To What Extent Was the Contribution of Martin Luther King Central to the Success of the Civil Rights Movement?

‘Nothing mattered more to king than being an outstanding preacher. Martin Luther King had an exceptional personal some state. He was a very proud and an outspoken man. He had been ‘conditioned’ from the mere age of nine and ordained in a black church for later life purposes (1). At a young age racism surrounded him and was affected first hand. He was abused by a white mill owner purely on the colour of his skin. He also witnessed other black people suffering from violence when he saw a white mob attack and barbarically murder a black man. King was a very opinionated person and became a lead figure head publicly known on a national scale. This came to be

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957 and headed by Martin Luther King until his assassination in 1968. It grew out of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which has organized a successful boycott of the segregated city bus system in 1955-56, which resulted in the city's segregation laws being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Rosa Parks, the NAACP secretary in Montgomery, had become the test case to challenge segregated buses after she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. In 1963, SCLC organized the protests against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama and the protests for voting rights in Selma, Alabama in 1965, which gained international publicity for the civil rights movement and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These were the most important pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history and two key parts of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society agenda. King later broke with Johnson openly over the Vietnam War, which other mainstream civil rights leaders were very reluctant to do, and was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers.

While King and the SCLC were also involved in supporting and participating in the marches, they did not exercise control over the initial planning and organisation of the protests. This is also a significant event because it helped build momentum for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Albeit whilst MLKs were involved in certain protests and sit-ins, he was not always the one who initiated the movements. Therefore, whilst he let influence even if he was not involved, the sit-ins and protests could still have occurred. This suggests that while he may have had a large impact, his way of doing things was perceived as too slow and passive, making others want to take things into their own hands.

During the Jim Crow era, school and city buses had segregation laws to keep black and whites separate. He helped to bring down those laws along with other civil rights leaders. When Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested, President John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Coretta Scott King to express his sympathy about Dr. King being arrested. In comparison to other white presidents elected during the civil rights movement, these actions were proof that Kennedy was trying to make the United States better for everyone. The inequality between African American people and whites along with slavery and segregation lasted 303 years and Kennedy was one of the great men that tried to unify both

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 was an enthusiastic, inspiring, determined African American in a time where all those traits were difficult to achieve; these traits were especially complicated for him because of his skin color. He did many great things and showed communities that equality was an option to be considered. King had many impactful speeches and protests which impacted the civil rights movement in a positive way for mainly African Americans. He won the Nobel Peace Prize when he was 35, and was the youngest person to win the prize at the time. Four years after receiving the award, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on his hotel balcony. Across the country people reacted violently by rioting, protesting, and grieving over

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,

When John F. Kennedy took the presidential office in January of 1961, the United States was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Kennedy inherited a country that was mostly segregated in the southern states. African American civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. were busy trying to unify the south to allow for all equal rights. Protests, sit-in’s, and demonstrations became a common occurrence as African American people were being discriminated against. President Kennedy used his presidency to help transition a country of segregation to a country of integration.

The turning point in King’s career came in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. The SCLC launched a major demonstration to protest anti-Black attitudes in the South. Confrontations ensued between unarmed Black demonstrators and Birmingham police and firemen who used clubs, attack dogs, and fire hoses as a show of unnecessary force to quell the crowd. The publication of this demonstration and the incidents that ensued had profound effects across the country. It sparked protests across the country and prompted President John F. Kennedy to push for passage of new civil rights legislation.

Martin Luther King Jr. knew of the constant racism and cruelty in Birmingham, Alabama and decided to lead a march in 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, treasurer of the SCLC, led a group of fifty marchers toward city hall in Birmingham (Boerst, 12). Martin Luther King Jr. and the protestors wanted to stand up

With the success of the Montgomery boycott, black leaders began a new plan for the civil rights movement. In January of 1957, southern black ministers started the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Martin Luther King became the first president. "The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was the first civil rights organization led by black residents of the South, and the first to concentrate all of its attention on fighting Jim Crow within the region."2 It was at this time that Martin Luther King proposed his ideals of nonviolent resistance.

This time came to be known as the “civil rights movement”. In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat for a white man. After Rosa Parks was arrested, blacks boycotted the Montgomery buses. The buses were soon integrated since most of their revenue came from African American riders. In 1960, four black students were refused service at a diner because of their skin color. The students stayed at the store until the store closed and returned the next day. This sit-in inspired many other sit-ins which forced many places to integrate. In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) began a “Freedom Ride” from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. Many times throughout the journey, the riders were met with violence. Some buses were attacked and firebombed. After six months, the ICC enforced integration on interstate buses and changed the lives on black travelers. In 1962, James Meredith, a black male, was admitted to the University of Mississippi. Because of his admittance, a mob formed. Meredith was put under the protection of U.S. marshals. In 1963, white supremacists bombed a Baptist church in Birmingham. Four African American girls were killed. The March on Washington was probably one of the most noteworthy events in the civil rights movement. Hundreds of thousands of people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial and listened to several leaders speak about equality. One of the most popular of the leaders was Martin Luther King Jr. King’s mostly improvised “I have a dream” speech is remembered as one of the greatest speeches. King’s nonviolent campaign helped power the civil rights movement. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed to protect citizens from any discrimination based on sex, religion, origin, or race. King’s assassination in 1968 created a separation between blacks and whites. Many riots followed, and the killing only fueled the frustration

In “1955, King was asked to be a spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This was a campaign to try to achieve integration of the city’s bus lines. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in transportation was unconstitutional” (Dr. King 1). “In 1957, King was elected the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization designed to provide new leadership for the civil rights movement” (Dr. King 1). In 1963 King led a number of nonviolent campaigns that helped to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama. “Later in 1963, King was one of the driving forces behind the March for Jobs and Freedom” (Dr. King 1). “He also won Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” award in that year” (Dr. King 1). “In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was 35 years old making him the youngest recipient of the award” (Dr. King 1). After the March on Washington, Martin was able to get Congress to pass the Civil rights act, this made it so segregation was illegal. It also made it illegal to discriminate against blacks and other minorities in all aspects including hiring, hotels and other accommodations, education and transportation. “In 1965, Congress went on to pass the Voting Rights Act, which set laws that eliminated the remaining barriers to voting for African-Americans” (Dr. King 2). “Through 1965-1968, King shifted his focus to economic equality which he highlighted by leading

Other campaigns that King either supported or led include the Greensboro sit-ins, the Freedom Riders and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Greensboro sit-ins were not lead by King but they were supported by him, the Greensboro sit-ins showed black Americans economic power because the restaurant lost 20% of its predicted profits also it spread fast and desegregated shops; the policy of peaceful protest worked well because nothing failed/went wrong in the sit-ins. The Freedom riders showed co-operation because CORE, SNCC and

Montgomery’s group of civil rights advocates decided to dispute racial segregation on city buses after the arrest of Rosa Parks whom refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. The advocated created the Montgomery Improvement Association in order to boycott the transit system and King was chose as their leader. During his first speech king stated: “We have no alternative but to protest. For many years, we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.” On December 21st of 1956, the United States Supreme Court declared segregation on buses as unconstitutional and which allowed African Americans the same equality of Caucasians as they rode the bus. During this time, King’s was arrested, his home was dynamited and family was threatened but he still persevered and never gave in to using violence to demand what was right.