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Martin Luther King Research Paper

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Adriana Castillo
Professor Popowski
United States History II 1302
August 5th, 2015
A Research Paper on Martin Luther King Jr.
Michael King Jr. Was born to parents Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King's family has quite an extensive religious background, which starts with his grandfather, A.D Williams. In 1893, A.D he revives the small but strong congregation of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He later married Jennie Celeste Parks and they had a single child together, named Alberta. Alberta would end up getting married to Michael King Sr., a man product of a sharecropping family in a very poor community. This lead to the couple living with Alberta's parents for some time until A.D …show more content…

After he was elected the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization which was responsible for the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955 to 1956 (381 days). Which led to the Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation is illegal, ensuring victory for the boycott. MLK was arrested numerous times for his participation in civil rights activities. King will go on to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with thepurpose to fight segregation and achieve basic civil rights. On May 17, 1957, Dr. King speaks to a crowd of 15,000 in Washington, D.C. In 1958, The U.S. Congress is pressured by the people to passed the first Civil Rights Act since reconstruction. This is a huge success for King and his work as he is able to meet with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and talk about issues and problems affecting black Americans. It's clear King's methods have worked and he hold some degree of power. In the three years time, he was been able to change and influence laws and supreme court rulings. On a speaking tour in Harlem, King was nearly killed when stabbed by an assailant. Yet, this does not stop King from continuing his passion. He decides to take a trip to India to study Mohandas Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. When he returns to Atlanta, her conducts these new demonstrations of 'love' and non-violent sit-in/ protests. MLK also resigns as pastor from the Dexter Avenue Baptist …show more content…

King was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, by James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray was arrested in London, England on June 8, 1968, and extradited to Memphis, Tennessee to stand trial for the assassination of Dr. King. On March 9, 1969, before coming to trial, he entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to ninety-nine years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Dr. King had been in Memphis to help lead sanitation workers in a protest against low wages and intolerable conditions. His funeral services were held April 9, 1968, in Atlanta at Ebenezer Church and on the campus of Morehouse College, with the President of the United States proclaiming a day of mourning and flags being flown at half-staff. The area where Dr. King was entombed is located on Freedom Plaza and surrounded by the Freedom Hall Complex of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Site, a 23 acre area was listed as a National Historic Landmark on May 5, 1977, and was made a National Historic Site on October 10, 1980 by the U.S. Department of the Interior" -(LSU

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