How Did Martin Luther King Influence The Civil Rights Movement

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January the 15th in 1929 in Atlanta Georgia to Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Reverend Alberta Williams King. Dr. King was originally born Michael King Jr. but his father changed his name to Martin Luther King Jr. in honor of Martin Luther the leader of the Protestant Reformation. Dr. King was an American minister and became a Civil Rights Movement Leader in 1954 until his death in 1968. Dr. King grew up in a time where racism was a very big issue. Blacks and whites were not allowed to eat together, shop together or even work together! Dr. King’s first racial experience was on a family trip to the store to buy some shoes. The family ended up getting kicked out of the store because the owners
These laws were created to give African Americans separate but equal rights. Dr. King, began his nonviolent Civil Rights Movement in 1955 when he was first arrested in Montgomery Alabama for boycotting the city buses after the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give her seat up to a white man. Dr. King, led the boycott for over a year until the Supreme Court overruled the Alabama law stating that segregation of buses was unconstitutional. Not only did Dr. King lead boycotts and nonviolent protest but he also travelled around the South giving speeches and writing letters. In April of 1963, Dr. King was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama where he wrote the famous letter, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Although King’s intentions were to draw attention to his arrest and to the ramifications of his imprisonment to the movement, the piece became a prime example of rhetorical devices and the way in which they can be used to persuade his detractors and to inform and motivate his supporters. Dr. King resorted to writing in the margins of a newspaper and on paper smuggled to him before King’s attorneys were allowed to provide him with a notepad. Dr. King demonstrated grace under pressure during his time in jail and his use of limited resources and his refusal to let anything stand in his way,
has made a huge impact in my life, as a young African American woman, living in a predominantly white county. I have been able to do many things that my ancestors were not able to do growing up. I have been able to live and go to school with people of different races and ethnicities. Not only have I been able to experience diversity but I have the opportunity to vote whenever I turn eighteen unlike my ancestors. I will be able to obtain a greater education experience without having to worry about being attack, physically and mentally. Another impact on my life would be witnessing the first African American President, Barack Obama. Without Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fighting for equality among all races there would have never been any hope for an African American