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01/19/2015 11:32 EST | Updated 01/16/2020 09:47 EST

These Incredible Family Photos of MLK Show A Side Of Him That Will Warm Your Heart

We all know Martin Luther King, Jr. to be among the world's greatest educators, freedom fighters, orators, leaders and truth seekers -- but his four children knew of many more loving layers to a man who had already earned a pretty high pedestal in society.

Despite all the great accolades Dr. King achieved throughout his short-lived life, there was perhaps one role that held prominence over most and that was being a father to his beloved children.

Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, welcomed four kids (Dexter, Bernice, Yolanda and Martin Luther King III) -- all of whom were once pint-sized toddlers who admired their father for reasons too many to list. Decades after his death, their admiration has not dwindled.

On a day commemorating Dr. King and celebrating his legacy, we invite you to a series of photos that show a rarely pictured and uplifting - but not any less authentic -- side to Dr. King during his days in Montgomery, Alabama.

  • Bettmann/Corbis
    After Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is freed from jail under a $2000 appeal bond, he is greeted by his wife Coretta and children, Marty and Yoki, at the airport in Chamblee, Georgia on October 27, 1960.
  • Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
    Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. relaxes at home with his family in May 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama.
  • Flip Schulke/Corbis
    Martin Luther King Jr. and his family eat their Sunday dinner after church on November 8, 1964.
  • Flip Schulke/Corbis
    Martin Luther King Jr. talks with his daughter on a swing set in the backyard of their home in Atlanta.
  • Flip Schulke/Corbis
    Martin Luther King Jr. serves pieces of chicken to his young sons Marty and Dexter at Sunday dinner on November 8, 1964.
  • Flip Schulke/Corbis
    Martin Luther King Jr. holds his young son Dexter on his lap at home in Atlanta, November 8, 1960.
  • Flip Schulke/Corbis
    Martin Luther King Jr. and his family eat their Sunday dinner after church on November 8, 1964.
  • Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images
    Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. relaxes at home with his family in May 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama.
  • Flip Schulke/Corbis
    Martin Luther King Jr. pushes his young son Dexter on a swing set in their backyard, November 1960.
  • Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images
    Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. relaxes at home with his family in May 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama. (