Martin Luther King Jr Influence

The act focuses on the views of millions Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. This book describes the tale of African Americans still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power, with lawmakers devising new strategies to keep minorities out of the voting booth and with the Supreme Court declaring a key part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.

King was an excellent speaker and preacher at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama and rose in the ranks at the beginning of the movement during the Montgomery Bus-boycott. His teachings encouraged more peaceful movements such as sit-ins; the freedom rides and the famous Selma-Montgomery march for voting rights. Some of this call for peaceful change can be seen in the quote by King when receiving his Nobel Peace Prize,

“I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama for the right to vote. I’m not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us [African Americans]” –John Lewis. Within 100 years, African Americans overcame many obstacles such as paying poll taxes, passing multiple tests, and violence to be able to vote. They had to pay taxes, such as poll taxes. They also had to pass multiple tests, such as the Property and Literacy tests. Violence was also an obstacle African Americans had to face in order to vote.

African-Americans may sometimes wonder at the contradictory facts about their history presented in many standard history texts. These texts state that blacks were given the right to vote in 1870, yet the same texts will acknowledge that this right did not really exist for African-Americans until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. Growing up, his father was a minister, which led King into the teaching of the gospel as well. Racial discrimination had not been a persitient action for him as because his parents had done their best to shield him from racism. His siblings and himself had better education given to them than the majority of children in his race. He thrived in his studies and became the valedictorian of his class in 1951.

Even though through the fourteenth amendment citizenship was made universal, African Americans could not practice citizenship without the right to vote. After fighting for suffrage, the fifteenth amendment was passed making race/color no longer a factor in which could limit a person’s right to

Voting was not always fair, especially for colored people. People who were white could vote without problems. Not only did blacks have rights, but Indians couldn't vote. Soon after almost 100 years Native Americans could finally vote.Today everyone has the right to vote no matter what race they are.

In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from Morehouse College earning a sociology degree. The same year, he moved on into attending the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1951, King was elected student body president and valedictorian of his class. During his years at the seminary, King Jr. rebelled against his father’s conservative ways by drinking and playing pool. He was also involved in an affair with a white woman and went through a very difficult and rough time before he could break it

In the 1869, congress passes the 15th amendment giving African American men the right to vote. Then in 1964 poll taxes where banned when it was adopted into the 24th amendment. Through all of this there were still many minorities left out of the loop, even though these laws and amendments where passed they truly weren’t put into place in individual states for a while. In 1965 many people marched and fought for the civil rights of many people. One of those famous marches was the march of Selma that included the famous MLK Jr. Later that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the ‘Voting Rights Act’ into law. The Voting Rights Act consisted of permanently removing all barriers that detained many minorities from participating in elections and casting their votes by prohibiting racial/ethnic discrimination at all

Up until the year 1870 African Americans could not vote in any election in American. (U.S. Voting Rights). In the past America has been making a lot of changes in our voting system’s equality. In the present, legally African Americans have the same rights as a white man does. In the future the rights will not get any better or worse. Throughout history The African American voting rights have improved to the present day and will stay the same in the near future.

Michael King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther king Jr was the middle child. His parents name were, Michael king sr. and Alberta Williams king. Martin Luther King had an older sister, her name was Willie Christine, and he had a younger brother named, Alfred Daniel. When king was growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, He entered public school when he was 5 years old. King went to Booker T. Washington high school. They said that he was an intelligent student. He skipped ninth and eleventh grade. He quickly entered Morehouse College when he was 15. After Martin Luther King graduated from college in 1948, he entered Crozier Theological seminary in Pennsylvania. He then earned a bachelor of divinity degree. He also

The most transformative piece of legislation relating to a minority culture group in America is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, also known as the VRA. This piece of legislation has nearly 150 years of history to prove that its affect on minorities, mainly African Americans, has had a major impact on American civil rights and is still in the spotlight today. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, and was designed to overcome legal barriers at both the state and local levels of government that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote. (“Voting Rights Act of 1965”) The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified on February 3, 1870 granted African American men the right to vote declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (Primary Documents…) Sadly, the promise of the 15th Amendment was not realized for nearly a century because of government use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means used by the Southern states to disenfranchise African Americans. The passing of the VRA helped completely change history giving African American citizens a voice.

When Africans first came here in 1619 and disembarked from a ship in Jamestown, Virginia, they were enslaved which automatically denied them to right to vote. However free black men could vote in some of the original states including North Carolina, all of the New England states (except Connecticut). In New York only blacks who owned $250 worth of land were able to vote, which of course was improbable at this time. Naturally, however, this did not apply to whites. Then came the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which allowed blacks to be elected as delegates. New amendments to the constitution and allowed

Discrimination in voting has been a prevalent issue in the African American community. Before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 poll taxes, literacy tests, and physical intimidation have prevented African Americans from voting. While this problem is widely recognized as an issue of the past it is still made possible through racial gerrymandering. This is an important matter because it has restricted fully entitled American citizens from voting.

2016, is a significant year for the country. Finding Dory came out, One Direction broke up, and there is a major presidential election. The election this year is important as both candidates are fighting for and desperately in need of the African-American vote to win. The irony in this election is that not that long ago African-Americans were not even allowed to vote. This paper sets out the historical struggles the African-American people faced in obtaining suffrage.