How Did Martin Luther King's Assassination Influence The Civil Rights Movement

Words: 1611
Pages: 7

Martin Luther King's assassination was devastating to African Americans, civil rights activists and many white people as well. He was respected all around the country, and his death hit the Civil Rights Movement hard. His assassination motivated more activists to get involved and stand up to society. Other famous activists were Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, and many women from the Women’s Rights Movement (International Civil Rights: Walk of Fame). These activists motivated and encouraged people around them to get involved. Rosa Parks was famous for starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and encouraging thousand of other African Americans to join the peaceful protest. She joined black organizations like the NAACP (National Association …show more content…
The March on Washington was one of the most famous protests, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech, “I Have a dream.” He spoke about jobs, freedom and equality, and about 250,000 people showed up to this protest (Yunus). Other successful protests were the Albany movement, Birmingham Campaign and demonstrations in Chicago held by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Altman 97-107). Activists always had peaceful intentions, but white supremacists have violently attacked protesters and started their own riots. In 1961, freedom riders were peacefully protesting and they were attacked by a mob. A firebomb was thrown at them, and the Klu Klux Klan attacked the second group (Civil Rights Chronology). Not even a year later, there were huge riots at University of Mississippi because segregationists were protesting an African American veteran being accepted and attending the university. These riots were in a crowd of almost four hundred students that could have potentially been harmed (Schieps 101). In 1965, more protesters were killed in the Selma march to Montgomery, advocating for voting rights. This was a campaign organized by the SNCC, where whites got angry and shot innocent blacks (Civil Rights Chronology). One of the most dangerous riots took place in 1967 in Detroit where 43 people were killed at an black power hangout (America's Civil Rights Timeline). Detroit, Tampa, Atlanta, and Newark were all cities that had a very high crime rate for racial disputes in this year (America's Civil Rights Timeline). The Civil Rights Movement never had this in mind to start with. When they initially started the protesting, everything was peaceful, but as years went by and no change was made, people started to get angry. Whites antagonized them until riots would start, and a lot of the times whites would be the people to make the protests violent. However these violent