Pompous? Or inspired homage in the face of Nazism? I'll take inspired homage. From Wikipedia:
In 1934, the church sent [MLKjr's father] King Sr. on a multinational trip to Rome, Tunisia, Egypt, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, then Berlin for the meeting of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). The trip ended with visits to sites in Berlin associated with the Protestant reformation leader, Martin Luther. While there, Michael King Sr. witnessed the rise of Nazism.As the above passage reveals, MLK Jr's father began calling him Martin Luther King from the age of 5. Changing his birth certificate later on seems a formality to align with the identity taught to him by his father, also an accomplished preacher.In reaction, the BWA conference issued a resolution which stated, "This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward coloured people, or toward subject races in any part of the world." He returned home in August 1934, and in that same year began referring to himself as Martin Luther King Sr., and his son as Martin Luther King Jr, [whose] birth certificate was altered to read "Martin Luther King Jr" on July 23, 1957, when he was 28 years old.