That name? Call him Marty
Published: Mon, Jan. 21, 2008 12:00AM
Modified Mon, Jan. 21, 2008 01:20AM
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closeATLANTA -- Martin Luther King Jr. is used to the puzzled looks he gets from people when they learn his name.
The white, long-haired graphics designer goes by "Marty" to maintain his anonymity in the suburbs of Atlanta, where the man who made the moniker famous once lived.
His name is just a coincidence, but it made Marty King pay attention to the civil rights movement when he was growing up in a small Tennessee town during the 1960s.
More Martin Luther King Jr.
"In East Tennessee, he may not have had a lot of fans, but there were some people who agreed with him," he said. "I liked his speeches. ... He was only asking for what he was due, but the way he did it commanded respect. He earned my parents' respect."
Marty King, 53, was named for his father, who was named for the German monk and theologian Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Reformation in the early 1500s.
It's not the only famous name in his family. Marty King's grandfather was named Abraham Lincoln.
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