ATLANTA — On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, one thing you can do in Atlanta is make a pilgrimage to the very house he was born in.
The home where Dr. King was born on Jan. 15, 1929 is well-preserved and standing on Auburn Ave. in Atlanta, in the heart of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood.
The Civil Rights luminary's childhood home, the church where he preached and his tomb are all within a short walk of each other at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park.
The boyhood home and Ebenezer Baptist Church are temporarily closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but for information on virtual group tours you can visit the the National Park Service website here.
While you cannot currently go inside the home, the area of the national historical park is nice for a stroll and gives you an opportunity to see the neighborhood preserved in much the way it looked when Dr. King was born.
You can stop for a picture outside the home, where a plaque at the sidewalk commemorates it as his birth site, and there are historical placards dotting the street up and down noting other historical figures who lived on Auburn Ave. and sites that speak to the history and culture of the neighborhood, which was the center of Black life in early Atlanta.
Just remember to wear a mask and social distance, on a day like MLK Day it figures to be a more crowded area than usual.
