Civil Rights and Journal Term Paper

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Martin Luther King Jr.: The End of a Dream

Rev Michael King together with his partner, Alberta, gave their firstborn son the name Michael. He later changed his name and his son's to Martin Luther. This was to honor the great 16th century reformer[footnoteRef:1]. Just like his namesake, he, Martin Luther, Sr., dedicated his lifetime to rectifying wrongs. As a preacher of Ebenezer Baptist, the Rev pressed the church members to fight Jim Crow rulings - local rulings. These laws denied fair treatment to the African-Americans. The rulings violated human rights guaranteed to every U.S. citizen under the U.S. Constitution[footnoteRef:2]. Rev Luther did not just preach about human rights. He demonstrated his words with action. In January of the year 1935[footnoteRef:3], he organized a demonstration against the separation of elevators in the local district courthouse. After eight months, the Rev ran an initiative to register the African-Americans as electorates. In 1939, Luther and several followers marched to the city hall of Atlanta to show the African-Americans' political strength[footnoteRef:4]. He believed the people could utilize their votes in altering the lawmakers and the laws. Martin Luther, Sr., was setting up a platform for a nationwide human rights movement. [1: John A. Kirk, "Martin Luther King, Jr." Journal of American Studies 38, no. 02 (2004): 329] [2: Claybornecarson, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Grand Central Publishing, 2001.] [3: Marshall Frady, Martin Luther King, Jr. : A Life. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.] [4: Ibid.]

Joining the Struggle

Soon Dr. Martin was at the middle of Montgomery's human rights fight. He operated with other organizations, which comprised the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and the WPC (Women's Political Council). On First December 1955, Rosa Parks, who was the secretary for Montgomery NAACP, got arrested for declining to change seat to the back seat of a bus[footnoteRef:5]. The WPC of Montgomery responded by calling on all Black Americans to demonstrate, or discontinue using the buses. On December 5th, the leader of the WPC and other African-American heads in the city, created the MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association) to start up the boycott[footnoteRef:6]. Martin King, Jr. was elected the president. The city's mayor declined to talk with Dr. Luther except if the MIA ended the boycott. They disobeyed the mayor's demands and continued with the boycott until further notice. [5: Supra, note 2] [6: Ibid.]

Before the end of the boycott, Dr. King's house was bombed, the individual was tried and sentenced on boycott-connected charges. The Alabama state then banned the NAACP. These indignations only resulted in other parts of the nation being sympathetic to Dr. Luther's cause. On 13th November, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the bus segregation law in Montgomery to be unconstitutional[footnoteRef:7]. The following day, members of MIA voted to discontinue the boycott. Once the Montgomery city bus lines recommenced service, Martin Luther, Jr., was one of the first commuters on the newly integrated system.

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[7: Rufus Jr. Burrow, "The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.: To Save the Soul of America, January 1961-August 1962." The Western Journal of Black Studies no. 3 (2015): 256.]

Leading the Nation's Civil Rights Movement

In the year 1957, Dr. Luther was promoted from local to nationwide leadership. On January 11th, he was voted the chairman of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)[footnoteRef:8]. On February 14th, his picture was on the front page of Time magazine. On May 17th, Luther was honored in Washington, D. C., where he gave his first speech "Give Us the Ballot," to the country. On 8th of August, he started an initiative for registration of voters throughout the South. [8: John A. Kirk, "Martin Luther King, Jr." Journal of American Studies 38, no. 02 (2004): 329-347.]

In September of 1958, Dr. Luther wrote his first book titled "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story." The book was about the bus boycott. He explained the peaceful protest in the book. While at a book signing event in the city of New York, a mentally ill woman by the name Izola stabbed Dr. Luther. He was taken to the Harlem Hospital[footnoteRef:9]. When he was hospitalized, Dr. Luther issued a declaration forgiving his assailant and reiterating his confidence in "non-violence spirit." [9: Supra, note 3]

In January of 1960, Dr. Luther left the church in the city of Montgomery to help his father in Atlanta at EBC (Ebenezer Baptist Church). Luther's new spot provided with more time for human rights work. In the meantime, African-American learners in other regions in the South were correspondingly taking part in nonviolent demonstrations. On April 15th, African-Americans learning at Shaw University, North Carolina, created the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) to start up nonviolent demonstrations which targeted the lunch counters and also other segregated areas[footnoteRef:10]. In May 1960, human rights demonstrators got good news: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act. [10: Ansley L. Quiros, "Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Theology of Resistance." Journal of Southern History no. 3 (2016): 732.]

Gaining -- and Losing -- Ground

In spite of the Act of Civil Rights being passed in 1960, Dr. King was doubtful about the Republicans and Eisenhower supporting desegregation. Dr. King had a meeting with John F. Kennedy, a Democrat who was vying for presidency. This meeting was the first among many meetings that had been held between the next president and the fighter for freedom. In 1961, Dr. King persuaded President John F. Kennedy to give an executive command; the same as the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln, to forbid segregation[footnoteRef:11]. The Interstate Commission of Commerce by the government, instead, began to implement equality in the treatment of bus passengers countrywide. [11: Kevin Bruyneel, "The King's Body: The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the Politics of Collective Memory." History & Memory 26, no. 1 (Summer2014.....

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