Martin Luther King Jr at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Essay

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Martin Luther King Jr.
Following the end of World War II, Martin Luther King Jr. had lived in a time where there were many problems within society, but one injustice that was very prominent and widespread was racism. Everywhere one looked, coloured people of all ages were being discriminated against for the smallest things. For example, blacks could be thrown in jail just for refusing to give up their bus seat for a white man, or being spit on and verbally abused for simply wanting to attend the same school as white children. Presidents that presided during this time include Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. As soon as he could, Martin Luther took a stand against such injustices, and continuously fought for righteousness and justice throughout society, and eventually integrated the blacks and whites. Many people looked up to King and think of him as a person of power. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” In the majority of King’s writings, he talks about how he wants to see positive change within the world before he departs this life. This eventually swayed the people to act upon King’s wishes. Martin Luther King Jr. was, indeed, a very influential and powerful man. In addition to how Martin Luther King Jr. fought for the equality of blacks and whites, the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in December of 1955 is what initiated the “Black Revolution” . This event started when Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. When this happened, African-American Leaders got together and said to the black population to boycott the buses for a day, but it was more of a success than they thought it would be. The boycott lasted for a little over a year, until the US Supreme Court ordered a change. Following this, the African-American Leaders decided to take a stand and act more on the present racial prejudices. In 1957, King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights organization that, mainly made up of African-Americans from the South, “advocated nonviolent passive resistance as the means of securing equality for African Americans”. The SCLC was lead by King until his assassination in 1968. In 1963, King was jailed in Birmingham for his part in the Birmingham campaign, a planned non-violent protest conducted by the ACMHR and the SCLC against racial segregation, which is where he wrote the famous “Letter from Birmingham”, in which King talks about the fact that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”. King also talks about how he disagrees with the citizens that the fight against racial segregation should be fought exclusively in the courts, not in the streets. The Birmingham campaign launched the day following his arrest and was a key turning point in ending segregation in the South. These events, plus many more, all illustrate how Martin Luther took a stand and continuously fought for justice and peace among people everywhere. Furthermore, King’s push for integration finally paid off. All throughout his fight for equality, he got himself very involved in the community; if there were workers on strike, King would be right there striking with them. Martin Luther also organized many demonstrations against segregation. Before the Birmingham incident, in Montgomery, Alabama, King organized a protest against attempts to deny black citizens the right to vote. This protest, in addition to the Birmingham campaign, helped Martin Luther King recognize the importance of Birmingham. It did not mean that racial separation had ended, because some still remains today, but he felt that the battle was almost won. He wanted to call on the nation for its support. So King organized a March on Washington, D. C. The March on Washington took place in August, 1963. About two hundred fifty thousand people gathered there. They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black
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