Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

The most important person to have made a significant change in the

rights of Blacks was Martin Luther King. He had great courage and passion

to defeat segregation and racism that existed in the United States, and it

was his influence to all the Blacks to defy white supremacy and his belief

in nonviolence that lead to the success of the Civil Rights movement.

Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia

where the city suffered most of the racial discrimination in the South, and,

in addition, the Ku Klux Klan had one of it's headquarters there. But it

was his father, Martin Luther King Sr. who played an important role in

shaping the personality of his son. M.L. Sr. helped to advocate the idea

that Blacks should vote. He was involved with the National Association for

the Advancement of Coloured People, an important Civil Rights group. These

efforts to improve the way of life for Blacks could be seen by his son.

In December 5, 1955 King began to be significant in the changing of

the Black man's way of life. The boycott of the Montgomery Bus was begun

when Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a bus to a white man on

December 1st. Two Patrolmen took her away to the police station where she

was booked. He and 50 other ministered held a meeting and agreed to start a

boycott on December 5th, the day of Rosa Parks's hearing. This boycott

would probably be successful since 70% of the riders were black. The bus

company did not take them seriously, because if there was bad weather, they

would have to take the bus. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)

was established to co-ordinate the boycott. They had a special agreement

with black cab companies, in which they were allowed to get a ride for a

much cheaper price than normal. Blacks had to walk to work, and so they did

not have time to do any shopping and therefore the sales decreased

dramatically. On January 30, while M.L was making a speech, his house was

bombed. Luckily his wife and baby had left the living room when the bomb

exploded, but a black mob formed and was angry about what had happened, and

Policemen were sent to the scene to control the situation, even though they

were outnumbered. King, however, because of his strong belief in

nonviolence, urged the crowd to not use their guns and to go home.