Assess How Martin Luther King Jr. Influenced the American Civil Rights Movement to His Death in 1968

Assess how Martin Luther King Jr. influenced the American Civil rights movement to his death in 1968.

The American Bill of Rights defines civil rights as ‘the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality’ (civil rights act, 1964). Prior to this, any man or woman of African-American ethnicity in the United States of America had no basic human rights. They were often victims of oppression and police brutality, and were stripped of simple rights such as ability to sit down on the bus on the ride home from a long days work. It was not until Martin Luther King Jr., the young baptist minister from Atlanta, who took a leading role in the advancement of the American Civil Rights movement, highlighted the racial injustice and brought the issues to the forefront of the American government. King established organisations such as the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and held various protest marches where he expressed his ideals of a nonviolent society. Martin Luther King Jr. believed in an equal society where discrimination does not exist.

King believed his purpose in life was to free blacks in America and was driven to see this become a reality. Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his famous “I have a Dream” speech that ‘I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character’ (King Jr., 1963). His rise to prominence began when civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. At this point in time Montgomery laws required black passengers to ride at the back of the bus and to surrender their seats to white people. It was a common experience for African-Americans to be shortchanged and to be even attacked by the bus drivers. Rosa Parks stance led to the first of many bus boycotts and was an inspiration to King, who was becoming more involved in the civil rights movement.

In 1955 King took on a leadership role and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association. Through this group, King employed various strategies, including nonviolent protests and bus boycotts, that lasted an entire 381 days. Finally, the ongoing dispute was settled by the United States Supreme court who outlawed bus segregation in Alabama in 1965. The American civil rights movement was gaining momentum as Martin Luther King Jr. achieved his first major success. It also become apparent that King was unique in the way he went about the campaign as he stood for nonviolence. After two years of protesting with the Montgomery Improvement Association, King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. King insisted that all those associated with the SCLC had to accept the philosophy of nonviolence regardless of the provocations. The SCLC’s motto was ‘Not one hair on one head of white