Mr Fitzgerald's History



What contribution did Martin Luther King make to the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s?Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) was the most important figure in the American civil rights movement. He exerted outstanding leadership over the movement in a remarkably short space of time. King was a Baptist Minister whose philosophy of protest was rooted in Christian ideals. Peace and non-violence were central to his political message. His skills as an orator helped him communicate his message through powerfully delivered speeches at protest marches and demonstrations or at sermons at church. King remains to this day, one of the 20thcentury’s most iconic leaders, whose contribution remains unmatched by any subsequent leader. Born in 1923 into a respected middle-class family in Atlanta, Georgia, King graduated from Morehouse College, a prestigious all-black University. After graduating in 1951, he went on to study for a PhD at Boston University and received his Doctorate in 1955. King then moved back to the south and began working as a pastor in a Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was a dedicated and popular minister and served on the Executive Committee of the Montgomery Branch of the NAACP. It was in this city that a bus boycott had started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to white man. This was an attempt to end segregation on buses in Montgomery. As the Montgomery Bus Boycott (MBB) gathered momentum in early 1956, King was asked to lead the campaign as head of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). King travelled to different states appealing for funds. King urged the black community in Montgomery to resist segregation by refusing to use the buses until the laws were changed and advocated non-violent direct action. It was a message that King outlined repeatedly at his evening meetings: “if cursed, do not curse back. If struck, do not strike back but evidence love and goodwill at all times. If another person is being harassed, do not arise to go to his defence, but prey for the oppressor”. By not reacting to white provocation, King could take a high moral ground to highlight the injustice of segregation. The boycott attracted massive media attention and after just over a year of protest, it ended when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. His contribution to its success was immense being largely down to his leadership, organisational skills and inspirational oratory. The MBB had launched MLK’s career and made him the unelected head of the Civil Rights movement. In 1957, King helped to set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Its aim was to continue working for change, using boycotts and other non-violent tactics. Around this time, other civil rights organisations were established such as CORE and the SNCC to fight for desegregation in all public facilities. In 1960, a sit-in was organised by the SNCC at an all-white lunch counter in a restaurant in Greensboro, South Carolina. 50,000 students from across the south had succeeded in desegregating over 100 facilities in the southern states. Freedom Rides was another plank of Civil Rights activism which successfully tested the 1960 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation on all interstate travel on buses and trains. These campaigns were supported by King, who addressed gatherings of supporters and helped to keep morale high among these young activists with his powerful message of non-violence. In 1963, King led a non-violent demonstration in Birmingham to help end social inequality in one of the most heavily segregated cities in the South. Over a two month period in the summer of 1963, various marches and protests took place but were confronted with heavy police violence like the use of fire-hoses and police dog attacks. The subsequent media pictures provided important publicity for the civil rights cause. The events at Birmingham prompted the federal government to take a more purposeful stand for civil rights by planning a Civil Rights Bill to go before the US Congress.The most seminal moment of the Civil Rights Movement was the ‘I have a Dream’ speech was delivered by MLK following the famous March on Washington in 1963. Up to 250,000 people listened to a landmark address which moved the audience and the world. His ‘dream’ included many eloquent visions, very effective imagery and religious solidarity: “All of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, will be able to join hands. I have a dream today….” The climate of opinion now prevailing made it possible to consider real change. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed by congress which outlawed all forms of discrimination in the US. Voting Rights was then targeted by King and set about organising a march from Selma to Montgomery. 400 black people attempted to vote in Selma but were refused. After three months of incessant protests, arrests, and police intimidation, King and 25,000 followers triumphantly entered the city of Montgomery. President Johnson acted decisively and introduced a Voting Rights Bill to Congress which was later passed. The Voting Rights Act 1965 abolished literacy tests and made illegal all barriers that had prevented black people from voting in large numbers in Selma. These Acts were a high water mark for the Civil Rights Campaign and largely a consequence of King’s successful method non-violent of protestIn the years that followed King moved his attention to northern cities but his influence began to wane. More militant groups who demanded ‘Black Power’ began to dominate the civil rights movement in the north. They felt that while much had been achieved at government level, not enough was being done on real social change in northern urban areas, especially in housing and education. King also caused controversy by speaking out against the Vietnam War which he regarded as immoral. He also lamented the huge financial cost of the war which greatly diminished Johnson’s Great Society programme. King’s life was tragically cut short however. While about to embark on another demonstration to highlight the plight of poor blacks in Washington DC in April 1968, MLK was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee. Violent protest erupted in cities across America, dozens of people died and millions of people mourned. The Civil Rights movement had lost its most important figure.King’s lasting contribution to the civil rights movement (direct reference to question) is celebrated today with Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday observed in America every January. One of his greatest gifts was to articulate the feelings of the ordinary black person in words that were both memorable and easily understood by all communities in the USA. Despite the violent attacks on him, his family and his home, at no stage did King abandon his policy of peaceful non-violence protest(RECAP- Without Repetition) King received many awards and recognitions, of which the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964( new Information)was the most renowned. His death was symbolic of the decline of effective civil rights protest and led to the rise of Black militancy, which was an affront to his non-violent stance (looking beyond time parametres). While there was still much more to fight for, his contribution to and advancement of Civil Rights in his short life was truly remarkable(answering question definitively) ................
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