THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND MARTIN

LUTHER KING Jr.

[Martin Luther King Jr., Emmett

Till, Rosa Parks and The
Montgomery Bus (above)]

King was an American

clergyman, Nobel Peace
Prize winner and one of the
principal leaders of the
United States civil rights
movement.
King was born on 15
January 1929 in Atlanta,
Georgia. His father was a
Baptist minister, his mother
a schoolteacher. Originally
named Michael, he was
later renamed Martin. He
entered Morehouse College
in 1944 and then went to
Crozer Religious Seminary
to undertake postgraduate
study, receiving his
doctorate in 1955. King
was influenced by Mahatma
Gandhi, a man who ruled
off the British Rule from
India using non-violent
methods.
EMMETT TILL
Emmet Till was a fourteen
a Chicago. In 1955 he went
to Mississippi to visit his
great uncle and cousins.
During his visit, he went to
a general store owned by a
white man and his wife. As
he left the store, he spoke
flirtatiously to the white
woman. Some nights later,
two white men, the white
womans husband and his
brother, came knocking on
the door Till was staying at,
and asked his great-uncle
for till. They abducted the
teenager, beat and
mutilated him, before

finally shooting him in the

head. The got a 70 pound
cotton gin, tied it to his
neck and disposed him off
into the river, leaving him
floating in the river. When
Tills body was discovered,
the two white men were
arrested and taken to court
to be tried. Although they
were guilty and there were
enough evidences to
convict them, the white
judges and juries found
them innocent. After the
trial, the two white men
boasted about their crime.
Emmett Tills murder

[Emmett Tills Casket (above)]

caught great media

attention worldwide, with
tens of thousands
attending his funeral.
Returning to the South to
become pastor of a Baptist
Church in Montgomery,
Alabama, King first
achieved national renown
when he helped mobilise
the black boycott of the
Montgomery bus system in
1955. This was organised
after Rosa Parks, a black
woman, refused to give up
her seat on the bus to a
white man - in the
segregated south, black
people could only sit at the
back of the bus. The bus
driver called the police,
who arrested her and fined
her $10.
MONTGOMERY BUS
BOYCOTT

Black people then refused

to take bus, using the
slogan, People dont take
the bus, dont take it for
freedom. The 382-day
boycott (13 months) led
the bus company to change
its regulations, and the
Supreme Court declared
such segregation
unconstitutional.
In 1957, King was active in
the organisation of the
Southern Leadership
Christian Conference
(SCLC), formed to coordinate protests against
discrimination. He
advocated non-violent
direct action based on the
methods of Gandhi.
LITTLE ROCK
The Little Rock Nine were a
group of African-American
students enrolled in Little
Rock Central High School in
1957. The ensuing Little
Rock Crisis, in which the
students were initially
prevented from entering
the racially
segregated school
by Arkansas Governor Orva
l Faubus, and then
attended after the
intervention
of President Eisenhower, is
considered to be one of the
most important events in
the African-American Civil
Rights Movement.

[Elizabeth Eckford; one of the Little

Rock Nine]

The U.S. Supreme

Court issued its
historic Brown v. Board of

Education of Topeka, Kansa

s, on May 17, 1954. The
decision declared all laws
establishing segregated
schools to
be unconstitutional, and it
called for
the desegregation of all
schools throughout the
nation. After the decision
the National Association for
the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP)
attempted to register black
students in previously allwhite schools in cities
throughout the South.
In Little Rock, the capital
city of Arkansas, the Little
Rock School Board agreed
to comply with the high
court's ruling. Virgil
Blossom, the
Superintendent of Schools,
submitted a plan of gradual
integration to the school
board on May 24, 1955,
which the board
unanimously approved. The
plan would be implemented
during the fall of the 1957
school year, which would
begin in September 1957.
By 1957, the NAACP had
registered nine black
students to attend the
previously all-white Little
Rock Central High, selected
on the criteria of excellent
grades and attendance.
The nicknamed "Little Rock
Nine" consisted of Ernest
Green, Elizabeth
Eckford, Jefferson
Thomas, Terrence
Roberts, Carlotta Walls
LaNier, Minnijean
Brown, Gloria Ray
Karlmark, Thelma
Mothershed, and Melba
Pattillo Beals. Ernest Green
was the first African
American to graduate from
Central High School
Lindas father, Oliver
Brown, and thirteen other
parents tried to enrol their
children in the local "white
schools" in the summer of
1950, but were turned
down because they were
African Americans. They
were told they must attend

one of the four schools in

the city for African
American children. These
parents filed suit against
the Topeka Board of
Education for their children.
Oliver Brown was the first
parent listed in the lawsuit,
so the case was named
after him. At the time of
the lawsuit, Blacks
everywhere were not
treated fairly. For every
$150.00 spent on white
children at the "white
schools" only $50.00 was
spent on African American
children at the "black
schools." The parents of
the African American
children thought that their
school was not treated as
fairly because they were
coloured. They did not have
the most current
textbooks, not enough
school supplies, and
overcrowded classrooms.
After Oliver was turned
down by the school, he
went to the NAACP
(National Association for
the Advancement of
Colored People) to fight to
get Linda in the school. The
NAACP hired lawyers to
fight for African American
children all around the
United States to be able to
go to the same schools as
white children. This case
was lost at the state level.
The state courts referred to
the case of Plessy v.
Ferguson which allowed
separate but equal school
systems for black and
white children. Since no
court had ever overturned
this case, the state courts
thought there was no
problem treating the black
children that way. The
state courts also stated
that by treating the African
American students like that
now, they would better
accept when they were
treated like that when they
were older. This was a time
when black people of all
ages were treated like they
were a lower class or

segregated. They were

unable to eat in the same
restaurants, drink from the
same drinking fountains, or
even ride in the same train
cars as white people.
Taking the Case to the
Supreme Court
After losing the case in the
state courts, the NAACP
decided to take the case all
the way to the United
States Supreme Court.
They appealed to the
Supreme Court on October
1, 1951. At that time there
were several cases in the
United States similar to this
one, cases that challenged
separate schools for black
and white students. They
were started in the states
of South Carolina, Virginia,
and Delaware. They were
all joined together to be
fought as one.
The Supreme Court first
heard from the lawyers on
December 9, 1952. The
lawyers for the Board of
Education argued that
many people, including
black scholars, did not see
a problem with having
black students attend all
black schools. The lawyers
for the Browns argued that
the only reason for
separate education for
Blacks and Whites would be
if there was proof that
black children were
different than everyone
else. The arguments lasted
for three days and the
Supreme Court justices
talked it over for several
months. At that time
instead of ruling, they
asked the lawyers on both
sides some more questions.
In the middle of this set of
questions, one of the
Supreme Court justices
died and had to be
replaced. A year after the
first arguments were
heard, the Supreme Court
heard the case once again.
After three long years the
case finally ended on May
17, 1954 with the court
finding in favour of Linda

Brown and the other

African American children
like her. The Supreme
Court said that it was not
fair to have black and white
students separated in
different schools. The
judges voted on this case
nine to zero. It took some
states many years to put
students together in
schools and have them
treated the same because
many people were still
prejudiced against Blacks.
BOMBINGHAM
In 1963, King led mass
protests against
discriminatory practices in
Birmingham, Alabama
where the white population
were violently resisting
desegregation. The city
was dubbed 'Bombingham'
as attacks against civil
rights protesters increased,
and King was arrested and
jailed for his part in the
protests.
SELMA MARCH
The Selma to Montgomery
marches were three
marches in 1965 that
marked the political and
emotional peak of
the American civil rights
movement. They grew out
of the voting rights
movement
in Selma, Alabama,
launched by local AfricanAmericans who formed the
Dallas County Voters
League (DCVL). In 1963,
the DCVL and organizers
from the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) began
voter-registration work.
When white resistance to
Black voter registration
proved intractable, the

DCVL requested the

assistance of Martin Luther
King, Jr. and the Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference, who brought
many prominent civil rights
and civic leaders to support
voting rights.
The first march took place
on March 7, 1965
"Bloody Sunday" when
600 civil rights marchers
were attacked by state and
local police with billy
clubs and tear gas. The
second march, the
following Tuesday, resulted
in 2,500 protesters turning
around after crossing
the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
The third march started
March 16. The marchers
averaged 10 miles (16 km)
a day along U.S. Route 80,
known in Alabama as the
"Jefferson Davis Highway".
Protected by 2,000 soldiers
of the U.S. Army, 1,900
members of the Alabama
National Guard under
Federal command, and
many FBI agents and
Federal Marshals, they
arrived in Montgomery on
March 24, and at the
Alabama State Capitol on
March 25.
WASHINGTON MARCH
After his release, King
participated in the
enormous civil rights march
on Washington in August
1963, and delivered his
famous 'I have a dream'
speech, predicting a day
when the promise of
freedom and equality for all
would become a reality in
America. In 1964, he was
awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize. In 1965, he led a
campaign to register blacks
to vote. The same year the

US Congress passed the

Voting Rights Act outlawing
the discriminatory practices
that had barred blacks from
voting in the south.
As the civil rights
movement became
increasingly radicalised,
King found that his
message of peaceful
protest was not shared by
many in the younger
generation. King began to
protest against the Vietnam
War and poverty levels in
the US.

[Martin Luther Kings I have a

dream speech]

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

At the age of thirty-five,
Martin Luther King, Jr., was
the youngest man to have
received the Nobel Peace
Prize. When notified of his
selection, he announced
that he would turn over the
prize money of $54,123 to
the furtherance of the civil
rights movement.
DEATH
On the evening of April 4,
1968, while standing on the
balcony of his motel room
in Memphis, Tennessee,
where he was to lead a
protest march in sympathy
with striking garbage
workers of that city, he was
assassinated by James Earl
Ray, who is thought to be a
white racist.