Martin Luther King was becoming influential and further proves that he played the major role in the fight for equal rights. His actions were affecting the youth and these students stuck to his non violent tactics which could tell us that they were listening to him but at this moment in time they were not totally convinced. In 1960, black college students initiated a wave of that led to the formation of the .
Martin Luther King was now reaching even further for equal rights. In 1963 his campaign against segregation would take to a whole new level. In 1963 his non violent tactics would be put to their most severe test in Birmingham during a mass protest for fair hiring practices and the desegregation of department-store facilities. Police brutality was used against the marches-this dramatized the plight of blacks to the nation at large. As Bennet says (‘The rioters were not active members of the Birmingham Crusade and the riot would have been a great deal worse if King had not made non violence central to the posture of Birmingham demonstrators’) the influence of Martin Luther King was now greater as he was winning over new supporters which can further backup the views of some historians that say he was the main role in the movement. King at this time was arrested but wrote a famous letter from his Birmingham jail which had an impact on the black people and also white ministers who he outlined his non violent tactics to and which the blacks followed. The events in Birmingham inspired a wave of demonstrations elsewhere, more extensive than all that had come before. Almost a thousand actions were mounted in over a hundred southern cities, resulting in over twenty thousand arrests. On June 19 President Kennedy sent Congress the promised civil rights bill, which offered federal protection to Black Americans wanting to vote, shop, to eat in restaurants, and to be educated equally. Pressuring Congress to adopt this bill and consolidating the huge upsurge in protest activities brought together major civil rights, labour, and religious groups to organize a massive Washington demonstration.
Some Historians look at the next event as the peak of Kings career and in their view made him the most influential man in the movement. (‘White Americans thought of King as a symbol and chief spokesman for what was now called a Negro revolution’)-Nigel Richardson. His organisation of the Washington speech could be seen as the pinnacle of his career because he had now got the attention of the white ministers like no other black leader had done before. He had gathered together 250,000 people at this speech and a quarter were white. It was this time where he gave his famous ‘I have a dream speech’ which echoed around the world and Martin Luther King in 1964 was becoming a national hero as well as a role model. He had now helped pass the Civil rights Act which nobody else could do at the time. This Act gave black people rights which they thought they would never have in their life time.
Martin Luther King could perhaps be called the major influence in the civil rights movement because of his Nobel peace prize in 1964 which nobody could imagine he would have in 1955. He had achieved so much in little time which could tell us that there was nobody more influential then King in the fight for equal rights. (‘The cause of twenty million Negroes has been advanced by the program conducted so appropriately before the nation’s shrine to the Great Emancipator’)-President Kennedy on Martin Luther King
King achieved his Voting Rights Bill by organising marches through Washington and also trying to keep his non violent tactics even though Malcolm X, an individual who favoured violence, was getting involved. King still stuck to his non violent tactics and started his speeches against the Vietnam War.
Martin Luther King’s determination had been proved to everybody through peaceful demonstrations and in his last speech in Tennessee he outlined that he had seen the Promised Land. Maybe King was telling us that all his hard work was now starting to pay off. He was assassinated the next day on his balcony.
As one can see it is possible to say Martin Luther King was a very powerful and influential individual and his actions produced something nearly every time. He did play a major role for the rights of the black people and got results from his actions. To this day, King remains a controversial symbol of the African American civil rights struggle, revered by many for his martyrdom on behalf of non-violence and condemned by others for his militancy and insurgent views. (‘the fire he had lighted leapt from ghetto to ghetto, igniting changes of social energy and welding negroes of all ranks and creeds into a mass of indignation’)-Thomas C. Reeves. On the other hand some historians will not see Martin Luther King as the main individual in the civil rights movement. They see him as an important figure but we could also see other factors just as important.
Firstly one could look at Rosa Perks who Martin Luther King first got involved with in the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks started the bus Boycotts on her own, she did not have Martin Luther King telling her to stay on the bus in her seat, she did it out of her own free will which gave people the courage. Martin Luther King was involved after the bus event had occurred. Rosa Perks was an influential person for the blacks as well as King and many blacks trusted her just as much as King. In 1954, she reorganized the NAACP Youth Council, for which she served as adult advisor. Under Parks, youth members challenged white extremists by checking books out of white libraries and sitting in the white section of buses. Parks also attended a 1955 summer workshop at the Highlander Folk School, where she learned strategies. Parks' arrest elicited a strong reaction from leaders in Montgomery, who had been waiting for the right incident to launch a protest. She was morally clean and she had fairly good academic training, now she wasn't afraid and she didn't get excited about anything. ‘ If there ever was a person that would have been able to break the situation that existed on the Montgomery City Line, Rosa L. Parks was the women to use’-B.D Evans. Parks' protest inspired 42,000 black citizens to boycott the Montgomery city buses for nearly a year. Her participation in the movement continued through the boycott, as she served as a dispatcher, coordinating rides for boycott participants. She was also indicted, along with King and eighty-seven others, for their participation in the boycotts. Her second arrest brought additional attention to the boycott, attracting national press coverage. As we can see it was not just Martin Luther King who helped with the bus boycott but Rosa Perks played a major role in the event. She was also trained to use non violent tactics.
King supported the student movement and expressed an interest in creating a youth arm of the SCLC. Student activists admired King, but they were critical of his top-down leadership style and were determined to maintain their autonomy. As an advisor to SNCC, , who had previously served as associate director of SCLC, made clear to representatives from other civil rights organizations that SNCC was to remain a student-led organization. The 1961 "" heightened tensions between King and younger activists, as he faced criticism for his decision not to participate in the rides, but was still greatly admired.
Another person who played a role in the civil rights movement was Malcolm X. His view was different to Martin Luther King. He was a Black Muslim and was big success culturally to the blacks in the 1960's. Malcolm X introduced other approaches to get freedom unlike Martin Luther kings he preached lines such as 'fight and you will get your freedom!' In 1966 the slogan 'black power' became very popular and excited many blacks’ especially young urban blacks. Black people gained confidence, as they began to believe that they should be controlling their own communities. Black people carried guns! The slogan 'black power' frightened and intimidated many whites. This idea of black power was obviously a major success, as it was important blacks gained pride in themselves and in their African origins and culture. Riots in the late 1960's disgusted many whites, how ever it was a way of the blacks portraying they were no longer going to ‘bullied’ by white people, they showed disrespect to white people by calling them names such as whitey and replacing their slave names (second name) with X. this was an idea thought of by Malcolm X and his organisation. Although this might seem to some as an extreme approach-it was an approach that worked for the blacks. Martin Luther King did gain help from Malcolm X followers for his demonstrations and protests which did help a great deal with his campaign. Malcolm X was also like Martin Luther King a good public speaker. Malcolm was able to recruit many new followers by going "fishing" on the streets, attracting Christians, unemployed people, ex-convicts and drug addicts. He also founded the newspaper of the NOI called "Muhammad Speaks" and became the minister of Temple Number Seven in Harlem in 1954. He became known as Minister Malcolm X, having replaced the surname, which was given to his ancestors by their slave master with an "X", as many members of the organization did at that time. In Harlem he continued his work and especially tried to get into contact with young people to keep them from becoming criminals by entering the NOI or at least following his message. He felt a deep commitment for the freedom of his people and rejected every type of oppression, which African-Americans had experienced in slavery, colonization, and segregation. His opposition to Christianity was defined by the practices of so-called Christians, but not by theological writings. He often quoted the Bible, which helped him to attract Christians to the Nation. We can see that Malcolm X was working on the streets and trying to recruit people for his Nation of Islam as well as quoting from the bible that helped the fight for freedom. Like King Malcolm X did not always revert to violence as he stopped violent protests. An example of this would be In a TV production in 1959 called "The Hate that Hate produced" was aired, picturing the Nation of Islam as "Black Supremacists" that the white middle-class was so shocked, that it turned to leaders like Martin Luther King whom most whites had thought to be radical before. Only a few months later a member of the "Black Muslims", like the NOI was now known in the white media, was the victim of police brutality in Harlem. A large, furious crowd gathered outside the police station, but Malcolm was able to prevent a riot and dispersed the crowd. We can see from this that in 1959 King and Malcolm X were both working for the same cause but in different ways. At the time some say that Malcolm X was just as successful. (‘Figures like the late Malcom X have influenced negroes around the world perceptibly’)-Lewis Killian.
Malcolm X was not the only other factor helping freedom for the blacks. The Youth was also creating movements without the help of Martin Luther King. At one time they were disagreeing with what he was doing and did not want part of his organisation. Black students started the sit-ins with their own free will, they had enough of being treated as un-equal, and again they did not have Martin Luther King telling them to sit in a white only restaurant. All the movements were started freely without Martin Luther King’s influence at first, and then Martin Luther King joined in and used them as protests so students were taking a stand for themselves Also the youth joined with Martin Luther King for demonstrations and without the youth he maybe would never have been successful as he was because the youth were expanding as time progressed.
From this view we can see that Martin Luther King was not the only leader to play a major role in the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement had other influences that were pushing for equal rights. Firstly Malcolm X was an important figure as he wanted equal rights and was not willing to wait decades for freedom. He was similar to Martin Luther King in that he didn’t want blacks to be oppressed anymore. Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were both respected ministers and established leaders of the African-American people. Although most whites often say that they were "like oil and water", these two men, how different they may have seemed to be, had the same goal: They wanted to end exploitation, discrimination and racism. Both had been deeply influenced by their fathers, especially by their religion and attitude towards whites. Malcolm emerged from the black underclass in the northern ghettos to be a spokesman for the poor blacks, following the teachings of Islam and holding on to Black Nationalism. He demanded justice and that African-Americans should be respected as human-beings. Therefore blacks first had to love themselves to build up their self-consciousness. Malcolm X though, was not as respected by the whites as Martin Luther King. We could say Martin Luther King was the major figure in the Civil Rights Movement because he was the most popular and famous person from the movement at the time . This would help the movement because it would mean not all despising it and also it would mean that the movement would carry on because many whites financed it. Martin Luther King also had eloquent speaking skills and his speeches echoed around the world which helped the Civil rights movement gain momentum and shift in the right direction. Martin Luther King also proved he was ready to do anything for his cause by having his life threatened, having his house bombed and also being arrested on numerous occasions. However the other factors did play a vital role. The Youth helped Martin Luther King because they were creating their own movement. They could be seen as important because of their protests and strikes which helped the movement tremendously. The Youth were creating new ideas which Martin Luther King was expanding on. It cannot be said that the movement relied solely on Martin Luther King, however I do believe that he was one of the major contributors to the Civil Rights Movement and without him the movement would not have reached the heights it did between 1955 and 1968.
