How Successful Was Martin Luther King's Campaign for Civil Rights 1955-68?

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How successful was Martin Luther King’s campaign for civil right 1955-68? There has been debate as to how successful Martin Luther King’s campaigns were between 1955 and 1968, with opinions ranging from very successful to failure. There are examples to support both sides of this view but one must ask as to how success is judged; whether it is de jure victories, acts being passed through congress or social change, it is too broad to say that everything was a success or failure. In my opinion, King’s campaigns for voting rights and desegregation were mostly successful, however his campaigns against poverty were largely a failure. Firstly, Martin Luther King’s campaigns for desegregation were mainly a success. The Montgomery bus boycott was King’s first major success; he became the leader of the civil rights movement after giving a spell bounding speech in a church where the boycott meeting was held. The end result of the 382 day campaign was the bus company and the city authorities finally accepting a Supreme Court decision (Browder v Gayle) that bus segregation was unconstitutional. As well as this, the lunch counter sit-ins in 1960 led to the desegregation of public facilities in cities all over the South. Furthermore success of the Birmingham campaign in 1961 and the March on Washington in 1963 (including the significant “I have a dream” speech) led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964 and perhaps marked the high point of King’s career. Additionally, the freedom rides in 1961 gained white support, helped by violence against white protestors being highlighted on TV, and forced the federal government to order the desegregation of all interstate bus facilities. As the triumphs in Birmingham showed, King became increasingly successful in provoking violence from his opponents while ensuring his followers remained non-violent. This plus the
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