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Social activist Martin Luther King Jr
Martin luther king montgomery bus boycott
Martin Luther King Jr. 1918
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On 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee, where he planned to lead a protest march. The powerful words of MLK was silenced, but almost fifty years later, his ideas are still an inspiration for people who seek peace and justice. Every year it marks MLK day, a United States holiday, with a special meaning to a lot of people around the world. Martin Luther King inspired hundreds of thousands of people in the United States into actions against racism, to end poverty, and for peace. The determination of Negro Americans to win freedom from all forms of oppression comes from the same want as white people all over the world. For decades, civil rights activists had been fighting these laws and social customs to …show more content…
Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to raise the public awareness of racism, to end racial discrimination and segregation in the United States. While his goal was racial equality,MLK plotted out a series of smaller objectives that involved local grassroots campaigns for equal rights for African Americans. In 1955, MLK became involved in his first major civil rights campaign in Montgomery, Alabama, where buses were racially segregated. I have found a lot out that I did not know until i started researching this topic, Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to vacate her seat in the middle of the bus so that a white man could sit in her place. Now everyone knows this but a lot of people did not know that after this happened other blacks around her started trying the same thing and this sprung a lot of african americans to stand up. By drawing nation-wide attention to segregation, King became a core organizer, one of the Big Six, of the famous 1963 March on Washington, which asked for political and economic justice for all Americans. It was a public opportunity for MLK and his group so to say to place their concerns before the nation's capital, as said by MLK in his IHave a Dream speech the nation seemed to hear him better
Martin Luther King Jr was born on the 15th of January, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, known as Michael Luther King Jr and was than assassinated on the 4th of April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The world renowned Baptist minister and social activist had a massive impact on the American civil rights movement from the mid 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. Martin Luther King Jr’s up bringing was fairly pleasant and he was brought up with a great education. However, he had his couple of prejudices and traumatic experience through out his life. One of these including one of his friends who was a fair skinned boy who was told to tell King that he was no longer allowed to play with him because the children were now attending
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most widely known civil rights activist of the 1960s. Although most famous for his I Have a Dream speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote several more influential speeches for the Civil Rights Movement – an American movement that sought to extend equal rights to all U.S. citizens. During his lifetime, he was known for practicing nonviolence in the hopes to obtain social and economic equality of all African Americans. While equality exists amongst the races today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did not get to see the fulfillment of his dream. On April 4, 1968, he was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee.
On April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, an event that would change history forever occurred. That was the day James Earl Ray assassinated the driving force of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. It shook the nation, as the man who was planning on bringing peace and racial harmony in the United States was killed in an instant. He was probably the most influential scapegoat in American history, setting out to create equality for all races in America. There were many extremist white-based groups which detested the idea of equality, believing that whites were superior over all, groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Martin Luther King did not back down when groups like the KKK harassed him; he used their hate against them and allowed it to thrust him forward for the sake of bettering his cause and pushing towards racial equality. In the end, Martin Luther King was assassinated for his passion and beliefs; his hard work paid off because after his death, there was at least legal racial equality in the U.S. His bravery and strength
was was a minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King led the civil rights movement since the 1950’s, using non-violent actions to fight segregation. King faced much criticism in the later years of his life from younger black activists who favored a more violent, confrontational approach to bringing change. King was standing on a second floor balcony in the spring of 1968 when he was struck in the neck by a sniper’s bullet. About an hour after being rushed to the hospital, King was pronounced dead. News of King’s assassination was reported internationally and covered in newspapers, magazines, and the nightly new in the days that followed. Many of the front page articles covering it were not about his death, but rather various stories surrounding it, including violent acts like burning and looting. The article "Assassination Of King Sparks Negro Violence" appeared on the front page of The Valdosta Daily Times and reported the reaction of the black public to the violent act committed against such a passive and strong non-violent leader. In contrast, “An Hour of Need”, published in TIME shortly after King’s death, said “Even as that hope blossomed, an older blight on the American conscience burst through with the capriciousness of a spring freeze. In Memphis, through the budding branches of trees surrounding a tawdry rooming house, a white sniper’s bullet cut down Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., pre-eminent voice of the just aspirations and long-suffering patience of black America.” President Johnson called for an extraordinary joint session of Congress to hear “The President’s recommendations for action —constructive action instead of destructive action—in this hour of national need.’” He urged Americans to reject the violence and called on congress to pass the civil rights legislation entering the House for debate. On April 11, he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In the climate of sorrow and guilt that engulfed
Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was an excellent speaker and activist during the civil rights movement throughout 1954-1968. The civil rights movement was a time of racial injustice and unfair treatment towards people of different races. During that time many African Americans boycotted and protested against the unfair treatment in America at that point in time. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of these people who protested to create a difference in the community. The goal of these marches and protests that he led were to change the feelings of the government and the people’s feelings about racial injustice. However, Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 because he stood up for what was right. He was though able to do many
...olitical rally for jobs and freedom which became known as the March on Washington (“March on Washington”). Americans were able to come together to demonstrate the boldness that they had to fight a cause that no person should endure. The march was designed to open the eyes of the American people on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country (“March on Washington”). One was able to see that what African Americans were going through would not be wished upon anyone. A new nation was being reborn where blacks and white would get along without anyone being mistreated due to skin color. A man by the name of Martin Luther King was the main protagonist of this battle for equality. Martin was a Baptist minister and was also a social activist who held a major role in the American civil rights movement (“Martin Luther King Jr”).
The assassination of Martin Luther King was a vital part of, not only Black history, but American history. In short, King was a civil rights activist. He was the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. As president of the SCLC, King’s main focus was to fight against segregation. He, then, began to form nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted negative attention from the police force that, unfortunately lead to brutal attacks on participants. In 1963 during the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in front of millions and on television. These things make his death a notable and significant historical event. Dr. King dedicated his life and paid the ultimate price in the name of equality, justice, peace, and co-habitation for humankind.
Martin Luther King admired Muhammad Gundi and Gundi’s idea of peaceful protest. King adopted this idea and organized much historical peaceful protest and civil disobedience in the name of equality. King led the Montgomery bus boycott of 1963 to protest the arrest of Rosa Parks, King also led the “march on Washington” when over 200,000 people gathered to hear King’s most famous speech. Kings most famous speech, I Have a Dream, was given on the steps of the Lincoln memorial on august 28th 1963. In King’s speech king conveys his idea of a perfect society of all races living together peacefully. King had much larger impact on civil rights than Malcolm X mostly because of King’s theories and principals of peaceful protest and Civil disobedience as opposed to X’s view of “whatever it takes.” Unfortunately much like Malcolm X King was also
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in the evening of April 4, 1968 while exiting his hotel room. The news of King’s assassination left the African-American community shocked, disappointed and outraged. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. triggered various responses from the black and white communities. The black community’s main response was wide spread violence throughout the United States resulting in demises and military involvement, while a few decided to hold peaceful protests in King’s memory. Many in the white community celebrated, while others feared for their lives. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination fashioned a divide amongst the black and white populations, destroying lives, property, and necessitating the government’s involvement
There are people in America that make us wonder why there is a world to begin with. There are people who represent the greater good of the world, and there are others who are unfortunately not for the greater good of the world. We have to constantly deal with those whose only goal in life is to bring the lives of others down to the ground; to shatter and to break them. This is what is happening now in the world, and this most likely will never change. As a result of trying to change the ways in which we live and interact with these people, there was a movement that wanted to change the lives of African-Americans, as well as other races.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When most Americans hear that name the first thing that comes to mind is his “Dream”. But that is not all he was. His life was more than a fight against segregation, it was segregation. He lived it and overcame it to not only better himself but to prove it could be done and to better his fellow man.
King traveled the country making speeches and inspiring people to become involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He organized non-violent student sit-ins and fought for the rights of the black population. In his speech, he proclaimed a free and better nation of equality and that both races, the blacks and the whites, should join together to achieve common ground and to support each other instead of fighting against one another. King’s vision is that all people should be judged by their “personality and character and not by their color of skin”(‘I Have a Dream”). All the points he made in his speech were so strong that lots of people were interested in his thoughts. He dreamed of a land where the blacks could vote and have a reason to vote and where every citizen would be treated the same and with the same justice.
Overall, Martin Luther King Jr. did a fantastic job in presenting a well developed speech to his audience, which helped expedite his dream of ending racial conflicts and bringing people of different race, color, and religion together. MLK’s main purpose was accomplished through his magnificent words that he left behind that day in the speech presentation. The stylistic technique’s helped make a huge impact towards people by making his speech much stronger to show ethics and credibility, emotion towards the audience, and logical reasoning which helped establish his integrity.
However, these African American citizens had remarkable courage to never stop, until these un-just laws were changed and they received what they had been fighting for all along, their inalienable rights as human beings and to be equal to all other human beings. Up until this very day there are still racial issues where some people feel supreme over other people due to race. That, however, is an issue that may never end. African Americans fought until the Jim Crow laws were taken out of effect, and they received equality for all people regardless of race. Along the way, there were many controversial court cases and important leaders who helped to take a stand against racial segregation.