How Did Martin Luther King Support The Civil Rights Movement

Religion is one of the most controversial issues in society today. The concern of allowing prayer in schools is an on-going debate and has resulted in numerous lawsuits. Religious school clubs, after school activities, curriculums, and moments of silence during school are just a few of the court cases that judges have administered. People in favor of prayer in schools believe that their children can only learn certain values through religious practice. On the other hand, an individual against religious practice in schools views this issue as an infringement on his or her children’s rights as Americans.

Due to his huge contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. is important to the end of segregation in the United States. He used nonviolence as a way to fight for equality for African Americans. In a book he wrote called Strength to Love he said “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Darkness lacks light and more darkness cannot make it less dark, so light is the only thing that can make it less dark. Hate will continue if we do not fight it and the best way to fight it, is with love. If you fight hate with hate things will not be a better place, the world will be filled with hatred and life will be miserable. Fighting with love brings peace. Martin Luther King Jr.

Edwards V. South Carolina is about how 187 black petitioners marched on South Carolina State House grounds to peacefully protest segregation in their state. The group was confronted by police and were threatened to be arrested if they didn’t stop, but they kept protesting and started singing religious and patriotic songs. The protestors were later arrested and convicted for disrupting peace.

A couple of the families were Jewish, another family was atheist, one parent was Unitarian and the last parent was of an ethical culture society. The Parents were to believe that the school was violating the first amendment of the constitution and this was not right; that according to Thomas Jefferson there should be a separation of state and church. Never before had the public school board been argued against with prayer like issues ( Haas, pg 7-20).

The end result of the case was that "Separate but equal" was in actuality not equal at all and that at least one part of the 14th amendment which allowed " separate but equal" facilities , was overturned. Now that the case was done though there was much more to be done before the decision carried out in full. While trying to enforce this new decision there was much resistance encountered coming form the south. Events such as "Southern public

Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that ruled it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public schools.

For centuries, the debate has existed whether or not to allow prayer in public schools. Many Americans feel it is not right of the schools to teach religion. With all the diversity associated with the United States, public schools cannot select one standard religion to practice, due to the cultural and religious differences in the country. Not only are schools the storm center of controversy involving religious differences, they are the principal institution charged with transmitting the identity and mission of the United States from one generation to the next. If we fail in our school policies and classrooms to model and to teach how to live with differences, we endanger our experiment in religious liberty and our

The parents argued this was a violation of the part of the Constitution that stated the, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". Page 370 U. S. 423/http://oyez.org/cases/1960-1969 The decision in the case was six votes to one ruling in favor of the parents and taking the prayer out of public school ceremonies. Even though the prayer was nondenominational and was voluntary. It still did not save it from being unconstitutional. The court ruled by providing the prayer, New York officially approved religion. This was the first of many cases that has taken religious

When defending himself to his principal, he used the first amendment but was still not taken seriously and was then required to see his guidance counselor for months afterward. This high school student then wrote a letter to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) to ask for help. The ACLU had been searching for a “plaintiff” for many years. After taking this argument to the court, Abington school district defended themselves by saying that “Bible reading was not a religious practice” and that students who did not want to listen to the scripture reading did not have to, they also argued that the “practice need not to be outlawed because the Constitution does not require government to be ‘hostile to religion’” (The Battle pg. 167). To the school board also argued that “to outlaw Bible reading would blaze a trail that would eliminate from public life customs that ‘are now and have long been cherished and accepted by a vast majority of the people (The Battle pg. 167). The Schempp received harassment and abuse from other citizens living in Abbington because of their support of the end to scripture reading. In 1959, the federal district court found that this practice was unconstitutional but the school board quickly found a loophole. The school district then decided to excuse students not wanting to participate in the reading

Even though some colonist came to America in hopes of religious freedom, prayer was not a controversial issue during that time. According to Lain (2015) “Schools played an integral part in this endeavor, as they were the place where children learned to read religious doctrine. Thus, from the start, children in the colonies practiced religious observances in school.” (p. 486). As the new colonies slowly turned into 13 states united after the Revolutionary War, the issue of prayer was not controversial. The issue of freedom of religion was created in the Bill of Rights. According to Laats (2012), “The religion clauses of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution provide: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’”

Suggesting that even when the Courts decided to review Constitutionality of certain state laws the decisions would generally only conform to national public mood. And when the court’s decision did not conform to the national publics mood Congress would step in to make its out policy outcomes which would more please the majoritarian preferences by reversing the more unpopular Court decisions with reversal legislation. Although there may be some legitimacy to Dahl’s argument, Casper is still able to convey that by excluding interpretation of federal statutes and review of constitutional issues arising from state and local laws and practices only weakens Dahl’s argument being that these activities seem highly relevant to determining the court’s role in national policymaking. When they are considered, the courts role appears substantially more influential than Dahl would like to

Jordan M. Martin Luther King Jr. was an inspiration for his time, motivating and creating change all across America. He continuously pressed forward through protests for change of rights for black Americans. Gandhi was also a figure of India as he too led acts of civil disobedience in India in order to gain their independence from Europe. However, both were major figures for their people at their time. Martin Luther King Jr. was the main leader of the Civil Rights movement in the US for African Americans.

The issue of school prayer is not one of religious freedom, as it is already legal for children to pray in school, either individually or in groups. Since the Engel decision in 1962, religious advocates have been assailing the Supreme Court for "taking God out of the classroom." In an effort to reverse this trend, conservative religious groups have been fighting for the passage of a school prayer amendment to gain greater leeway for religious activities in schools.

Around the year of 1962, a new law was passed in the constitution stating that prayer in school was no longer allowed to be taught in school. Now, as you can imagine, that angered many people all around the world, but it also relieved some at the same time. There are many reasons why people were angered by this decision. Religious people who supported the right to pray within the school system made accusations about this change because they thought it broke the freedom of religious practices, the separation of church and state, and their right to their own freedom. There were also many reasons why people were relieved. Many people do not believe in praying every day, and to those people, they might have had the fear of sending their kids off to school knowing that they may be forced to partake in public prayers.

The Civil Rights Movement played a very important role for African Americans in the Unites States. In the early 1960s The Civil Rights Movement was unified to end racial segregation and discrimination. African Americans still lived in an unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and injustice, like race inspired violence. many Americans united together across color lines to protest the racism and discrimination that existed in the United States. During the 1950s and the early 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr. became an important leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He advocated non-violent protest. He believed that people of all races would look favorably on a movement that encouraged peace and equality and did not meet injustice with violence. King's peaceful message attracted thousands of supporters of all races who agreed that segregation and the lack of rights for African Americans could not continue. But some of the African Americans became frustrated and began to reject the calls for non-violent protests. They wanted changes to occur much more