The Story Of Martin Luther King Jr. And The Civil Rights Movement

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American Religious speaker.He was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta. Martin’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were Baptist ministers. Martin although he tried to deny it, he followed their footsteps and became an ordained minister in 1948. King studied at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and finally went on to receive his doctorate from Boston University School of Theology. He graduated with his doctorate in 1955 two years after he married his wife Coretta.

King believed in peaceful protest and said that peace is the only weapon they have. For example it started with his peaceful boycott on all Montgomery public transportation in 1955-1956 .Which proved to be successful considering blacks made up the majority of the transits systems paying customers. This protest paved the way for the Birmingham Campaign in 1963 which was a strategic plan created by Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. These throughout protest included boycotting businesses that only hired whites or that had segregated facilities. King proved to others around him that this cause they were fighting for was serious and that he would do whatever it took to achieve equality. Dr. King became known for his concern to make people equal and to ensure that everyone is safe and

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and an activist who became one of the most prominent leaders and spokesperson in the Civil Rights Movement. King used tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience that was based on his Christian beliefs. King became known for his public speaking ability and continued to rise and speak within his ministry. King graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology and enrolled in Crozier Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity. After getting married to his wife, Coretta Scott King in 1953, King then began his Doctoral Studies in systematic theology at Boston University and graduated with a Ph.D. In 1957, King and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). This group was created to organize the power of black churches to conduct nonviolent protest in the service of the civil rights reform. He was dedicated to this group and led the conference until the day he died. In April 1963, the SCLC began a campaign against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. King used nonviolent but confrontational tactics. During the protests, the Birmingham Police Department used police dogs and high-pressure water jets against the protestors (women and children included). King was arrested and jailed early in the campaign. From his cell, he wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which is a response to the calls of condemnation on the

The Civil Rights Movement had several pros however there are cons to every situation. The suffering of people were cured by the medicine of the great personality that still stand as the role model of the world, Martin Luther King Jr. He cured the people with the speeches they delivered and the letters they wrote. The letters and speeches delivered during this movement had been very inspirational in which it made more people want to become a part of this immense movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was very inspirational but had different ways to handle things than other civil rights movement leaders. MLK Jr. was a very big contributor to the Civil Rights Movement but he said everything through “The Letter from Birmingham”. The Civil rights Movement

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929; He died on April 4, 1968. His original name was Michael Luther King Jr. he changed his name to Martin Luther King. His grandfather started the family long tradition of pastoring of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; His father had served as pastor from 1916 until death. Martin Luther King was co pastoring under his father, he attended segregated public school in Georgia. Graduating high school at the age of 15; He received the B.A. degree in 1940 from More House college, a distinguished negro institution of Atlanta, from which his father and grandfather graduated from. After 3 years of Theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class. He was awarded B.D. in 195, with a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled graduate studies at Boston University. He met his wife Coretta Scott while in Boston, Martin has 2 daughters and 2 Sons. He awarded leadership of the first negro in 1955. His bus boycott lasted for 382 days. On December 1956, After the Supreme Court of the United States declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, and now the road the bus at equals. During these days king was arrested multiple time for the bombing of his house, which also subjected to personal abuse. He engaged as a negro leader, at age 35 he was the youngest man to receive the “Nobel” prize, and on April 14, 1968, while standing on his balcony in Tennessee he was assassinated.

Martin Luther King Jr. was perhaps the greatest civil rights leader during the 1950s. Many people saw him and his practices as a way to win the civil rights movement. Unlike many leaders during this time King supported nonviolence. He lead many peaceful marches to try and gain civil rights. King stated that “For many years now Negroes have been intimidated and humiliated and oppressed because of the sheer fact that we are Negroes.” During the 1950s many Negroes were segregated against. The government of the United States new that these events were going on but did nothing about it. King helped to defend another one of the civil

Time and time again we have seen the act of civil disobedience being a success. The most notorious being Martin Luther King Jr. and his endeavor to bring about the Civil Right's Movement. However, Martin Luther King Jr. was not the only one to demonstrate the positive effect civil disobedience can have on a nation. People like Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Thoreau, those involved in the Boston Tea Party, and many others exhibited the potential of civil disobedience.

When African Americans rode the bus, they had to give up their seat to a white american if asked. Rosa Parks and King were not taking part in these actions, they chose to boycott the busses until given equal rights.After a year of boycotting the busses and receiving poor treatment from the whites, “ A United States District court ruling in Browder v. Gayle banned racial segregation on all Montgomery public busses” (Tavaana Editors).African Americans were fed up with the unfair treatment, they rose and took a stand for what they believed in. Eventually after a long grueling year they received what they asked for, fair treatment among all Montgomery public busses. King was the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, they organized civil right non-violent protests to prevent inequality amongst races.The SCLC was mainly made up of church leaders, ministers, and protesters; “Under King’s guidance, the SCLC peacefully organized mass protest campaigns, voter registration drives and fought for equality” (Features 1).King influenced them to not only stand up for what they believe but to protest and not settle for these than what they deserve. King used nonviolent methods to bring equality for all races and terminate unfair treatment for

After Dr. King’s boycott he traveled to Atlanta to push for equal rights for African Americans he and several other men formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 to assist and organize those fighting for their full rights as a person. He then moved on to nonviolent confrontations by doing sit-ins in areas that they were not allowed to be in to get public attention to themselves. This came to his arrest, while authorities thought that his uprising would end they were truly mistaken as Dr. King wrote one of his best pieces Letter from Birmingham Jail to defend his strategy and that he would keep pursuing rights for African Americans. Once released he made yet another stand for justice in his “March for Jobs and Freedom,” which was a huge success by having over 200,000 people to come for this cause, that they want their freedom and to have equal rights. His lasting impact was when after the march he made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech which spread across the US while he and his followers gathered at the Lincoln memorial, his most significant speech which brought President Kennedy to listen.

King inspired the black and white community to be involved during the civil rights movement through his empathetic words and his actions. Dr. King rallied communities to be involved in the non-violent boycott of the Montgomery buses with the objective being desegregation of the public bus system. On 5 December, 90 percent of Montgomery’s black citizens stayed off the buses and this continues for a year. During this year Dr. King was faced with numerous threats to his life even having his home bombed several times but he refused to give

Dr. King worked endlessly and tirelessly to end unfair treatment towards african americans. Dr. King wanted to end segregation and have equal rights for african americans. He wanted to end police brutality and racial prejudice against blacks. In 1955 he helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat members of the NAACP met and organized the boycott.

On November 1956, the United State Supreme Court declared Montgomery’s segregationist bus laws unconstitutional. On December 21, 1956 King and several MIA’s colleagues got on a Montgomery’s first desegregated bus and were warmly greeted by a white bus driver, finally after a year King got what he wanted.[2] On February 14, 1957 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference chose King as their leader. Later King began promoting his book Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. In September 1958, while doing a book signing a black woman stabbed King with a letter opener nearly killing him. In the early 1960’s King led a voter registration protest in Selma, Alabama that later led to a 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery. These acts of congress led to the removal of the “whites only” signs in the southern restrooms, restaurants, and bus and train stations and prohibited unfair black literacy tests designed to prevent blacks from voting. [5] Even though King called for nonviolence a lot of the protest around the United States turned violent. On August 28, 1963 King stood in front of a crowd of 250,000 people to give his speech “I Have a Dream”.[5] In 1963 Kings helped to orchestrate the civil rights demonstrations

King had a large part in many well-known 1950s and 1960s civil rights movements. In 1955, he became involved in the Montgomery, Alabama boycott of the city buses, that was spurred by the bus company’s conduct that African Americans only ride in the back seats. King’s support gained a lot of attention to the cause and brought many supporters even outside of the Montgomery area. This act put pressure on bus companies all over the South to examine their own rules, and eventually, to change them. King’s role in the civil rights movement gave him the potential to create a major change.

The first major event of King’s civil rights career was the Montgomery Bus Boycott.On December 5, 1955, five days after Montgomery civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to obey the city's rules mandating segregation on buses, black residents launched a bus boycott and elected King as president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association. As the boycott continued during 1956, King gained national prominence as a result of his exceptional oratorical skills and personal courage. His house was bombed and he was convicted along with other boycott leaders on charges of conspiring to interfere with the bus company's

He did not stop there with his progression of knowledge; he was a firm believer in the term “knowledge is power”, which he demonstrated by attending Boston University. While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, a music student and native of Alabama. Despite there career incompatibility as stated in the Peake’s book "My Life With Martin Luther King, Jr.”, “preparing for professions that at first seemed incompatible”. According to the "Martin Luther King Jr. Timeline.” they were married in 1953 and had four children. In 1954 King accepted his first pastorate at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. were he earned yet another degree, this one being a doctoral degree in systematic theology in June of 1955 and was also the year King's first child is born, Yolanda Denise, in November of 1955.