5 interesting facts about Martin Luther King Jr.

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Monday, January 16, 2023

Had a white girlfriend in college

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where he delivered his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech during the Aug. 28, 1963, march on Washington, D.C. — Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the Aug. 28, 1963, march on Washington, D.C. | Public Domain

Before marrying Coretta Scott King, King had a white girlfriend when he was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary of Chester, Pennsylvania.

The relationship received a passing mention in the notable 1986 King biography Bearing the Cross by David Garrow, with Garrow quoting a friend of King's saying that the civil rights leader "never recovered" from the relationship ending.

In an excerpt from his book The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age published by Politico, historian Patrick Parr wrote about Betty Moitz, who was around the same age as King when they were dating. She told Parr that the two were "madly, madly in love, the way young people can fall in love."

"While we already knew the decision King ultimately reached about Betty, we didn't know how he struggled with it throughout his time at Crozer," wrote Parr.

"He was clearly old enough and mature enough to know, even at the time that his decision on Betty would change the course of his life. And perhaps he even had a small idea of what his life would mean for the course of history."