Was Martin Luther King the Greatest Civil Rights Leader of All Time

Does Martin Luther King Deserve To Be Known As Americas Greatest Civil Rights Leader?

In the 1860’s slavery was abolished and this should have meant equal rights for all minorities and white. But still, African Americans suffered discrimination and difficulties in everyday life. The southern states were known to be violent towards the black communities within it. An example of which is the murder of Emmitt Till, a young black boy from Chicago who travelled down to Alabama to visit his grandmother. He was beaten up and killed by to white men local to the town he was in. These divides, however were beginning to collapse in the 1950’s and 1960’s. During these racially and politically controversial year emerged a man who was believed to be the catalyst in the reduction of these divides. Martin Luther King was charismatic, confident man who had a great talent in public speaking he is undisputedly the most famous civil rights leader but the real question is, does he deserve to be known as America’s greatest civil rights leader? A view on the matter is one of Ella Baker, a former staff member of the SCLC who said “the movement made Martin rather than Martin making the movement.”, showing that there was people who believed he was lucky to come about at the right time and actually didn’t impact it much but falsely thought of to have made a huge contribution. The thoughts of others like Benjamin Mays , his former teacher claimed that “king contributed largely to the success of the student sit –in movements in abolishing segregation.” Showing that people believed King’s role in the civil rights movement was crucial to its success. In this essay I will assess Kings reputation as America’s greatest civil rights leader, firstly, the points for King: Kings ability to attract media attention; Kings non-violent methods to get everyone to support him, even whites; and how his inspirational speeches managed to rally masses of support. On the other hand: King’s demonstrations and marches caused injury and even death of his supporters; King was seen as a glory hunter, and finally ; there are many other civil rights campaigners who could be seen as being America’s greatest civil rights leader.
Firstly, King managed to receive a huge amount of media attention. Over 200,000 people tuned in to watch him deliver his “I have a dream” speech. It was because of this the civil rights act had major breakthroughs and brought much more publicity to the Civil Rights campaign and no other campaigner managed to do this. It was this speech that helped him win the Nobel Piece Prize and become Time magazine “Man of the year” Most of Kings success came due to his knowledge of the media and his ability to attract them so easily. Furthermore, people from different races were watching and listening to the speech, showing that it was a worldwide problem.
In addition, King was able to get support from everyone, even white people. He did this by relating to the whites in the way of their policies. White people were appalled by what was happening to blacks and King realised this. He knew the whites were shocked and this was half the battle to get them on his side. By making his policies similar to that of the whites, many were won over.
Finally, king managed to keep his black supporter’s attitudes to the civil rights movement high and this affected everyone due to the actions of a few supporters. King managed to harden up his supporters attitudes, thus improving the support for him and showing that the black people’s spirit would not be altered even if they felt they were losing the battle of civil rights. For example, Rosa Parks, a woman from Montgomery Alabama decided that she would not stand up to let a white man have a seat on the bus even after the white man had asked her to. Parks then was seen as a controversial figure in America and still is today. In addition to this protest there was the Montgomery bus boycott took place which showed that black peoples spirits were not altered even if they felt they were losing the fight to gain equality. Therefore, showing that king was able to inspire his supporters
King showed clever knowledge of the whites mind set towards segregation and influenced heavily the support and media coverage that the civil rights movement received. However, King is often credited with more success than he deserves, his failures and disappointments will now be discussed.
Firstly, many of King’s marches and demonstrations led to injury of his supporters. King’s main goal was to achieve equal rights and social standards for all African Americans in America by non-violent protest. However, the fact that violence toward the blacks from the whites is just the opposite of what King said he wanted. This caused many people to believe that he didn’t care about his African American supporters. Therefore people resorted to the more aggressive approach of some leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael.
One of the down sides to King having a lot of media attention is that he was seen by some people as a glory hunter. This was one of the only disadvantages of having a lot of media attention. With King constantly being in the spotlight, it led people to believe he was more of a celebrity rather than a civil rights campaigner. The constant television appearances lead to criticism from black and white supporters.
Finally, many other civil rights campaigners could be seen as America’s greatest leader. Malcolm X, for example is seen by many as a massively important figure in the movement. He was also a confident speaker, however his means of protesting were more violent, and this meant many people preferred his methods to the non-violent approach of King. His moving speeches were just as effective as Kings but he was not as famous for a reason that is not well known.
To conclude, Martin Luther King can be seen as America’s greatest civil rights leader. He was the only leader to make such a vast contribution to the movement. The march through Washington and his “I have a dream” speech was one of the, if not the best known speech of all time. This speech set the structure for the civil rights movement during his time as a campaigner. The charismatic, confident man he was, helped him in his success to become such a great leader. King was assassinated, which was always going to be a possibility given the high rank at which he was at, and the controversy that comes with it. But everyone can take pride in what a great, noble man he was, and how he managed to lead the African Americans out of such horrific living standards. King did have his failures, but overpowering these failures were the many successes. His amazing ability to rally support was second to nobody in the campaign at that time. He gained a worldwide status and was known everywhere. He was indispensable in the civil rights movement. Therefore, Martin Luther King deserves to be seen as America’s greatest civil rights leader.