How Successful Was Martin Luther Kings Campaign For Civil Rights Between 1955-68?

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How Successful Was Martin Luther King’s Campaign For Civil Rights Between 1955-68?

   Martin Luther king was a charismatic figure who attracted people by the magnificence of his concepts, the brilliance of his insights and his great oratory capabilities. His successes in the civil rights campaign such as marches in Washington and Selma started change for the millions of black people that lived as second class citizens; however his campaign was not without a few failures e.g. Chicago and Albany.

   It was on the 5th December 1955 that Martin Luther King would officially join the struggle for equal rights in America and would help in the advancement of the civil rights movement. King was made president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association after an event which sparked off protest. It began when Rosa Perks was ordered to give up her seat to a white passenger; she refused and was arrested by the police. Rosa Perks was highly respected in the black community and it caused an outcry, she was released and it was now Martin Luther King who would have to take action. King organised a bus boycott in Montgomery, black citizens would no longer use any public buses instead they started up car pools to get to work. Pressure increased across the country and on June 5, 1956, the  that Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. However, an appeal kept the segregation intact, and the boycott continued. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling, leading to a city ordinance that allowed black bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they wanted. The boycott officially ended December 20, 1956, after 380 days. The Montgomery Bus Boycott resounded far beyond the desegregation of public buses; it stimulated the national civil rights movement and launched King into the national spotlight as a leader.

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   Another major accomplishment of Martin Luther was the institution of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an American civil rights organization in 1957. The organization aimed at supporting the philosophy of non-violence. It was led by King as the President along with Ralph Abernathy and other activists. As an dedicated believer of the Gandhi’s principles of non-violence, and enforced the non-violent techniques in the protests organized by SCLC.

   It was 6 years later that King organised a march through Birmingham,      Alabama his aim was to expose the segregation that still existed in the ex-confederate states at ...

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