How Did Martin Luther King Influence The Civil Rights Movement

In 1955, Martin Luther King, Jr. was the elected leader of the Montgomery bus boycott. The Montgomery bus boycott was one the first factors to demonstrate that the African-American community could assemble a successful protest movement. King trusted and used nonviolent resistance to achieve racial harmony. After the bus boycott in 1957, King connected with other civil rights leaders and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) “to carry on nonviolent crusades against the evils of second-class citizenship.” The SCLC protested mostly to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama, due it’s standing for racial violence. The SCLC held numerous events to desegregate Birmingham, which included many protests, negative media coverage, and a financial boycott called the Birmingham Campaign. This event finally persuaded the officials in Birmingham to end segregation in 1963. This

In New York City in July 1964, a black 15 year old teenager was murdered by a white policeman, which ignited riot in Harlem. This wasn’t the only riot in response to racial violence, in fact several riots broke out in 1966 through 1967. Malcolm X promoted the racial riots known as Black Power. Malcolm studied the teachings of the Black Muslims heavily and eventually began preaching Elijah Muhammad’s views. Elijah Muhammad was the leader of the Black Muslims. He believed that blacks should separate themselves from white society because white people were the cause for the state of black treatment. Malcolm X called for armed self defense, which was radically different from King’s preaching less than a decade earlier. After travelling to Saudi Arabia, Malcolm X completely altered his views towards whites and no longer believed in racial differences. Malcolm believed that his separation from the Black Muslims endangered his life. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot while giving a speech in