Martin_Luther_King

Modern History - Part One Martin Luther King Jr, was born January 15th 1929. He was an American clergyman, activist, and an outstanding leader in the African American Civil Rights movement. During the 1950’s King became active in the civil rights movement and the movement for racial equality. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign which was created in 1955, in Montgomery, USA. It was projected to oppose the city’s policy of racial segregation on it public transit system. Martin Luther King joined the Bus Boycott in 1955, and in December he was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, making him the official spokesman for the Boycott. King made many national appearances, fame was brought to him from the Bus Boycott and he was featured on the cover of Time magazine, and his reputation also granted him and invitation to celebrations of the independence of the African Nation of Ghana from British colonial rule. In January 1957, Martin Luther King invited 60 black ministers and leaders to a church in Atlanta. Their objective was to form an organisation to manage and support non-violent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the south. In February follow up meetings were held, and the outcome of these meetings was a new organisation was formed with Martin Luther King as its president. The organisation was called ‘Negro Leaders Conference on National Integration’, then ‘Southern Negro Leaders Conference’, the group ultimately chose ‘Southern Christian Leadership Conference’ (SCLC) as its name, and they also extended their focus not only on buses but to ending all forms of segregation. During its earliest years, SCLC struggled to gain footholds in black churches and communities across the South. Only a few churches had the bravery to defy the white-dominated status-quo by connecting with the SCLC, and those who did, risked economic retribution against pastors and other church leaders, arson, and bombings. Controversy amongst white and blacks was created by the SCLC’s encouragement of boycotts and other non-violent protests. SCLC’s believed that churches should be involved in political activism against social ills, and this belief was extremely controversial. Ministers and religious leaders (both black and white) considered that the role of the church was to purely focus on the spiritual needs of the parishioners and perform charitable works and to aid the needy. To some of the leaders and ministers, the social-political activity of Luther King and the SCLC amounted to dangerous discrimination which they strongly opposed. Bayard Rustin, an activist with communist sympathies, influenced Martin Luther King to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Rustin was a non-clergy activist and he affected King’s career and guided him. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover became interested in King, and observed him closely and harassed him, and his public actions were disrupted by the FBI through blackmail, and the FBI’s power of King increased as it is plausible that King may have had affairs and their knowledge of this amplified their power. The Birmingham campaign was the climax of the modern civil rights movement. It was a strategic movement organised by the Southern Christian Leadership conference to bring attention to the unequal treatment black Americans suffered and endured in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1962, the Birmingham minister and an SCLC member had proposed that SCLC ally with his own organisation, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, which protested the conditions that were present in Birmingham. In Alabama, Birmingham was the wealthiest city and it was also a fortress of segregation. The Mayor was a segregationist and Eugene “Bull” Connor, the police commissioner was known for his antagonistic and sometimes sadistic treatment of blacks. In Birmingham, the campaign tactics purely concentrated on defined goals for the city centre shopping and government district. These goals incorporated the desegregation of downtown stores, fair hiring practises in shops and city employment, the reopening of communal parks, and the formation of a biracial team to oversee Birmingham’s public schools desegregation. Between 1957 and 1962 seventeen black churches and homes had been bombed, including the home of a campaign activist for civil rights, Shuttlesworth. The population of Birmingham was 40% African American. Martin Luther King implemented Shuttlesworth suggestion in 1963, and along with Ralph Abernathy and other SCLC members, they set up headquarters in a motel room in a Birmingham black neighbourhood. They began enlisting volunteers and members to start protest rallies and giving workshops in nonviolent methods. King postponed his plans to protest in the time of the Easter season shopping which would be disrupted, to avoid them from affecting the neighbouring mayoral election, which Bull Connor was a candidate, and was elected. Martin Luther King used an assortment of nonviolent methods of conflict in the Birmingham campaign. These methods included sit-ins at lunch counters and libraries, kneel-ins by black visitors at white churches, and the beginning of a voter-registration drive was constructed by a march to the county building. Many of these methods were rejected, and some white spectators at lunch counters spat upon the participants of the campaign. A few hundred protesters were arrested, and SCLC goals were to fill the jails with protestors to oblige the government to bargain as demonstrations were persistent. However not enough protestors were arrested to affect the overall operation of the city. King promised that a protest would occur every day until “peaceful equality had been assured’ and he uttered doubt that the new mayor would ever willingly desegregate the city. The Bail amount increased in Birmingham and movement organisers soon found themselves out of money. They urged King, as he was the major fundraiser, to travel the country to increase bail money for those who were arrested. He promised to lead the marches to jail in unity, and he and the campaign leaders resulted to challenge the restriction and prepared for mass arrest of campaign supporters. King, Abernathy and another 50 Birmingham occupants were arrested on April 12, 1963. On April 16th, while in jail King released his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The letter retorted to eight politically moderate white clergyman who accused King of disturbing local residents, and not trusting the new mayor. The essay was a conclusion of many of King’s ideas, and his arrest attracted national attention, and corporate officers of retail chains in stores in Birmingham. The stores profits began to corrode after King’s arrest, and national business owners pressured that the Kennedy administration should become involved. King was released on April 20th, 1963. To recuperate the campaign, SCLC organised a controversial plan to engage students from Birmingham elementary school and local high schools to become involved in the demonstrations. James Bevel, a leader and an expert of earlier nonviolent protests had been named SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education, initiated the idea, and cultured the students in nonviolence tactics. On May 2nd, more than a thousand students skipped school, and demonstrators were given instructions to march to the area, to meet the major, and integrate the chosen buildings. They students marched in disciplined ranks, and they were sent at timed intervals from the churches they met to the downtown areas until arrested. More than 600 children were arrested, and by the end of the day the total number of protestors in jail was 1,200 in the 900 capacity jail. Bull Connor realised that the jail was full and on May 3rd, he altered his police tactics to keep protestors out of jail and the downtown area. Another thousand students congregated, and as the students left the church police warned them to stop ‘or you’ll get wet’. Connor ordered that when the students continued to use the city fire hoses that were set at a level that would peel bark off a tree. From the force of the water boy’s shirts were ripped off and young women were pushed over top of cars. By 3pm the protest was over and most protesters travelled home. On May 7th, 1963 the circumstances reached a disaster when breakfast in jail took 4 hours to distribute. Members of the Birmingham Chamber of Conference appealed with the protest organisers to stop. The national infrastructure had completely collapsed and protest organisers planned to flood the downtown business area with black people. On May 8th, white business leaders agreed to most of the protestors commands. On May 10, Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King told newspapers that they had conformity from the city of Birmingham to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms and drinking fountains within 90 days, and that they are to hire blacks in stores as salesmen and clerks. In Birmingham desegregation took place after the campaign, and Birmingham public schools became integrated in September 1963. National Civil Rights leader, Wyatt Tee Walker, wrote that the Birmingham campaign was outstanding and had become one of the Civil Rights Movements most important chapters. Martin Luther King’s reputation greatly increased after the protests in Birmingham and he was thought as a hero, and the Birmingham campaign was a huge success and an incredible public relations victory. King became Time magazines ‘Man of the Year’ in 1963, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.   Modern History - Part Two Source One Martin Luther King’s, “Letter From Birmingham Jail” http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html Martin Luther King’s letter is the most important document in the civil rights era. The letter demonstrates the long road to freedom that King fought and expresses the wrongfulness of racial segregation. It is a physical reproducible account spoken through the words, of one of the most important civil rights leaders in history. Within the personal letter, King responds to eight white ministers’ statements which they made about him who opposed of his actions in Birmingham. The central themes present in his letter a justification and admonishment. Kings explains his presence in Birmingham, his nonviolence, his direct actions and his pursuing of social justice. This source is a primary source, and is completely reliable as it was written by Martin Luther King himself. This source is extremely useful as we are able to detect Martin Luther King’s real feelings towards protests, segregation, Birmingham, civil rights, justice and things that King himself found important, hard to overcome, and his overall view of the situation that invoked that city. The Letter evokes arguments of democratic rights and freedom, and is an argument of nonviolent civil disobedience. King expresses his views on rights and freedom and his means for civil disobedience. This letter is an important part in civil rights action and for racial segregation. Source Two Birmingham, 1963 Birmingham was considered the toughest city in Alabama. It consisted of a large black population and an overpowering dominant white population and the two racial groups met with open hostility towards one another. In Birmingham in 1963, huge black civil rights movement campaigns were led by Martin Luther King. The above photograph was published in Live magazine in 1963, and it illustrates black students who were protesting for racial segregation, being pummelled with a fire house with such force that the water is able to push the children over and rip off their clothes. High velocity hoses, repeated jail time, and dogs were the consequences faced by protestor’s battle to topple segregation. The photo demonstrates what students were faced with and the force they were met with by the police, and white society. This source is a primary source and is very reliable as the photograph was taken at the scene. It was also published in a magazine in 1963. This source is useful as it gives us a grasp of the force that protestors were met with when they tried to achieve justice, racial equality, and the struggles they experienced when they were fighting for their own freedom. Source Three Martin Luther King, 1964 Martin Luther King is a human rights, and civil rights international icon. His name and his legacy are highly respected in today’s society. His work as an activist and clergyman for civil rights for black people is well recognised and has influenced today’s racial equality and segregation. The above photograph is of Martin Luther King in 1964, a year after the Birmingham campaign. He is promoting his new book “Why We Can’t Wait” based on his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The book exemplifies the extent in which black people suffered while protesting, and their struggle to obtain civil rights. It symbolises the dominance that the white society had and that blacks did not have a freedom of speech. This is a primary source and is therefore a reliable source as it is a photograph of Martin Luther King, at a press conference for the promotion of his book. This source is useful as we see that King has documented his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” into a book so that the world is able to read and understand what black people felt during the struggles of segregation. We come to appreciate the efforts that black people used in order to obtain freedom and prosperity.