Matthew barrios

English
4b
Murray
5/3/2017
Research paper
Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil

rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using

nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to end

segregation laws.

Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was

the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. The King and

Williams families were rooted in rural Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D.

Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893. He

took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist church with around 13 members

and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks and they

had one child that survived, Alberta. Michael King Sr. came from a sharecropper

family in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-

year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D. Williams home in Atlanta.

In 1964, at 35 years old, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest person to

win the Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech in Oslo is thought by many to be
among the most powerful remarks ever delivered at the event, climaxing at one

point with the oft-quoted phrase I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional

love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is

stronger than evil triumphant.

In the spring of 1968, King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, where the

majority of the citys black sanitation workers had been striking since February 12

for increased job safety measures, better wages and benefits, and union

recognition. The mayor, Henry Loeb, staunchly opposed all these measures. King

was solicited to come to Memphis to lead a planned march and work stoppage on

March 28. That protest march turned violent when sign-carrying students at the end

of the parade began breaking windows of businesses, which led to looting. One

looter was killed and about 60 people were injured. The city of Memphis lodged a

formal complaint in the U.S. District Court against King and several other leaders

of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He and those leaders negotiated

with the factions among the workers and their supporters who had initiated the

march.

In the last years of his life, King faced mounting criticism from young

African-American activists who favored a more confrontational approach to

seeking change. These young radicals stuck closer to the ideals of the black

nationalist leader Malcolm X (himself assassinated in 1965), who had condemned

Kings advocacy of nonviolence as criminal in the face of the continuing

repression suffered by African Americans. As a result of this opposition, King

sought to widen his appeal beyond his own race, speaking out publicly against the

Vietnam War and working to form a coalition of poor Americansblack and white

aliketo address such issues as poverty and unemployment.

MLK achieved many things for the civil rights movement and helped

segregated people be equal to everyone. He showed you don't have to fight or

forcefully take things to get what you want. If you get people to support what you

believe in you can come together and change things.

 Works Cited

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. | HistoryNet. http://www.historynet.com/martin-luther-king-jr. Accessed 9 May

2017
Martin Luther King Jr. Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-
9365086. Accessed 9 May 2017.
About Dr. King | The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-dr-king. Accessed 9 May 2017
Martin Luther King Jr Assassination - Black History - HISTORY.com. HISTORY.com,
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination. Accessed 9 May
2017.