To What Extent Has the Importance of Martin Luther King Been Exaggerated
How far has the importance of Martin Luther King been exaggerated?
The significance of Martin Luther King’s role during the Civil Rights Movement in the USA has become a matter for debate. In this essay I will examine the importance of his role along with many other factors.
Shortly after King graduated with a Doctorates in Theology at the University of Boston, he was instantly involved in the attempts to improve black peoples rights in predominantly the South of America. King was the harbinger of Civil rights and ‘hit the ground running’ with his policies and ways of protests. His non violent strategies - inspired by Ghandi - were the source of his actions and they proved to be very popular.
One of his most notable successes was the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, where Rosa Parks; an active member of the National Association of the Advancement of Coloured people followed instructions from King. These were that she should sit in her designated ‘coloured area’ on the bus, a white man then demanded that she’d move, and let him take her seat, Rosa refused and in doing so broke the law. We can interpret Source J as very valuable and reliable source, it shows the man in an uncomfortable way who almost seems surprised that someone in the Black community is standing up to him, this ironically portrays the white man as inferior to Parks. This act sparked a boycott of the black community on the bus services, and they kept this up for a year that was until the bus companies realised how important the service of the black community was to their economy. They ceased to include segregation on buses. This was a masterstroke in the movement and proved how much black people could achieve when they all come together.
Another major success of King was in 1963, where the focus of Rights leaned towards Birmingham Alabama; a town which Dr King described as “the most segregated city in the United States”. It was a perfect area to expose the harsh realities of the Jim Crow Laws. In
The significance of Martin Luther King’s role during the Civil Rights Movement in the USA has become a matter for debate. In this essay I will examine the importance of his role along with many other factors.
Shortly after King graduated with a Doctorates in Theology at the University of Boston, he was instantly involved in the attempts to improve black peoples rights in predominantly the South of America. King was the harbinger of Civil rights and ‘hit the ground running’ with his policies and ways of protests. His non violent strategies - inspired by Ghandi - were the source of his actions and they proved to be very popular.
One of his most notable successes was the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, where Rosa Parks; an active member of the National Association of the Advancement of Coloured people followed instructions from King. These were that she should sit in her designated ‘coloured area’ on the bus, a white man then demanded that she’d move, and let him take her seat, Rosa refused and in doing so broke the law. We can interpret Source J as very valuable and reliable source, it shows the man in an uncomfortable way who almost seems surprised that someone in the Black community is standing up to him, this ironically portrays the white man as inferior to Parks. This act sparked a boycott of the black community on the bus services, and they kept this up for a year that was until the bus companies realised how important the service of the black community was to their economy. They ceased to include segregation on buses. This was a masterstroke in the movement and proved how much black people could achieve when they all come together.
Another major success of King was in 1963, where the focus of Rights leaned towards Birmingham Alabama; a town which Dr King described as “the most segregated city in the United States”. It was a perfect area to expose the harsh realities of the Jim Crow Laws. In