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The Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Essay

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The Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King

The Civil Rights movement is still identified by people across the world with Dr Martin Luther King. His day of birth is remarked with a national holiday in the United States and there are many historic sites dedicated to MLK across the nation. His funeral in Atlanta on 9th April 1968 was attended by political leaders from around the world and later in 1977 King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom which stated that MLK was “the conscience on his generation” who…”saw the power of love could bring down segregation”.

It is clear that MLK had a huge impact on how the civil rights movement was to be perceived by all people in the years …show more content…

The Civil War amendments of 1865-70 gave the blacks some of these rights, but over three quarters of a century later, the American public still failed to see them as “equals”. However King recognised that he had to get to the top to change this mentality of white Americans. Through the use of the media and his own knowledge of the law in regards to civil rights, King occupied high moral and political ground, giving the civil rights movement some much needed coverage.

It is argued that King was lucky in that his preaching’s and speeches were confirmed by events happening in the United States, which as a result increased peoples faith and belief in MLK. For example, when Emmet Till was murdered by two white men for talking to a white woman, the media picked up on this and showed pictures of Tills mutilated body. There was also a lot of media coverage of the attacks on African Americans and churches during the Montgomery bus boycott. It could be said these attacks were in retaliation to Kings ever increasing popularity, but nevertheless, the black people of America continued their support for King.

King’s contributions to forming well structured organisations is also admired by many. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and decided that in order to make the civil rights

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