The civil rights era was a time of great change in American society. And no leader was more closely linked to that period than Martin Luther King Jr. King and the movement he led have particular importance to me, an African-American born in the south. I grew up in the time of rigid segregation. Segregation forced black people to be separate from white people in schools, restaurants and other public places. There were so many places I could not go, from the town park to the public library. I was not allowed in these places because of the color of my skin. I hated the unfairness. I was in Montgomery, Alabama, during the bus boycott that began the major civil rights movement. This movement aimed to win equal rights for African-Americans. During …show more content…
African-American leaders before him had some of the same qualities. And African-Americans had had other opportunities to win their civil rights. But during the 1950s and 1960s, a combination of events made American society open to change. King had the moral strength and ability to inspire that were needed to bring about that change. King was a young Baptist minister when he got involved in the Montgomery bus boycott.King was also lucky. Even someone as special as he could well have been merely a voice in the wilderness if not for certain events. Change had already begun in the late 1940s. That was when President Harry S. Truman ended segregation in the armed forces. In the 1950s, there was an important Supreme Court case called Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling of the court declared segregated education unconstitutional. The implications of the decision extended into every area of society. Television Made It Impossible To Ignore What Was Going On Finally, advances in technology made the time right for mass protest. When whites responded to civil rights protests with violence, television broadcast the ugly images across the nation. It was impossible for Americans to ignore what was going