Martin Luther King Jr Essay Research Paper 3

Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay, Research Paper

Martin Luther KingThe most important person to have made a significant change in therights of Blacks was Martin Luther King. He had great courage and passionto defeat segregation and racism that existed in the United States, and itwas his influence to all the Blacks to defy white supremacy and his beliefin nonviolence that lead to the success of the Civil Rights movement.Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgiawhere 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. Butit was his father, Martin Luther King Sr. who played an important role inshaping the personality of his son. M.L. Sr. helped to advocate the ideathat Blacks should vote. He was involved with the National Association forthe Advancement of Coloured People, an important Civil Rights group. Theseefforts 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 ofthe Black man’s way of life. The boycott of the Montgomery Bus was begunwhen Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on a bus to a white man onDecember 1st. Two Patrolmen took her away to the police station where shewas booked. He and 50 other ministered held a meeting and agreed to start aboycott on December 5th, the day of Rosa Parks’s hearing. This boycottwould probably be successful since 70% of the riders were black. The buscompany did not take them seriously, because if there was bad weather, theywould have to take the bus. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA)was established to co-ordinate the boycott. They had a special agreementwith black cab companies, in which they were allowed to get a ride for amuch cheaper price than normal. Blacks had to walk to work, and so they didnot have time to do any shopping and therefore the sales decreaseddramatically. On January 30, while M.L was making a speech, his house wasbombed. Luckily his wife and baby had left the living room when the bombexploded, but a black mob formed and was angry about what had happened, andPolicemen were sent to the scene to control the situation, even though theywere outnumbered. King, however, because of his strong belief innonviolence, urged the crowd to not use their guns and to go home.The news coverage increased on the Montgomery boycott as monthspassed. He travelled to many places and made speeches in order to raisemoney for the MIA’s legal fees. When he returned he found that he wascharged for breaking an anti-boycott law. He and the others were foundguilty, but they appealed the sentence. When in November 13, the MIA wasfined $15,000, at the same time, the Supreme Court found the Alabama’ssegregation laws were unconstitutional. That night the KKK looted 40 carsin hopes of scaring the Blacks. But the black people did not hide in theirhomes and turn the lights off. They stayed on their porches and wavedshowing that they were not afraid of them at all. By 1957 Martin LutherKing became a national figure. Time magazine wrote a story on him, and hisideology of nonviolence began to spread throughout the country. The boycottgave a strong psychological push of courage that would continue untilBlacks obtained what was morally right.What made Martin Luther King striking was his conviction onnon-violence. He believed that this belief could give blacks a superiorlevel of morality over whites. This ideology was important for his successin later years. As a result, it helped restrain the use of violence fromwhites to blacks and vice versa. This philosophy was tested during theMontgomery bus boycott. Before the successful boycott, blacks used violencein order to protest racism. During the boycott, however, on both sidesviolence was not a measure to be taken. When someone bombed King’s home,the fact that violence was used against a nonviolent group made the idea ofthe black man’s cause more agreeable.Whites, as a result of the boycott, realised the threat for blacks tobe equal was increasing. They used legal measures to break up the NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). In time theNAACP became very weak, and so the SCLC (Southern Christian LeadershipConference) became more significant to the black man’s cause. It was leadby King, Rustin, Levison, and Baker, and was a Negro church whichrepresented “the most stable institution of the Southern Negro community”.

The party gave a tremendous morale strength in the goal for the equality ofblacks. The SCLC was stronger than the NAACP because it did not depend onstate officials. Because there were no membership lists, it was difficultto single out individual black followers.It is noteworthy to mention one incident that occurred in 1958 when hemade visits to promote his book. A demonic woman attempted to stab him.When he was rushed to a hospital, he later found out that if he had triedto take out the knife or if it moved in any way, he would have died becausethe tip of the knife was touching the aorta of his heart. King’s will andcourage to fight for civil rights was affected by the achievements ofGandhi’s philosophy. On February 10, 1959, he toured India and admiredGandhi for his achievements in breaking down the caste system, which was asystem in which the hierarchy of social classes dominated the country.His influence onto black students was incredible. They felt thecourage to revolt agai