Martin Luther King, Jr., first stepped into the national spotlight in late 1955 when he led an African American bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama (Biography.com Editors). King experienced racism in early years and claimed he always wanted to do something to make the world a fairer place for African Americans (Col). On the night Rosa Parks, a colored woman, was arrested for violating the Montgomery city code by not giving her seat to a white man, King met with the leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights activists from the area so arrangements could be made for a citywide bus boycott (Biography.com Editors). In this …show more content…
He and other civil rights activists planned the March on Washington, a peaceful political rally to address the public of the injustices colored men and women were continually facing in the United States. Out of all the speakers and performers, King was elected to speak last. In front of an estimated quarter million supporters and media broadcasters, King delivered an urgent speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial about racial tolerance and non-violence between races in the. This speech was, undoubtedly, one of the most powerful political declarations of the century. It was a great inspiration in the pursuit of freedom for colored people in many different countries as well. His pleas for racial equality and hopes that one day black and white children could walk hand in hand and learn to live together inspired Congress to expedite the passing of the Civil Rights Act. By 1964, laws were passed that gave African Americans more rights than they had ever been given before