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To What Extent Has the Importance of Martin Luther King Been Exaggerated

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How far has the importance of Martin Luther King been exaggerated? The significance of Martin Luther King’s role during the Civil Rights Movement in the USA has become a matter for debate. In this essay I will examine the importance of his role along with many other factors. Shortly after King graduated with a Doctorates in Theology at the University of Boston, he was instantly involved in the attempts to improve black peoples rights in predominantly the South of America. King was the harbinger of Civil rights and ‘hit the ground running’ with his policies and ways of protests. His non violent strategies - inspired by Ghandi - were the source of his actions and they proved to be very popular. One of his most notable successes was the …show more content…

A further legislation put in to place was in 1957. The Civil Rights Act addressed the situation of voting rights, where only 20% of Black Americans had passed the test in order to vote. Congress passed the act to ensure all Americans could vote and forbade any person from interfering with anyones right to vote, in actuality little was done to enforce the Act, and the situation remained. Though, 3 years later, the Act was amended by requiring local authorities to keep thorough voting records. However, records showed that the acts only increased the number of votes by a dreary 3%. Another legislation put forward was in 1960 when Kennedy won the election, he put forward a controversial notion of a Civil Rights Act; he had showed support in previous years when he supported the Freedom Riders in 1961. But President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 so he could not pass the Act until his successor; Vice President Lyndon Johnson approved the Bill in July next year. The Act marked a defining moment in the struggle for Civil Rights; it outlawed segregation in all areas. In Source A we can see the combined partnership of Johnson and Kennedy, they offered a mixed bag of experience and charisma, which gave a great deal of diversity to American politics, who in the past rarely did anything to do with Civil rights; their policies gained millions of votes from anti-discriminates. An additional Act

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