How Did Martin Luther King Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

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he Civil Rights Movement began in the mid-1950s with a long history of suffering to the African American people. People fought for their rights in the 1950s and they are still fighting in the U.S today. Martin Luther King Jr. was an African American who was born in 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. He was the main catalyst for civil rights. He did this until he was assassinated in 1968. Some of the main conflicts and outcomes during Martin Luther King Jr's call out for nonviolent protest were the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Brown vs. Board of Education, Fair Housing Act, and the Voting Act. People today still find inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr. through his quotes, such as, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” (Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes, unknown).
The first major movement in nonviolent protest was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Initially African American were only to sit in the back of the bus or get kicked off if there was no more space. On the day of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks would not give up her bus seat causing her to be arrested which created public awareness and sympathy. This …show more content…

This instigated a push through the courts which eventually ended at the Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education. The final decision was that school segregation was illegal. However, some of the southern states decided not to integrate schools. By disobeying the court order, white people stood in front of schools threatening African American students. At that point, the National Guard was called in to enforce the law. One judge in New Orleans, Skelly Wright stood up and defended desegregated schools even though people did not like it. People would try to push him on the road to get hit by a car or send him terrible death threats in the forms of