Martin Luther king

King was one of the early prominent figures of the African American civil rights
movement in America and one of the founding fathers of Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was a political activist, Baptist minister and a son
of a minister, he used the evangelistic rhetoric employed by black preachers for years
to pass across his message. He also brought less familiar qualities to his mission.
Travelled and well educated and used the principles of non-violent resistance of
Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau to achieve his goals.
Blacks in America see King as a celebrity, saviour and a great man who fought for
racial equality and civil rights. To some, king is just a womaniser, despicable
hypocrite, an immoral degenerate, worthless charlatan messianic persona (not the
brain behind the Montgomery bus boycott) and a fake personality (his change of name
for Michael to king).

Martin Luther king came into the scene for fight of civil rights movement on 5
December 1955, to lead the Montgomery bus boycott campaign, which lasted for 382
days. Blacks in America were discriminated in employment, brutalised by the police,
housing and schools were segregated and they had no right to vote. Rosa parks (an
African American seamstress) was arrested for not giving up her sit to a white man as
required of the Jim Crow laws which led to the boycott arranged by the black
community. Montgomery's black residents stayed off of the buses through 1956, as
city officials and white citizens sought to defeat the boycott. Black taxi drivers were
penalized if they charged less than forty-five cents, as they had begun charging ten
cents, the regular bus fare, in support of the boycott. In addition, the homes of both
King and Ralph Abernathy were bombed, and the membership of the local White
Citizen's Council doubled. City officials obtained injunctions against the boycott in
February 1956 and arrested 156 protesters under a 1921 law prohibiting the hindrance
of a bus. King was tried and convicted on the charge and ordered to pay $1000 or
serve 386 days in jail. Despite this resistance, the boycott continued. As King later
described, "We came to see that, in the long run, it is more honourable to walk in
dignity than ride in humiliation. So, in a quite dignified manner, we decided to
substitute tired feet for tired souls, and walk the streets of Montgomery." Under
increasing pressure to address the conflict in Montgomery, the federal district court
ruled bus segregation unconstitutional on 4 June 1956 (Browder v. Gayle). The
Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling, and on 21 December 1956, the boycott
officially ended. King's role in the bus boycott garnered international attention, and
the MIA's tactics of combining mass non-violent protest with a Christian tone became
the model for challenging segregation in the South. Seeking to build upon the success
in Montgomery, King with the reverend Ralph David Abernathy and Bayard Ruskin
and other southern black ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) in 1957. After the successful outcome of the Montgomery Bus
Boycott, King wrote Stride Toward Freedom (1958). The book described what
happened at Montgomery and explained King's views on non-violence and direct
action. Stride Toward Freedom was to have a considerable influence on the civil
rights movement. The Montgomery bus boycott served as a spark to the freedom of
the black power. In 1959, King toured India and further developed his understanding
of Gandhian non-violent strategies. Later that year, King resigned from Dexter and
returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his father.
King travelled the country making speeches and inspiring people to become involved
in the civil rights movement, as well as advocating non-violent student sit-ins. He also
argued that as African Americans made up 10% of the population they had
considerable economic power. By selective buying, they could reward companies that
were sympathetic to the civil rights movement while punishing those who still
segregated their workforce. The campaign to end segregation at lunch counters in
Birmingham, Alabama, was less successful. In the spring of 1963 police turned dogs
and fire hoses on the demonstrators. King and large number of his supporters,
including schoolchildren, were arrested and jailed.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, a small group of black students read the book and
decided to take action themselves. They started a student sit-in at the restaurant of
their local Woolworth's store, which had a policy of not serving black people. In the
days that followed other black students joined them until they occupied all the seats in
the restaurant. The students were often physically assaulted, but following the
teachings of King they did not hit back. Black students all over the Deep South
adopted King’s non-violent strategy. This included the activities of the Freedom
Riders in their campaign against segregated transport. Within six months these sit-ins
had ended restaurant and lunch-counter segregation in twenty-six southern cities.
Student sit-ins were also successful against segregation in public parks, swimming
pools, theatres, churches, libraries, museums and beaches.

King became very popular at this time. He knew that outlawing the segregation laws
was not the end to it. King organised and led marches for blacks right to vote,
desegregation, labour rights and other basic civil right which most were successfully
enacted into the United States civil right act 1964 and voting rights acts 1965. He
wrote many books (“the measure of a man”, “what is a man”, “strength to love”, “why
we can’t wait” and “were do we go from here”) expressing the way of live and love
and equality. King gave the people hope that someday black and white will live
together in peace equality and understanding. King also opposed the country going to
war with Vietnam and delivered a speech “why are you here” at the SCOPE (Summer
Community Organisation and Political Education) orientation, which resulted in
criticism from government officials. After making this speech the editor of The nation
Carey McWilliams and the socialist party advocated that king should run for
presidency which he totally declined. King always stressed the importance of the
ballot. He argued that once all African Americans had the vote they would become an
important political force. Although they were a minority, once the vote was
organized, they could determine the result of presidential and state elections. This was
illustrated by the African American support for John F. Kennedy.

The march on Washington for jobs and freedom started in 1963, which was led by the
big six civil rights organisation. This was the biggest march of all and king inspired
and lifted up the spirits of those marching. He gave his famous memorial speech on
the steps of Washington, which electrified the whole crowd

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of
its creed: we hold this truth to be self evident, that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and
the sons of former slave owners will one day sit together at the table of brother.
I have a dream that even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of
injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation were there will
not be judge by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a
dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racist, with its
governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification,
one day right here in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to
join hand with little white boys and girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain
shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be
made straight; and the glory of the lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it
together”.

After given this speech even John F Kennedy knew there was nothing that will stop
the march on Washington. This received media coverage and was shown to the world
and it ended in success with over two hundred thousand people of different ethnicity
present.

In late 1967, King initiated a Poor People's Campaign designed to confront economic
problems that had not been addressed by earlier civil rights reforms. The following
year, while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, he delivered his final
address "I've Been to the Mountaintop." The next day, 4 April 1968, King was
assassinated.

To this day, King remains a controversial symbol of the African American civil rights
struggle, revered by many for his martyrdom on behalf of non-violence and
condemned by others for his militancy and insurgent views.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,

The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case between brown v board of
education has become a monument in the history of black civil rights movement in
1954. Linda Brown was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka
because she was black. The court combined it with, Briggs v. Elliott (filed in South
Carolina), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (filed in
Virginia), Gebhart v. Belton (filed in Delaware), and Bolling v. Sharpe (filed in
Washington D.C.). the Court had a newly appointed Chief Justice, Earl Warren, who
broke the long tradition and unanimously overruled the “separate but equal” doctrine
of Plessy v. Ferguson, holding for the first time that de jure segregation in the public
schools violated the principle of equal protection under the law guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Responding to legal and
sociological arguments presented by NAACP lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall, the
court stressed that the “badge of inferiority” stamped on minority children by
segregation hindered their full development no matter how “equal” physical facilities
might be. After hearing further arguments on implementation, the court declared in
1955 that schools must be desegregated “with all deliberate speed.”
Restricted in application to de jure (legally imposed) segregation, the Brown rule was
applied mainly to Southern school systems. After strong resistance, which led to such
incidents as the 1957 Little Rock, Ark., school crisis, integration spread slowly across
the South, under court orders and the threat of loss of federal funds for non-
compliance. The Brown decision gave tremendous impetus to the civil-rights
movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and hastened integration in public facilities and
accommodations. Segregation maintained by more subtle and intractable forces,
however, has remained an important element in American society. De facto school
segregation caused by residential housing patterns and various other conditions rather
than by law, has been attacked by the bussing of students and other mechanisms.