Martin Luther King
Citation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUNzUHlPqSY
Martin Luther King Story,
Published on August 13th, 2016
The principles that America has
founded and printed did not apply to African-Americans. Africans were brought,
sold and worked like cattle. After the Civil War, Blacks were freed from
slavery but well into the 20th century most black people were still
not free. They were not free, because they could not choose where to live, work
decent jobs, to get a quality education, not free to vote, and they could not
eat, shop or play wherever they wished. America was a racially and economically
segregated society. In 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta his
father and grandfather were preachers. King became an accomplished speaker like
his father by the age of 14 he had moved quickly through school. He skipped
both the ninth and twelfth grades and entered Morehouse College at the age of
15. He was going to become a minister; he began his theological studies at
Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. Then at Boston University he met his wife
Coretta Scott and they married in 1953. They had four children and at the age
of 26 King received his PhD from Boston University. While in school Martin
Luther King studied the work of Mahatma Gandhi who was leading India’s fight
for freedom from Great Britain. Gandhi knew that violent protests would justify
the British attack. His solution was nonviolent passive resistance in which
vast numbers of Indians boycotted British goods and disobeyed the unjust laws
in India. Nonviolent confrontation eventually forced the British to forfeit
India. King saw that Gandhi’s nonviolent approach to the struggle for freedom
in India could work in America. The year
of 1955 was King’s first job as a minister and he was preaching at the Dexter
avenue Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. Black bus riders who paid the
same fare as whites were required to give up their seats to white riders and
move to the back of the bus as the whites boarded. When all the seats were
taken away by whites the black riders had to stand until Rosa Parks launched
the Montgomery Bus Boycott. King started the nonviolent protest called the
Montgomery Bus Boycott. On Monday December 5th 1955 there were no
black people on the buses of Montgomery, because King wanted to change the
injustices that happened on public transportation. Dr. King used nonviolent
tactics but the whites had a different agenda. Many whites resorted to violence
and King received many death threats. Dr. King said “Jesus said loves your
enemies!” He knew that not all white people were racist and violent tactics was
not the way to go. In early 1956, Dr. King was arrested for the first time and
a few months later his home was bombed. Blacks retaliated against the white
community but King stated “We must use nonviolence, spread love not hate.” The
Montgomery Bus Boycott received national attention finally on November 13th
1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation is illegal. In 1957, King
and others formed the Southern Christian Leadership Committee (SCLC) they
trained people to be nonviolent. However, King was arrested like many black
leaders, and in 1958 he was stabbed in the chest as he was singing his first
book “Stand Toward Freedom!” In early 1959, King and wife left form India. In
1960, was a critical year for the civil rights movement earlier that year a
group of black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina would lash out at
the unjust treatment that they have faced from the university. King acknowledged
that he had a younger generation who was also fighting for equality and,
therefore, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). John F Kennedy
was elected in 1960 and many African-Americans saw a chance for change in their
community, because JFK was a promising leader to them. John and Robert Kennedy
did not think that civil rights legislation was possible, but the next three
events changed his mind. In 1961, as the Civil Rights movement spread more whites
joined in the fight against segregation, black and whites’ freedom riders began
traveling together by bus throughout the south challenging discriminatory laws.
The freedom riders’ actions were often met with violence. In May 1961 King and
his followers were trapped in a Montgomery church by white racists until freed
by federal Marshalls. The federal government began to get involved and in 1961
they ended segregation in interstate travel. In 1962, James Meredith was
admitted by court order as the first black student of the University of
Mississippi riots occurred. In June 1963, Medgar Evers head of the Mississippi
chapter of the NAACP was shot and killed outside his home. The alleged murder
was not brought to trial until 1993. In 1963, King focused on Birmingham
Alabama that was the most segregated city. On April 12th, 1963 Dr.
King and Reverend Ralph Abernathy marched toward downtown Birmingham and were
faced with extreme police brutality. The police were ordered from police commissioner
Bill Conner who despised the civil rights movement. Abernathy and King were
jailed, and King was held in solitary confinement for 24 hours. President
Kennedy released King from jail and two days later King’s brother was arrested.
News broadcasters started to show how peaceful black protesters fought for
their civil rights, while on the other hand whites were the violent and vicious
ones. During the 11 days King spent in prison he wrote and smuggled out his
famous letter from the Birmingham jail describing the horrors that blacks were
facing in the south. King wrote about how brothers were being lynched, buses
saying “we hate race mixing!”, and blacks in poverty in the midst of an
affluent society. Dr. King stated that blacks can no longer wait for change. On
May 2nd 1963, a large group of black children joined the Birmingham
protesters, and as they moved downtown the police began making arrests. The
same segregated buses that took them to schools are now taking the black
children to prisons almost a thousand children were jailed that day. Then the
next day a thousand more children joined the march and police used fire hoses
to knock the children down. The black children were beaten with clubs, gassed
and attacked by police dogs. On May 10th 1963, King’s motel room was
bombed that made President Kennedy push civil rights legislation. In June Dr.
King and civil rights leaders met with President Kennedy to announce plans for
the March on Washington. The historic March on Washington took place in August
1963 as King and others predicted thousands of people came to support the civil
rights movement. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech he
always urged his followers to not resort to violence. Even though, the white terrorists
were violent all the time. Kennedy was going to pass the civil rights act but
he was assassinated. King stated that it not about who killed Kennedy but it
was more about what Kennedy represents. President Kennedy wanted to see change
but the white terrorists repented against him. Lyndon B. Johnson pledged to
continue Kennedy’s work as America was fighting in the Vietnam. Johnson passed
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that was the most important bill passed since the
15th amendment. In 1964, King was labeled man of the year and he
became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the
struggle was not over, because they were still bombings and shooting in the
south. In 1964, King got attacked by black panthers because they did not agree
with King peaceful protests. Dr. King received many death threats and on August
6th 1965 the Voting Rights Act was signed. On April 4th,
1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee at 39. James Earl Ray shot him.