Preview

Martin Luther King: Civil Rights Patriot Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
684 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Martin Luther King: Civil Rights Patriot Essay Example
Martin Luther King: Civil Rights Patriot

Nearly three centuries ago, African slaves were brought to the New World and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had ever practiced slavery, and ever since its prohibition,
African-Americans have fought oppression. Martin Luther King Jr., would aid immensely in this fight. He was born in Atlanta Georgia in 1929. His father,
Martin Luther King Sr. Was a Baptist minister and also preached for civil rights. By the time he was 17 he had decided to follow his fathers footsteps, so he himself was ordained as a minister. After his graduation from the Crozer
Theological Seminary, when he began postgraduate work at Boston University, he studied the works of Indian nationalist Mohandas Gandhi, from whom he derived his own philosophy of nonviolent protest. He moved to Alabama to become pastor for a Baptist church. Just after he received his Ph.D. in 1955, King was asked to lead a bus boycott in Montgomery. It had been formed after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat to a white passenger. Throughout the 381 days which the boycott lasted, he was arrested and jailed, repeatedly threatened, and his home was bombed. The boycott ended later that year when the Supreme
Court outlawed segregation in public transportation. This was his first victory and alone made Dr. King a highly respected leader. When he went to India in 1959, he studied Gandhi's principle of "Satyagraha" or nonviolent persuasion, which he planned to use for his social protests. In the following year he decided to move back to Atlanta to become copastor with his father. In 1963 he was back in
Birmingham, Alabama, where he led a massive civil rights campaign, organizing drives for black voter registration, desegregation, and better education throughout the South. During that time he led the unforgettable March on
Washington where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to millions of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    but after that he decided to go explore the country. He went to many different placed around…

    • 799 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book, Colaiaco presents the successes that Dr. King achieves throughout his work for Civil Rights. The beginning of Dr. King’s nonviolent civil rights movements started in Montgomery, Alabama when Rosa Parks refused to move for a white person, violating city’s transportation rules. After Parks was convicted Dr. King, who was 26 at the time, was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). “For 381 days, thousands of blacks walked to work, some as many as 12 miles a day, rather than continue to submit to segregated public transportation” (18). This boycott ended up costing the bus company more than $250,000 in revenue. The bus boycott in Montgomery made King a symbol of racial justice overnight. This boycott helped organize others in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tallahassee. During the 1940s and 1950s the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) won a series of cases that helped put it ahead in the civil rights movement. One of these advancements was achieved in 1944, when the United States Supreme Court banned all-white primaries. Other achievements made were the banning of…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    run away from home and he ended up joining an Indian tribe. That's where he got his nickname,…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Kristopher, I enjoyed reading your discussion post. What I believe made Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. such an active speaker was his ardor. He wanted peace in a world filled with much hatred and anger. Dr. King appeals successfully to the people; by preaching peace, love, and unity. He persuaded his audience to see the future- how life could be if freedom would happen. King gave the people something to hope for; how the children of the future could unite as one.…

    • 82 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plessy V Ferguson Essay

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This women was tired she had worked all day and felt she had every right to that set, and she was right. When Dr. King heard about Rosa Parks standing up for her rights and was jailed for that he knew he had to act, so he went to Montgomery Alabama and demand justice for Rosa Parks. The city council denied his request. Dr. King left with no other choice gathered the black people of Montgomery and did something that had never been done before by the black people before. Dr. King decided they should boycott the bus transit system, until the segregation on the bus ended, and jobs were offered to black men as drivers for routes where black people lived. Dr. King had the church get involved with the boycott, by organizing carpool time and pick/drop off locations. The city of Montgomery took notice to this, and decided to place a ban on people for loitering, even though they were only waiting for their ride. In 1956 the city of Montgomery had Dr. King indicted on for violating antiboycott laws. King was found guilty of leading an illegal boycott and sentenced to $500 fine and 386 days in jail. In November 1956 the U.S. Supreme Court declares bus segregation laws…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In order to become a critical thinker we must develop characteristics of the mind. These traits are found in each and every one of us, but we must have all the nine traits to become a strong sensed fair-minded critical thinker. Most of the nine traits come from within all of us. We must know how and went to use them. If the traits of the mind are not used correctly you will suffer the traits of an undisciplined mind. These traits are the opposite of a fair minded thinker. Our mind starts off with some if these traits, but through out life we focus on disciplining our mind for the better. One of the traits that will help us in…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    with his family life. He later gained the attention from his parents he had been…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the entirety of this essay, King pleads with the community and society as a whole to stand back and look at the situation he finds himself in. A society that is crutched by the injustice of segregation. Weakened by the laws that are established in places such as Birmingham. Beaten down by the commonality of police brutality to the African American man and women. A society that is far from the ideals of “all men are created equal”. King writes this essay to persuade individuals to change their thinking, or change their actions. He lays out what he thinks of society, and where it should go. He identifies misconceptions people have and how actions need to be taken. Martin Luther King Jr. Realizes heavily on public reason in hopes that they will understand his point of view and polarize their thinking in his direction. Only then, can a society be built on true justice and morality.…

    • 1822 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Abraham Lincoln is known as "The Great Emancipator" who freed the slaves. Yet in the early part of his career and even in the early stages of his presidency, Lincoln had no objection to slavery where it already existed, namely, in the Southern states. As a savvy politician, he always wanted to maintain the union, and he would use any device to keep the country together. However, his views on slavery evolved during his presidency, and the personal opposition towards slavery that he claimed he always had began to show through in his policy. As Lincoln noted in 1864, "I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel" (Lorence 306). Despite such strongly worded beliefs, Lincoln policies towards slavery often shifted for the sake of political expedience. For example, he pledged that states would be compensated for their loss of property as a result of emancipation to keep the border states from seceding. Still, by 1862 Lincoln had become firm in his convictions that slavery must be abolished. He even pressed for a constitutional amendment to ensure freedom to all the slaves. Lincoln espoused strong anti-slavery views, but he often put what he viewed as the good of the country ahead of the cause. Despite many detours along the way, he proved himself to be "The Great Emancipator." As a self-made politician from humble origins, Lincoln struggled in his early political life to define his identity. He described his childhood as "The short and simple annals of the poor. That's my life, and that's all you or any one else can make of it" (Oates 4). Lincoln felt extremely embarrassed about his background and worked his entire life to overcome the limitations he faced. He made himself a "literate and professional man who commanded the respect of his colleagues" (Oates 4). It is difficult to assess Lincoln's early views on slavery and race because they were constantly changing in an effort to achieve such…

    • 2258 Words
    • 65 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.When he was younger he did not quite understand why blacks and whites were different. As he grew up he made everyone equal in his mind. King was an inspiration even when he was younger to help his community. For example, he was a minister and pastor in many churches because of his belief in God, he fought against racial prejudice, and became a sharecropper family in a poor farming community. King told us that…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil Rights Movement: 1890-1900 1890: The state of Mississippi adopts poll taxes and literacy tests to discourage black voters. 1895: Booker T. Washington delivers his Atlanta Exposition speech, which accepts segregation of the races. 1896: The Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson the separate but equal treatment of the races is constitutional. 1900-1910 1900-1915: Over one thousand blacks are lynched in the states of the former Confederacy. 1905: The Niagara Movement is founded by W.E.B. du Bois and other black leaders to urge more direct action to achieve black civil rights. 1910-1920 1910: National Urban League is founded to help the conditions of urban African Americans. 1920-1930 1925: Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey is convicted of mail fraud. 1928: For the first time in the 20th century an African American is elected to Congress. 1930-1940 1931: Farrad Muhammad establishes in Detroit what will become the Black Muslim Movement. 1933: The NAACP files -and loses- its firs suit against segregation and discrimination in education. 1938: The Supreme Court orders the admission of a black applicant to the University of Missouri Law School 1941: A. Philip Randoph threatens a massive march on Washington unless the Roosevelt administration takes measures to ensure black employment in defense industries; Roosevelt agrees to establish Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). 1942: The congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is organized in Chicago. 1943: Race riots in Detroit and Harlem cause black leaders to ask their followers to be less demanding in asserting their commitment to civil rights; A. Philip Randolph breaks ranks to call for civil disobedience against Jim Crow schools and railroads. 1946: The Supreme Court, in Morgan v. The Commonwealth of Virginia, rules that state laws requiring racial segregation on buses violates the Constitution when applied to interstate passengers. 1947: Jackie Robinson breaks the color line in major league baseball. 1947:…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a part of civil right movement. It was a protest against the racial segregation policy in public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was started on December 1, 1955. On that day, a large number of black people of Montgomery, Alabama were decided that they will boycott the public transport system until they get right to sit anywhere they want in transportation system In Montgomery there was a rule that in municipal buses there were separate coaches for white up front and black in back.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A. During the Civil Rights Movement he was responsible for the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955-1956.…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I remember thinking that my hero was Kevin Hart as a kid because he was humorous, smart, and just a plain good person, but those aren’t qualities of my hero. My true hero Is Martin Luther King Jr. now he is truly hero worthy am I right. Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929 and in those times there was segregation involved meaning people of different skin tones couldn’t interact with each other. Everything was separated between if you were black or white. Sadly black people couldn’t do the same things as a white person there was no equality. An example of inequality is: black people couldn’t use the same water fountain as a white person they had to have a separate water fountain. Now there were many people that didn’t like the idea of segregation not one bit one of them being Martin Luther King Jr. He has lots of qualities that make him a hero but the ones that make him my hero are him being inspirational, his courageous, and his respectfulness.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, when he was twenty-five years old, in 1954.[15] King then began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his…

    • 6147 Words
    • 25 Pages
    Powerful Essays