Martin Luther King: The African American Racism Movement

In this essay I will be reflecting on what I have learnt in class, as well as independent research on Martin luther King. I will be focusing on the protest he was involved in, his early influences, what he did to change things and to what extent his Christians beliefs affected what he did and said. Furthermore I will briefly explore the African American Racism issue in the 1960s and how this influenced Martin Luther King to take action. During the 1960s many African Americans faced racism, segregation and injustice. This was the primary motive that lead to Martin Luther King to his actions and what his life revolved around.

Martin Luther King was born on was born on january 15th, 1929 in Georgia, Atlanta. He was an American pastor, activist,

He eventually also received a doctrine at boston university a few years later, however long before then had he already started his effects upon American society. Martin Luther King played a very important role in society and was often looked up to. He was named Michael Lewis King at birth, however his dad changed the name due to a trip to Germany in 1934. It was during this time that he was renamed in honour of the German reformer, Martin Luther. Martin Luther King was best know for his role in the advancement of civil rights, making use of nonviolent civil disobedience on his Christian beliefs. he had learnt about this during his 3 years at the university of Pennsylvania, where he studied theology and had learnt about Ghandi and James Thorou who had initially come up with the idea of Civil disobedience. Unfortunately his life was short lived. Because he was a civil rights leader and took action against injustice, he often received death threats, however this did not stop him from speaking with courage in spite of the threats. On April 4th, 1968 he was shot in the neck on his balcony. He was one of the world youngest youngest civil rights activists and took part in many non-violent protests, which will discuss later. He was also a co founder of the South Christian

African americans were mostly affected by discrimination, stereotypes and segregation, especially in southern and midwestern America, whilst racism was not taking part everywhere, many agreed with Martin Luther Kings statement: "A threat to justice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere." I will come back to this later on. Despite the Civil war having been drawn to an end, racial injustice was still occurring and seemed to have increased in birmingham. As racial injustice increased, it reinforced Martin Luther Kings thoughts on taking action through a non-violent campaign. Many relied on the president, the congress and the courts to fulfil the promise of the 14th amendment and start to construct a bridge between the white race and the black. The 1960s was a time of change. Politics, music and much more was changing, however one crucial issue in society remained - racism. The one thing that did not subsidise, was the thing that was drawing a line between American society. The main contributor to racism was the enforcement of segregation through Jim Crow laws, yet people ignored it. many African - Americans felt compelled to adjust these laws, however did not have the power. This is what had led Martin Luther King to protests. Martin Luther King thrived for social justice and he was not the only one. Along