Martin Luther King, Jr. as a historical figure

Martin Luther King, Jr.

As one of the world's most famous supporters of social change through non-violent means, Martin Luther King, Jr. pulled many of his ideas from numerous cultural traditions. Born in Atlanta during a time of extreme racial unrest, he grew up in a religious family who considered the church an instrument for improving the lives of African-Americans.

Several supporters of Christian social activism persuaded Martin Luther King, Jr. To become a minister after his junior year at Morehouse College and serve society. He completed a Ph.D. And returned to the south to serve as a minister in Montgomery, Alabama.

days after Rosa Parks, civil rights activist, had refused to obey the city's rules about segregation on city buses - African-American citizens launched a bus boycott and elected Martin Luther King, Jr. As the president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association.

The boycott continued during 1956 and Martin Luther King, Jr. gained national recognition as a result of his exceptional speaking skills and personal courage.

His house was bombed and he was convicted along with other boycott leaders on charges of conspiring to interfere with the bus company's operations. Despite these attempts to stop the movement, Montgomery's buses were desegregated in December, 1956, after the United States Supreme Court declared Alabama's segregation laws unconstitutional.

In 1957, trying to build upon the success of the Montgomery boycott movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. And other southern black ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As SCLC's president, Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasized the goal of black voting rights when he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial during the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom.

During 1958, he published his first book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.

The following year, he toured India, increased his understanding of Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent strategies. At the end of 1959, he resigned from Dexter and returned to Atlanta where the SCLC headquarters was located and where he also could assist his father as minister.

Although increasingly painted as the "pre-eminent black spokesperson," Martin Luther King, Jr. did not mobilize mass protest activity during the first five years after the Montgomery boycott ended. While Martin Luther King, Jr. moved cautiously, southern black college students took the initiative, launching a wave of sit-in protests during the winter and spring of 1960.

Martin Luther King, Jr. sympathized with the student movement and spoke at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in April 1960, but he soon became the target of criticisms from SNCC activists determined to assert their independence. Even Martin Luther King, Jr.'s decision in October, 1960, to join a student sit-in in Atlanta did not relieve the tensions; presidential candidate John F. Kennedy's made a sympathetic telephone call to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s wife, Coretta Scott King, and helped attract crucial black support for Kennedy's successful campaign.

The 1961 "Freedom Rides," which sought to integrate southern transportation facilities, demonstrated that neither Martin Luther King, Jr. Nor John F. Kennedy could control the expanding protest movement spearheaded by the angry students.

Conflicts between Martin Luther King, Jr. And younger militants were also evident when both SCLC and SNCC assisted the Albany (Georgia) Movement's campaign of mass protests during December of 1961 and the summer of 1962.

After achieving few of his objectives in Albany, Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the need to organize a successful protest campaign free of conflicts with SNCC. During the spring of 1963, he and his staff guided mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, where local white police officials were known by their anti-black attitudes. Clashes between black demonstrators and police using police dogs and fire hoses generated newspaper headlines through the world. In June, President Kennedy reacted to the Birmingham protests and the obstinacy of segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace by agreeing to submit broad civil rights legislation to Congress (which eventually passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964).

Later mass demonstrations in many communities culminated in a march on August 28, 1963, that attracted more than 250,000 protesters to Washington, D.C. Addressing the marchers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" oration.

During the year following the March, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s reputation grew as he became Time magazine's Man of the Year and, in December 1964, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Despite fame and praise, however, Martin Luther King, Jr. faced many challenges to his leadership.

Malcolm X's message of self-defense and black nationalism expressed the discontent and anger of northern, urban blacks more effectively than Martin Luther King, Jr.'s conservative moderation did. During the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, Martin Luther King, Jr. And his lieutenants were able to keep intra-movement conflicts sufficiently under control to bring about passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but while participating in a 1966 march through Mississippi, Martin Luther King, Jr. encountered strong criticism from "Black Power" proponent Stokely Carmichael.

Shortly afterward, white counter-protesters in the Chicago area physically assaulted Martin Luther King, Jr. In the Chicago area during an unsuccessful effort to transfer non-violent protest techniques to the urban North. Despite these leadership conflicts, Martin Luther King, Jr. remained committed to the use of non-violent techniques.

Early in 1968, he initiated a Poor Peoples campaign designed to confront economic problems that had not been addressed by early civil rights reforms.