Martin Luther King Jr, the man who had a dream to end racial discrimination, is known by many as one of the greatest leading activists in the Civil Rights Movement. He brought awareness to the mistreatment towards African Americans and made changes that are sustainable today. King accomplished many great things throughout his lifetime that positively impacted the world. He led many peaceful boycotts, became the leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, and brought great racial acceptance to the United States. Through all of this, he had many loyal followers. In fact, many of his greatest accomplishments would have never been carried out if it was not for some of these people. Many are well known, but some are not. The loyal support that …show more content…
Thoreau was an American essayist and abolitionist who believed that people should nonviolently disobey laws when they believed that they were unjust. He expanded upon this in his essay Civil Disobedience, published in 1849 that voiced refusal to not obey certain laws or restrictions imposed by the government. King believed that “no other person had been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across” (Raab). So, modeling Thoreau’s mindset, King chose to reject some laws in a peaceful, orderly manner. Secondly, King was a devout Baptist minister at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, which led him to cite many of his teachings in nearly every Civil Rights address that he gave. For example, he said, “We shall overcome because the Bible is right, 'You shall reap what you sow” (Raab). He embraced peace through his commitment to his faith. Finally, there was Mahatma Gandhi, King’s greatest influence. He looked at Gandhi’s sense of nonviolence and realized that he wanted to do the same. Gandhi’s profound influence on King made him realize the power and significance of nonviolence. In King’s role as the president of the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), he traveled across the nation, giving speeches and performing nonviolent protests. During a trip in 1959, he had the opportunity to meet family members and followers of Gandhi, the man he described as “the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent change” (Raab). King’s adoption of Gandhi’s dedication to nonviolence is part of what has sustained King’s legacy today. While his influences shaped him into the person he became and the legacy he left behind, King also had many people who helped to raise his