Martin Luther King Research Paper

Prideful young Martin held resentments towards whites because he knew that he was seen to be inferior to whites even though he was more smart and well educated than most other white students. It was not until King learned the most important lesson of his life in college that would influence his ever growing urge to fight racism.

Martin Luther King Jr. furthered his education in college where he had developed actualization for his inspiration to fight for civil rights, and where he had been introduced to the teachings of nonviolent leaders that influenced his methods towards social reform. Attending Morehouse College, King participated in many school activities while establishing the college’s youth chapter of the NAACP. King also engaged

December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a forty-five year old seamstress returning home from work, was arrested for not giving her seat up for a white man violating the “Montgomery City Code.” Parks was later arrested and charged. This was the first mark in the uprising against unequal treatment during the civil rights movement. E.D. Nixon, leader of the Montgomery and Alabama, NAACP was concerned as Parks and her husband were both active members of their chapter. Nixon called upon the help of King to organize a bus boycott for the following Monday of the arrest of Parks, although it was so successful in participation, the Montgomery city-wide bus boycott continues and lasted 382 days. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was created the head the effort. (Michael V. Uschan). African Americans participate in the boycott by refusing to ride the buses, so they began to walk to work, and take taxis as well as cars designated for carpools, donated by the MIA. King became a celebrity, traveling around sharing magnificent worlds in his speeches and became the media spokesman of this movement, from which media coverage helped to raise thousands of dollars to pay for volunteer drivers, cars, and other expenses. King gave identity to the Montgomery city bus boycott. Suffering from large financial losses, as blacks made up 75% of their

Leader and President of SCLC, King used his organization as a national platform to support civil right reform. SCLC gave King a base of operation with a strong following of supporters eager to make a change. The organization established its first movement to conduct non-violent protests and fight for the an equal voting process to register black voters in the south. According to the Digital History textbook, during this time period Selma, Alabama, “ blacks slightly outnumbered whites in the city of 29,500 people, Selma's voting rolls were 99 percent white and 1 percent black” (DigitalHistory, “Voting Rights”, Para. 2). This was because laws were set in Southern states designed to prevent blacks from voting or registering to vote. In King’s biography, Heros and Villains series, the accomplishments of the SCLC applied pressure to government assist as “It created the Civil Rights Commission to investigate laws that kept blacks from voting”, and although small victories in increasing numbers of black voters, the SCLC had not radically improved the lives of southern blacks. Meetings and protests were held in key southern cities in 1963 and launched their first major campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. High publicity of the protest gained northern supports as nonviolent protesters were confronted and faced by police with clubs,