How Did Martin Luther King Influence The Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement in the United States educated the world on the unjust issues that were present, but in particular it influenced activists in Australia to make a stand for change for the Australian Aboriginal people. The US civil rights movement began in 1954 with the ‘Brown vs Board of Education’ argument regarding segregation in education being put to the American Supreme Court which was then followed a year later by the incident involving Rosa Parks. These events triggered the activists in America to begin to see the issue and fight for freedom and their human rights. Until these events occurred and news started to spread, there was no action in Australia on Aboriginal rights, therefore these events sparked the initial protests

Martin Luther King Jr was a social activist who was dedicated to bringing freedom and equal rights to the African American people. King’s way of protest was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and was known as ‘civil disobedience’. King was against violence in any form and felt that the same end result could be achieved by a non violent approach. Martin Luther King Jr was the driving force behind the March on Washington which took place in Washington D.C on August 28th 1963. The March became a crucial event in the US movement and King’s speech ‘I Have a Dream’ became more influential and significant than first anticipated. Malcolm X was also a social activist for the African American people but he had an extremely different approach to protests. One of Malcolm’s more famous quotes was ‘By any means necessary’(Malcolm X), which tells how he was willing to do anything to get his message across and his point proven. Malcolm was not afraid to use violence as a means of control and power which differentiated him from the other activists. He believed that civil disobedience would not ultimately achieve success and that violence would prove effective. Charles Perkins followed in the example of Martin Luther King Jr and refused to retaliate violently against the people who tried to stop him

The Civil Rights Act in America was passed in 1964 but this was not all that occurred. The passed act did not fulfill the desires of the social activists because it did not have any impact on voting and the African Americans’ rights were not necessarily guaranteed. For this reason, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. Segregation was abolished on public transport due to the repercussions of the bus boycott and jobs were offered to the African American people. Prior to the passing of the two acts in America, Australian Aboriginal people were granted the right to equal votes which occurred in 1962. This was the initial step in the movement for equal or improved rights for Australian Aborigines. The 1967 referendum in Australia was not specific as to what it would achieve but it was put in place to spark a change in the Commonwealth which would eventuate in better rights for Aboriginal people in the near