Martin Luther King is a African American civil rights activist that uses numerous techniques of peaceful protest to imrove the human rights of African americans. In 1954, he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where Rosa Parks was famously arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus. After Parks' arrest, King came to national prominence in the US. He was a leading figure in organising the boycott by African Americans of buses in Montgomery. Tutelage from Bayard Rustin, a prominent civil rights campaigner, helped King to commit to a principle of non-violent action heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's success in opposing the British in India.
In 1951, the father of a black student named Linda Brown sued the Board of Education because a white school had prevented Brown from attending a school which was only seven blocks away, compared to the segregated black school she was attending which was more than seven blocks away from her home. Despite losing the first legal battle, Brown’s father did not give up. He found help from the NAACP, a prominent civil rights organisation which appealed on his behalf to the Supreme Court of USA. Following the appeal, in May 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren declared the US Constitution to be ‘colour-blind’ and therefore ordered the Topeka Board of education to end segregation in its schools. This was one of the first major steps in the civil rights movement.
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcom was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher who advocated the black nationalists ideals of Marcus Gravey. Threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to move to Lansing, Michigan, where his father continued to preach his controversial sermons despite continuing threats. In 1931, Malcolm's father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible. In 1937, Malcolm was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers.
Throughout his life and up until the day he dies, Malcolm X tries to pursue this ultimate goal of seeing white racism in a positive light and making something good come out of the events that happened in his life. The four factors that greatly influenced Malcolm X to become a successful activist were his family life, growing up and living in an urban ghetto environment, prison, and his religion. The horrific events of Malcolm’s childhood would have led anyone else to a depression and a downfall. However, these events sparked his reasoning for becoming a successful activist. When Malcolm Little was in the womb, members of the Ku Klux Klan broke all the windows in his family’s home in Omaha, Nebraska.
King’s first leadership role in the civil rights movement was as an executive in the National Association for the Advancement of colored people where he lead and organized the year long Montgomery Bus Boycott. Later the Boycott would lead to the U.S Supreme Court to rule that segregated buses were unconstitutional. He also became President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The group was different because they only used nonviolent strategies to get their point across and expose the evils of oppression. Martin Luther King spoke over 2,500 times and led marches and nonviolent demonstrations for black people to vote, desegregation, labor and other basic civil rights for all.
Early on, Malcolm X was aware of racism. As a young child, he recalled his house being burned down and his father being murdered by a white supremacy group called the Black Legion. As a teenager and young adult he witnessed and lived the impoverished hustler life on the streets of Harlem. While in jail, he was introduced to Elijah Muhammad’s church, the Nation of Islam, which preached for the advancement of black men and the evil of white supremacy. Upon release, Malcolm X rapidly gained prominence in the Nation of Islam and traveled the United States, founding new mosques in many cities.
SMC 2302-g | African-American Gandhi | Bayard Rustin: Unknown Hero of Civil Rights | | Tyrell Perkins | 11/19/2012 | We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers. – Bayard Rustin | The civil rights movement refers to the reform movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968, led primarily by Blacks, to outlaw racial discrimination against African-Americans. For ten decades after the Emancipation Proclamation, African-Americans in Southern states still lived a rigid, unequal world of deprived rights of citizenship, segregation, and various forms of oppression, including race-inspired violence. The nonviolent protest and civil disobedience were used by the civil rights activists to bring change. Many leaders within the Black community and beyond distinguished during the Civil Rights era, including Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Andrew Goodman and leaders of Christian organizations.
But, there was a city ordinance stating that African Americans had to give up their seats if a white man asked for it. The rule also stated that no black person could even sit parallel on a bus with a white person. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42 Page 2: African Americans and Their Fight for Freedom year
How important was the Montgomery bus boycott in changing the civil rights of African-Americans? The Montgomery bus boycott was an event that started in the, 1st, December 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a segregated bus to a white man, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott to occur. I think this event was the most important in changing the civil rights of African-Americans. However, other event like ‘little rock’ and the ‘sit-ins’ were also very important events in changing civil rights. I believe the Montgomery bus boycott was the most important event in the 1950s -1960s in changing the civil rights for African-Americans, because this event gained internationally attention.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE USA The Boston Tea Party was one of the most famous acts of civil disobedience in American history. Susan B. Anthony was arrested for illegally voting in the United States House of Representatives elections, 1872 in order to protest female disenfranchisement.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, James Bevel, Rosa Parks, and other activists in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s used civil disobedience techniques. Among the most notable civil disobedience events in the U.S. occurred when Rosa Parks refused to move on the bus when a white man tried to take her seat. Although 15-year old Claudette Colvin had done the same thing nine months earlier, Parks' action led directly to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.