How Did Martin Luther King Impact The Civil Rights Movement

When someone thinks of the Civil Rights Movement, often the first thing to come to mind is Martin Luther King Jr. He was the most famous leader of this movement and as a result of his work, there were many acts, laws, and desegregation that occurred. If Martin didn’t work as hard as he did to make America the country it is today, discrimination of race would still exist. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. led to country to a period of national mourning and a rush of anger from not only blacks but also whites in America. Martin Luther King Jr. was born into a religious family in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. King attended Booker T. Washington High School where he skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades and entered college

During that evening, Parks sat in the first row of the “colored” section of the bus. The bus began to fill with multiple white people and eventually they ran out of white seats resulting in the whites standing. The bus driver deemed this unacceptable and told Parks she would have to give up her seat. Parks refused to give up her seat resulting in her being arrested. That night, E.D. Nixon, the head of the local NAACP met with King and other civil rights activists in Montgomery to organize a bus boycott for all of Montgomery. Among the group, Martin was elected to lead the boycott. With strong credibility, solid connections, and few enemies they felt as if Martin was the perfect man to lead the black community. This event would also include his first speech. King said, “We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given out white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were begin treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.” King attended multiple more protests, boycotts, and trials throughout his career as a civil rights activist. These lead up to his most famous speech, which still impact our society today: “I Have A

organized and held a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, which would pave the road for his most famous and impactful speech of all time. This event drew attention from the entire nation. King along with multiple other activists and supporters were arrested during this event. From jail, Martin expressed his belief of non-violence. Martin said, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue.” After this incident, Martin and his supporters planned the massive demonstration composed of many different organizations and over 200,000 people on the nation’s capitol. On August 28, 1963, King gave his “I Have A Dream” speech, drawing attention to his belief that someday all people could be seen and treated equally. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The impact of his speech was unbelievable. Citizens that didn’t even believe in racial discrimination began to question the laws in place and the treatment of African Americans. This resulted in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which authorized the enforcement of desegregation in public and in publicly owned facilities, such as schools. This also led to the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Martin Luther in 1964.