You might be surprised to learn...

...that Martin Luther King Jr. is, apparently, alive and well in Atlanta. Well, sort of:

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 and children's book author 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 while growing up in a small Tennessee town during the 1960s.

"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.

I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a cousin named Malcolm X and an aunt named Rosa Parks. That sort of thing seems to run in the family.