Successful_Minorities

                        His 11-Mr. Robinson                                                                                                                         Tuesdays/Thursdays                                                                                                                         8:35-10 am Successful Minorities   A. SUMMARY Marin Luther King, Jr. (January 15,1929-April 4, 1968) was an activist, and a prestigious leader in the African American civil rights movement. King has been iconized as a human rights leader since his legacy has been primarily known for the progressing of civil rights in the United States.As a Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and discovered the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, where he served as its first president. He delivered his most famous speech, "I Have a Dream" when he led the March on Washington on 1963. King raised awareness of civil rights and received the Nobel Peace Prize for ending racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other issues of nonviolence. He attended more on ending poverty and the Vietnam War. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, in Memphis Tennessee. After his death, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. B. CONNECTION  Unit III: An Expanding People, (1820-1877) Chapter 16: The Union Reconstructed Chapter 16, (p. 481-508); Index Page, p. 492   I chose this particular chapter, from page 492 because the first section of the amendment declared permanent constitutional protection of the civil rights of blacks by defining them as citizens. States were not permitted from denying "any person of life, liberty, or property,without due process of law," and citizens were guaranteed the equal protection of the laws. Section 2 allowed black males the right to vote in political elections in the South, placing the word male into the constitution for the very first time. King raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest public speakers in U.S. history. From 1890 to 1908, ten of the eleven former Confederate states completed political suppression by ratifying new constitutions or amendments which incorporated provisions to disfranchise blacks and poor whites. These included such methods as a poll tax, record keeping, timing of registration in relation to elections, felony depriving one of voting and focusing on crimes thought to be committed by African Americans, complex residency requirements, and a literacy test. Focusing on both blacks and poor whites ensured that there would be no union between them as had arisen in the elections of 1894, when Populist-Republican tickets forcibly took power away from Democrats. Voters had to prove the ability to read and write the English language to white voters, who in practice used subjective requirements. Blacks were often denied the right to vote on this basis. Even literate blacks were often told they had "failed" such a test, if in fact, it had been administered. On the other hand, illiterate whites were sometimes allowed to vote through a "grandfather clause" which disregarded literacy requirements if one's grandfather had been a qualified voter before 1866, or had served as a soldier, or was from a foreign country. As most blacks had grandfathers who were slaves before 1866, they could not use the grandfather clause exemption; enforcing the poll tax was customary to disqualify black and poor white voters. C. EVALUATION   I know If I lived during Martin Luther King's era, I would not be in support of racial segregation and indifferences that African Americans had to endure. Civil Rights leader Like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and etc. were prestigiously known for standing up for the injustices that so many blacks had to face, but simultaneously they had to shed blood in order for such victory to take place. I am thankful that we no longer have racism in the United states that is overtly obvious. If racism still exists, it is used discretely, so the oppressed rarely notices they are being victimized of racial profiling. Even though I do not experience racism, I have at times came into contact with sexism. Some people do not take into consideration that a woman can do anything a man can do.