The boycott could have been said to be the key point to the civil rights movement, in 1955 civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused a bus driver’s request to give up her seat to a white passenger; her arrest sparked up the Montgomery bus boycott which was a struggle to desegregate Montgomery’s city buses. Black residents launched a bus boycott in which they appointed King as the president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association; Rosa Parks’ act was the enforcement Martin Luther King needed to bring across his beliefs to the nation. The boycott continued throughout 1956 and King had already become a prominent factor of the campaign, and widely known throughout America. Furthermore his American idealism gave the whites outside the South a positive outlook towards King, and also Montgomery also had fair share of media attention especially after the bombing of King’s home.
Rosa Parks’ protest had already brought about 42,000 black citizens to boycott the Montgomery buses for almost a year, due to the blacks being determined; bus services found it hard to run business as 75% of their passengers were not at hand. However blacks used buses as their personal transport as they could not afford to purchase a car, working menial jobs prevented this luxury. Finally in Dec 1956 the United Supreme Court acknowledged that Alabama’s segregation laws were undemocratic and Montgomery buses were desegregated.
King also took time in 1959 to visit India and deepen his understanding of Ghandi’s beliefs and work towards freedom. His trip to India affected King in a reflective way as his determination and belief in non-violence was solid. His meetings with satyagrahis(followers of the non-violence struggle) strengthened his decisions he later made in the future. King also acknowledged the need for patience, and figured it was unrealistic to expect immediate change. King returned to America with a brighter view on non-violence, and a much greater willpower to achieve freedom for African Americans through non-violent means; also his commitment to the struggle grew stronger.
Based in Atlanta, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was established with the main goal of redeeming “the soul of America” through the non-violence strategy. The chief aim of the organisation was to organize non-violent protests throughout the South. King assigned himself president of SCLC (1957-1968). The organisation used the power and independence of black churches in the South as the strength of the activities they performed. King also described SCLC as “church-oriented because of the very structure of the Negro community in the South.”
King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Bayard Rustin and others established SCLC in 1957. On 11 January these leaders gathered for the Southern Negro leaders Conference on Transportation and Non-violent Integration and released a manifesto. In the manifesto they brought across the issue of sending telegrams to federal officials and called upon white southerners to “realize that the treatment of Negroes is a basic spiritual problem…far too many have silently stood by.” They also encouraged black citizens to seek justice and reject all injustice, and to also dedicate himself or herself to the principle of non-violence. SCLC was very different in comparison to organizations such as: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), rather than seeking individual membership, they coordinated activities carried out by organisations such as Montgomery Improvement Association(MIA) and SCLC movements.
SCLC trained local communities about the philosophy of Christian non-violence, opened citizen schools, and registered voters. SCLC wanted to keep the struggle for civil rights within the lines of principled terms. Through the 1960s under the influence of King’s leadership, SCLC involved themselves in sit-ins, voter registrations, mass demonstrations, Freedom rides and antipoverty programs.
In November 1961 King learnt a great lesson when a demonstration in Albany, Georgia, known as the Albany Movement proved unsuccessful. As the protests and arrests did not gain the national attention King wanted and only a few changes made. Two years later King joined forces with Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR). Together they organized mass protest campaigns in Birmingham. King considered the Birmingham demonstration as successful due to many adjustments being made. The Birmingham demonstration known as `project C` was much more focused, it concentrated on trying to desegregate just downtown (one area at a time) rather than trying to push segregation all over the South, which was the aim at Albany. The violence and brutality poured on the blacks by Bull Conner’s police also helped their efforts greatly as Bull Conner was tricked into authorising such violence. The camera caught everything from non-violent protesters being attacked by brutal law enforcements. The actions at the demonstration alone-sparked massive demonstrations across the South and also headlines were based on the event, even King was arrested. As a result of Birmingham protest, SCLC won a desegregation settlement. The Birmingham campaign also laid the groundwork for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That same year, SCLC joined with the other civil rights activists to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On 28th August 1963, more than 200,000 people marched peacefully to the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens under the law. It was during the march that King delivered his “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
In 1965, King helped organize protests in Selma, Ala with the SCLC, the demonstrations protested against the efforts of white officials there to deny most black citizens the chance to register and vote. Many protesters attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery but police officers retrained them with things such as tear gas and bludgeons to break up the groups formed by protesters. The conduct of officers towards the protesters were broadcasted nationwide on television news shows and shocked the public greatly. King then went forward and announced that the march will once again be attempted. Johnson the president at the time went before congress to request a bill that would eliminate all barriers to Southern blacks’ right to vote. Within a few months, Congress approved the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The mid-1960s could be said to have been a two way game too civil rights for blacks, as beliefs towards non-violent schemes seemed unsuccessful to a particular organisation called Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee(SNCC) who appealed mostly to the younger generation. They based their understanding on Malcom X the fallen leader who had been assassinated due to his beliefs, X believed that the blacks had to retaliate when attacked by whites, a complete turn of King’s words of non-violence. 1966 was the year that `Black Power` was pushed to another level by Carmichael, this flowed through the nation and brought across that King’s way of dealing with the whites was weakening their argument.
The use of the Black Power slogan immediately began to divide the civil rights movement, as the unity of blacks became numb threatening the bridge King had struggled to build. King considered the `Black Power` movements as a way of saying that the blacks that had suffered dreadfully at the hands of the whites, suffered for no apparent reason as they taught the opposite.
King argued that, “Black Power is a nihilistic philosophy born out of the conviction that the Negro can’t win.”
By 1965, King had come to believe that civil rights leaders should pay more attention to the economic problems of blacks. In 1966, he helped begin a major civil rights campaign in Chicago, his first big effort outside the South. Leaders of the campaign gathered black inner-city residents who fell into the criteria of unemployment, bad housing, and poor schools. The leaders also put forward the fact that real estate practices denied blacks the right to live in certain neighbourhoods and suburbs. King believed that these practices played a major role in trapping black poor people in urban ghettos.
Marches through white neighbourhoods were also carried out, but the whites reacted angrily throwing bottles and rocks at demonstrators. Soon after, Chicago officials promised to encourage fair housing practices in the city, if King stopped the protests from going on. King accepted the deal and the Chicago Campaign ended.
In 1967 King believed that poverty was as evil as racism, he stated that true social justice would require redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. King began to put together a poor people’s campaign that would unite poor people of all races in a struggle for economic opportunity. The campaign would be used to gain a guaranteed annual income for the poor.
"We got some difficult days ahead," told an overflowing crowd in Memphis, Tennessee, where the city's sanitation workers were striking. "But it really doesn't matter to me now, because I've been to the mountaintop." King explained, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."
The next day, 4 April 1968, a rifle shot struck King as he stood on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel, by a racist called James Earl Ray. member Ralph Abernathy ran to the balcony and cradled his friend's head until the paramedics arrived and rushed him to St. Joseph's Hospital. Doctors pronounced King dead at 7:05 p.m. News of King’s death brought about violent clashes between blacks and whites erupted, Johnson sent 20,000 regular troops and 24,000 National Guardsmen to the cities, and many cities enforced curfews. By 23 April forty-six people had died, 2,600 were injured, and more than 21,000 people were arrested. Militant black leaders took their chance and encouraged retaliation. promoter Carmichael advocated a violent struggle, as NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins countered that King would have been "outraged" by the disorders and that "millions of Negroes in this country" were opposed to the violence. Wilkins then announced a nationwide campaign against racial violence emphasizing jobs for the unemployed and better community relations. King was buried on the 9th April in Atlanta, thousands attended his funeral and it was broadcasted nationwide.
In conclusion to this essay I refer back to the question given, do you agree that Martin Luther king was the most important factor in the helping blacks gain more Civil Rights in the 1960’s?
I agree to the question above as King’s influence and aptitude gave blacks the rights they retain today, without the determination and desperation of this one man things would have changed as time slowly passed, or maybe never changed. King could be considered to have changed the face of America. King also proved to learn from little mistakes and bring about great change, he shrewdly used the media to gain stronger supporters as the treatment of blacks were portrayed for viewers. Although King knew that his enemies grew by the minute he still stood strong for his black people, and kept a cool head. His speech’s such as the one in Washington, he seemed to attack the conscience of white citizens and kept up the theme of `ideal America`, could be compared to patriotism.