The Role Of Martin Luther King In The Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr was a revolutionary figure for his time. As leader of the Civil Rights Movement along with many others, he campaigned to bring about racial equality and desegregation in the deep-south of America. The history of the struggle for human rights dates back thousands of years, all for different reasons; whether it was for women’s rights, gay rights or Black rights. The most notable call for equality in the twentieth century was led by Martin Luther King Jr. and focused on civil rights for African Americans in the south. His role in achieving civil rights was greatly significant due to his technique of bringing people together and his signature non-violent protests.

For decades before the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans

For instance, in 1955 a black boy was murdered for whistling at a white woman, which obviously sparked major civil unrest within the black community. Another well-known event occurred in 1957 when 9 school students, (following the U.S Supreme Court ruling that segregated schools were integrally unequal, 3 years before) under the direction of a member from the NAACP, attempted to integrate both the white and black schools by attending the Central High School at Little Rock, Arkansas which was a school for white people only. Continuing through this was the relentless presence of the ‘Klu Klux Klan’ white supremacist group which used violent methods to counter the push for civil rights. One of the major incidences which galvanised the Civil Rights Movement was the infamous bus boycott of 1955. This event started with a black woman named Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus. Her arrest and the resulting publicity from this incident caught the attention of a young Baptist Minister by the name of Martin Luther King

Acts and Amendments in relation to civil rights started to pass through Congress after the 1960’s. The first major Act was the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in many settings such as schools, employment and public places. A year later came the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which granted all blacks the freedom to vote. In 1967 the Supreme Court ruled against any laws forbidding the interracial marriage of people. In 1968 the Fair Housing Act was passed, assuring that there were to be no longer any discriminatory actions regarding the buying and selling of houses. These Acts, and several more, stemmed almost completely from the work that King did in conjunction with the Civil Rights