How Did Martin Luther King Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

For more than 200 years before the Civil War, slavery existed in the United States. After the war, life began to get worse for Africans Americans. The south poblation thought they needed to do something. The southern legislatures, former confederates, passed laws known as the black codes, after the war, which severely limited the rights of African American and segregated them from the white Americans. During the 1919-1970s, racial segregation existed and it kept African Americans to have equal rights with white Americans. It was supported by the legal system and even the police. There was always a threat by terrorist violence, for example, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) made so many threats to black people and even some white people to prevent blacks

The emerging leader of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther Kings, Jr., gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. The speech evokes a picture in our minds of a world where complete equality and freedom exist. He also announced “1963 is not an end, but the beginning.” Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929. He was original named Michael Luther King Jr. but changed his name to Martin. His family came from a long line of pastors at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Martin was co-pastor until his father’s death, where he took over as pastor until his death in 1968. Martin attended segregated public schools through-out his youth. Dr. King received his B.A degree in 1948 from Morehouse College. A distinguished Negro institution in Atlanta, his father and grandfather also attended Morehouse

Upon graduating from Crozer he enrolled into Graduate school at Boston University. King conpleted his residence for the doctorate in 1953. At Boston University King met and married Coretta Scott, they had two sons and two daughters. In 1954 Dr. King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition, at this time he was also a member of the executive committee of the national Association for the advancement of colored people. In 1955 he was ready to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the U.S. The bus boycott lasted 382 days. During the days of the Boycott Dr. King was arrested more than 30 times, his house was bombed, and they did personal harm to him, but at the same time he was the first ranked of Negro leaders. On December 21, 1956 after the supreme court of the United States declared unconstitutional that the laws requiring segregation on the buses, Negros and White rode buses as equals. He was elected president in 1957 for the southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the Burgeoning Civil Rights