Martin Luther King Jr.: Nonviolent Direct Action

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who changed history forever. He was born on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia to his mother, Alberta Williams King. Martin had an older sister, Willie and a younger brother Alfred. Martin grew up in a very disciplined and strict household Martin Sr. was more of the disciplinarian while his wife’s gentleness balanced out his strictness. When Martin was a young boy he copied everything his sister did. So, when it was his sister’s turn to go to school, he wanted to go too.. Even if it was one year earlier than he was supposed to go. In school he was always the brightest and smartest child in the class, even if he was the youngest. He always knew the most complicated words because he wanted to be a preacher some day just like his father and grandfather so …show more content…

King and other protesters’ were jailed’. From jail King wrote a very important letter “You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. 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.”Near the end of the Birmingham Campaign King met with other Civil Rights leaders and organized the historic March on Washington. On August 28, 1963 more than two hundred thousand people gathered peacefully at the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens under the law. Then right then and there King delivered his most famous speech “I have a dream”. The beginning was beautiful.” 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.” Just those few sentences he said put the crowd in