Martin Luther King Jr. And Civil Rights

Martin Luther King Jr. was an inspiring man who represented the best in people. He is one of the most influential historical figures in the world.

This Baptist preacher has made great strides in recognizing civil rights and dismantling racial segregation in the United States. Most interestingly, he did all this without using violence or inciting violence. He mainly used his intelligence, charisma and leadership qualities.

Martin Luther King Jr. showed congruence between his thoughts and actions. He was not only a political leader, but he was also a spiritual guide. In addition, he was encouraged by his deep beliefs.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an intelligent man

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister and his mother an organist in the church. He had an older brother and a younger sister.

His paternal grandfather was a preacher until the day he passed away. At the age of six, two of his white friends told him that their parents wouldn’t let them play with him because he was black.

Martin Luther King Jr. attended public schools and was a very good student. He even skipped some classes because he was so good at school. Therefore, he was already admitted to the university at the age of 15.

He received his PhD in philosophy from Boston University at the age of 25. Shortly before that, he married Coretta Scott, with whom he had four children. After college, he became a pastor of the Baptist Church in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. It was there that the legend began.

A seasoned activist

The defining episode in the life of Martin Luther King Jr. occurred in 1955. At the time, there was a lot of animosity against blacks in Alabama. That year, an event that would change the history of the United States occurred: Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, while sitting in a section where only white people were allowed to sit.

Then Martin Luther King Jr. initiated a boycott of city buses that lasted more than a year. Black people refused to use buses and some of them had to walk up to 20 miles a day to get to work. The boycott ended when the Supreme Court made it illegal to discriminate against people on the bus.

Since then, King has not stopped leading peaceful protests against racial segregation. In 1963, he led a march to Washington where he delivered his famous ” I Have a Dream ” speech. In it he expressed his desire for an egalitarian world.

Died too soon

Although Martin Luther King Jr. was radical in using nonviolent methods, he himself was subjected to violence and oppression. The police arrested him a total of 20 times.

They almost always offered him bail in exchange for his freedom, but he refused. Criminals also attacked his home several times and the FBI infiltrated his staff to monitor all his activities.

Some say he walked about 6,213,712 miles during his marches and protests between 1957 and 1968. During the same period, he gave about 2,500 public speeches. He did not prepare his most famous speech “ I Have a Dream ” in advance. He improvised the story while standing in front of the large crowd.

At the age of 35, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize. Just four years later, on April 4, 1968, someone shot him while he was giving a speech on a balcony.

The US government posthumously awarded Martin Luther King Jr. the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal . There is also a holiday in his honor in several cities and states.

Hundreds of streets in the United States also bear his name and even a county in Washington state was dedicated to him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was built in 2011 in Washington, DC.