advocate for civil rights?
Absolutely not. During one protest in Birmingham, Alabama, the police again arrested me and locked me in a dark jail cell that had only one window. Someone slipped me a newspaper in which white religious leaders had written an article calling us lawbreakers. Someone then snuck me a pen. In that jail cell, I wrote my own response in the margins of the newspaper, and even on toilet paper.
My letter from Birmingham Jail was soon published as a pamphlet. Then it was in magazines and newspapers. Today, it has been read by millions of people. Like I said, it is amazing how big words can be. Our message was so important, even kids your age joined us. In Birmingham, during the Children's Crusade, more than 1,000 kids, some as young as six years old, showed up to march. What do you want?
Freedom! The first day, the police arrested 900 of them. The next day, 2,500 children showed up, ready to go to jail. This was our finest hour. Enraged that we were not giving up, the chief of police told the firemen to spray the children with water hoses and attack them with dogs.
They thought it would stop us, but instead, as the whole country watched on TV what they were doing to our children, it was a wake-up call for the nation's conscience. How can they treat little kids like that? That's not right. We need to help them. Ninety days later, the rules began to change. Now blacks and whites in Birmingham were using the same lunch counters, water fountains, and restrooms.
You could feel it in the air. More change was coming. Freedom was contagious. By the summer of 1963, an estimated one million Americans held their own protests in cities across the country. A man named A. Philip Randolph suggested a massive march. If we march together peacefully, they won't be able to ignore us.
Together, we can convince Congress and the President to pass laws so that no one in America can treat people differently based on their skin color. I like the idea. Where should we have it? There's only one place.
People came from almost every state. They came in nearly every form of transportation. They even took off work and did not get paid just to be there.
Old people, young people, black people, white people, even children like you, they all came to Washington, D.C., gathering in a righteous army. Why? Because they wanted a change, and they knew the surest way to change the world is to stand together. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
On August 28, 1963, I stood at the podium and spoke what some later called my biggest words of all. March on, Washington, for jobs and freedom. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
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Chapter 6: How did the bus boycott begin and what was its significance?
Two days later, we tried again. Now there were 2,500 of us. We will get to Montgomery. No, you won't. I promise you won't. Once again, we tried. Once again, we did not get through. Did we give up? What do you think? It was Sunday, March 21st, 1965, our third try. Now we had 8,000 people with us. We are on the move. We shall overcome. For two days we marched. Rain could not stop us.
The world was watching. The White House was too. President Johnson even sent troops to protect us. Check out the crowd. Black, white, Christian, Jewish, all standing together. Exhaustion could not stop us. As we reached Montgomery, Alabama, tears were shed. But this time, they were tears of joy.
In my life, people tried to tell me I wasn't as good as they were just because of the color of my skin. When someone hurts you like that, it can be tempting to hurt them back. You must refuse. When someone shows you hate, show them love. When someone shows you violence, show them kindness. To reach our goals, we must walk the path of peace. We must lock arms with our brothers and sisters.
We must march together. When we do, our voices will be heard and freedom will ring. Remember Funtown Amusement Park? Its doors eventually opened to black people, and Dr. King got to take his daughter. Did you know that he was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize at that time? Just 35 years old! He donated the prize money to the civil rights movement.
He said that the prize was the work of many other unsung heroes. He fought against poverty, too. There's even a national holiday for him, the third Monday of every January. Only Washington and Lincoln get a day like that, and they share theirs. It's a day to remember how far we've come and how much more work there is to do. I am Martin Luther King, Jr. I stand for peace. I stand for justice.
I stand to help people. I stand as proof that no matter how hard the struggle, we must fight for what is right and work to change what is wrong. Whatever struggle you face, no matter how hard it gets, you must always move forward. I am proof of this. If we rise up, if we stand together, if we remain united, nothing can stop our dreams. The time is always right to do right. Martin Luther King Jr.
The end. Thank you for reading along. Be sure to rate and follow us for new episodes posted daily.
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