Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement

One of the greatest speaker in America, went on his mission to start the civil-rights movement in America in the mid 1950's. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. He was a baptist minister and of course the main leader of the movement to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. Several events occurred to achieve the end of racial segregation and racial discrimination led by Martin Luther King Jr. including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Birmingham Campaign and the March onWashington.

In King Jr's early years he studied sociology and divinity at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. While in school he heard a lecture on Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent civil disobedience campaign that Gandhi used against British rule in India. King Jr. was very much so interested in Gandhi's philosophy and continued his research by reading books about him. He eventually realized that the same methods could be employed by blacks to obtain civil rights in America. Although King Jr's main influence was Gandhi, he also was influenced by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau has theories on how to use nonviolent resistance to achieve social change.

King Jr. gained national reputation that lead him to a hero from the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. The case started in March of 1955 when a fifteen-year old refused to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. The issue was ignored because the teenage was pregnant and unmarried. Then in December of 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus and was arrested for refusing. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, that was lead my Martin Luther King Jr. started shortly after Parks incident. The boycott last for 385 days an 17,000 black people in Montgomery walked to walk until the Supreme Court rule the Montgomery bus company to accept integration. Roughly 90 people were arrested including King Jr. during the campaign and his house was bombed. The whole nation was following the boycott, and King Jr. was nationally respected as he attempted the shift in racial segregation. The end result was the United States District Court ruling ended racial segregation on all Montgomery buses.

After the Boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. continued his push to end racial segregation and discrimination. In 1963, the Birmingham Campaign began in attempt to end the city's segregated civil and discriminatory economic policies. King and the black citizens employed several nonviolent tactics to openly disregard laws that they considered to be unfair. Another boycott was formed to pressure those businesses that lacked in offering employment to every race. Although the campaign lacked in adult protestors resulting in the recruitment of children that became known as the "Children's Crusade."