Early Education and College Years
Martin Luther King Jr skipped both the ninth and twelfth grades and entered Morehouse College at age 15. He graduated from Morehouse in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology, and he was the son of a longtime Morehouse professor and a graduate of the same institution. Morehouse College remains a private historically Black men's college in Atlanta.
After Morehouse, King enrolled at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Divinity in 1951. He graduated as class valedictorian and was elected student body president during his studies. Crozer Theological Seminary is a historically Black graduate school affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA.
Doctoral Studies at Boston University
King began doctoral studies at Boston University in 1951 and completed his Ph.D. in systematic theology in 1955. His dissertation, titled A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman, examined theological ideas from two prominent philosophers and theologians. Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Boston University has confirmed that King's doctoral work met the standards for a Ph.D. in theology, and his degree remains on record as a legitimate earned doctorate. The university's School of Theology continues to cite King's academic work in its historical materials and public-facing research pages. Boston University School of Theology
Academic Honors and Institutional Recognition
King received dozens of honorary degrees from universities across the United States and abroad during his lifetime and posthumously. These degrees were awarded by institutions such as Howard University, Boston University, and Yale University in recognition of his leadership in civil rights and social justice. Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut.
Howard University, a federally chartered historically Black research university in Washington, D.C., has listed King among its notable honorary degree recipients in its official institutional history. Howard University continues to reference King's honorary degree in its public-facing records and historical timelines.