What was the contribution of Martin Luther King to the civil rights movement?

Adam Hughes 10MPB

What was the contribution of Martin Luther King

to the civil rights movement?

The contribution of Martin Luther King to the civil rights movement was that of a leader who was able to turn protests into a crusade and to translate local conflicts into moral issues of nationwide concern. Successful in awakening the black masses and galvanizing them into action, he won his greatest victories by appealing to the consciences of white Americans and by bringing political leverage to bear on the federal government in Washington. The strategy that broke the segregation laws of the South, however, proved inadequate to solve more complex racial problems elsewhere. King was only 39 at the time of his death, a leader who never wavered in his insistence that non-violence must remain the essential tactic of the movement or in his faith that all Americans would some day attain racial and economic justice. King was born at noon Tuesday, 15th January 1929 at his home in Atlanta, Georgia.

The civil rights movement was the attempts by black people to gain social, economic and political equality. In the 1950’s it began to gain its first success. Many of the southern states used literacy tests to prevent blacks voting in elections. Since many of the segregated black schools were inferior, black children were denied equal opportunities in education and this led to them being unable to vote. Campaigners began to realise that desegregation of education had to be one of their first targets. 1n 1954 they gained a major victory when the Supreme Court intervened in a dispute in Topeka, Kansas, whom declared that segregated schools were against the constitution and therefore illegal. In 1956 the blacks won another major victory, it was the Montgomery bus boycott. This was for the de-segregation of blacks and whites on buses.

Martin Luther King was influenced greatly by Mahatma Gandhi’s methods of non-violent peaceful, protest. His technique was known as a non-violent resistance, using love, prayer, and speech as direct action against physical violence. King taught love instead of hate, kindness instead of aggression. The act of non-violent resistance displayed the protester's courageous will to bring peace and dignity to the nation. King's non-violent pledge for peace is unique, because in the past heroes were often those who used violence to fight injustice. When his house was bombed, he preached, "We're going to fight but not kill." When 600 members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, they were attacked by state troopers and trampled by horses, and many were hospitalised. When King heard of the events on March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday, he called for another march on City Hall. They were stopped again by the state troopers, and to avoid arrest King and marchers knelt and prayed. As a peace hero, King fought his oppressors with a higher conscience. He was too big to fall into the lure of violent protest.

His successes included the Montgomery bus boycott, Little rock and the case of James Meredith, of which I will write now.

This is a preview of the whole essay

His successes included the Montgomery bus boycott, Little rock and the case of James Meredith, of which I will write now.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott- On 1st December, 1955, a black woman named Rosa Parks had refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger and as a consequence had been arrested for violating the city's segregation law. Black activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to boycott the transit system and chose King as their leader. He had the advantage of being a young, well-trained man who was too new in town to have made enemies; he was generally respected, and his family connections and professional made him well respected. In his first speech to the group as its president, King declared: ‘We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice.’ These words introduced to the nation a fresh voice, a skillful public speaker and an inspiring personality. Although King's home was dynamited and his family's safety threatened, he continued to lead the boycott until, one year and a few weeks later, the blacks of Montgomery achieved their goal of desegregation of the city's buses. The bus company, however, were partly motivated into making the decision by the fact that the black people made up 75% of their business and it would have almost certainly meant closure for the company if they had not given in to King and co.

Little Rock- The crisis started when nine black children tried to enroll in the predominantly white Little Rock High School. By this time, the government had already announced that segregated schools were illegal. However the government in Arkansas still wished to practice segregation and declared that the children could not enrol. The governor even resorted to using state troopers to ensure that children could not enrol. It was time for King to step in and he visited Little Rock in order to support the black children, and even called for an intervention by the U.S government. President Eisenhower obliged and sent a thousand strong unit of federal troops to protect the nine children as they enrolled. The troops stuck around and protected the children constantly for a whole year afterwards. This led to a passing of a civil rights act in 1957 that ensured blacks were now allowed to vote, nevertheless it was still classed as a shallow victory in the very fact that the children needed such protection indicated the level of racial hatred in the south.

James Meredith- After events in Little Rock, integration had been speeded up in the some towns. However in 1962, integration was still non-existent in the southern states of Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi. It was in this very year that James Meredith, a southern black, was offered a place in the University of Mississippi. Nevertheless, the governor of Mississippi announced that the state would continue with its segregation laws and when Meredith went to register at the beginning of term he found the governor himself barring the way, this continued day after day, as the governor refused to let Meredith in. This time, it was President Kennedy who intervened. He, like Eisenhower before him, also sent in Federal Troops to ensure that the law was upheld. Still, the army was attacked by a mob of white students and townspeople when it drove Meredith to the University, but they were no match for the army, who fought back. Meredith stayed at the University, but went to all of his classes with federal marshals protecting him.

Throughout the late 50’s and the 1960’s King continued to call for non-violent protest. Despite the Supreme Court decisions and all the laws that were passed by the federal government to end segregation, most southern states kept some form of segregation.

The four main methods used by Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement were sit-ins, freedom rides, freedom marches and speeches.

The sit-in was a particularly effective method of protest, which gained not just local, but national publicity. It started in 1960 when four black students were refused purchases in a Woolworths store. They staged a two day sit-in, followed by a much longer one in which they were joined by many more protestors. Within 18 months, 70,000 people had taken part in similar sit-ins.

Freedom rides were another effective form of peaceful protest. Although the buses themselves had been de-segregated, the bus-stations, shops and restaurants continued to have ‘whites only’ signs. It involved black civil rights leaders catching buses to southern bus stations; on arrival they would try to use ‘whites only’ services. Occasionally they were beaten up, but that only drew attention to the situation and was a small price to pay as segregation was ended in both bus and rail stations, it also led to segregation at airports.

Freedom Marches also drew attention to the movement. In 1963, King was arrested in Birmingham Alabama, whilst leading a freedom march. The chief of police, Bull Connor, ordered his men to attack King’s supporters with tear gas, fire hoses, dogs and even electric cattle prods. More than 3,300 black men, women and children, who were demonstrating peacefully in support of their civil rights, were hauled off to prison. However Connors’ plan backfired and Front page newspaper and T.V pictures of police dogs ferociously attacking black people, and fire hoses knocking them to the ground stirred public opinion, consequently, President Kennedy intervened. He demanded that the Birmingham council should end segregation. The council gave in to the demands of both the president and the protestors. The civil rights movement had won another great victory.

After the Birmingham incident, President Kennedy announced that he was asking congress to pass a civil rights act that would that would make all forms of racial discrimination in public places illegal. Southern politicians promised that they would fight the act every inch of the way. In order to put pressure on congress, the civil rights leaders organised one of the biggest demonstrations in American history. This leads into the forth method; -

Speeches- In August 28th 1963, nearly half a million people marched into Washington and gathered at the Lincoln memorial. It was now that Martin Luther King gave his most inspirational speeches of all, parts of it read; -

‘…I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

…Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Kings achievements have been great, he almost single handily inspired and led millions of black Americans to freedom from their white brothers. However he wouldn’t have been able to do this without help from three of Americas Presidents, they were Presidents, Eisenhower (1952-61), J.F Kennedy (1961-63) and Lyndon B. Johnson(1963-69).

Eisenhower was responsible for passing a law, which made segregation in schools illegal. His government also passed the civil rights act of 1957, which tried to ensure blacks the right to vote, and again in 1960 when many of the southern states did not enforce the previous act of 1957. However this was also ignored by many of the southern states.

Kennedy also supported the civil rights movement and against fierce opposition, he forced the University of Mississippi to enrol its first black student, James Meredith. He was also responsible for appointing the first black U.S Ambassador, following this up with many different appointments of black people to important government posts. He also asked congress to pass a new civil rights act in 1963.

After Kennedy’s assassination Johnson took charge and it was his government that passed the civil rights act of 1964, which made racial discrimination in public places illegal. This act gave President the power to withhold money from states which did not comply. This was followed by the Voting Rights act of 1965, this gave the government the power to take over the registration of voters when state officials tried to ban blacks from voting.

In 1967 Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But the violence that had always pursued him would soon claim his life. Only a year later, on 4 April 1968, he was shot dead in Memphis. He was thirty-nine years old. Today he is widely celebrated as one of the great prophetic leaders of the later twentieth century, and his name still inspires those who follow his call for Justice. He once said; -

If physical death is the price I must pay to free my brothers and sisters from the permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive.’

Martin Luther King (1929- 1968)