Effect of Martin Luther King Jr.5

TOPIC SELECTION – MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. 5

Topic Selection – Martin Luther King Jr

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr., a scholar, and a Baptist minister had a significant positive influence on a civil rights movement for economic, social and political change in the 20th century (Nayar, 2016). He was focused on bringing about political, economic, and social changes in the Black-American community as his significant aspects of the issue of racism that was associated with it. These aspects had affected the American people for long, whereby people were classified according to their skin colour. This was rampant even in the public transport sector, whereby the blacks were massively discriminated. King saw these developments to be stumbling blocks towards achieving social, economic, and political goals in the United States (Owens Sr, 2019). He then got himself involved in the fight for human rights for all American citizens.

Martin Luther King Jr’s Ideas

Martin Luther King Jr. was a determined civil rights activist who took up the challenge to fight racism that was considered as the major problem facing the U.S. in the 1950s. He used his influence in the church as a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to offer inspirational speeches whenever he had a chance to do so. As a young man, he led his fellow black Americans in the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 382 days (Nayar, 2016). He had skilful rhetoric energy that helped him in the urge for equality for all races in the United States. He was a skilled scholar whose equality managed to engage many people across the world in the fight for equality in the United States of America.

Effect of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ideas

King played an essential role in ensuring that the legal isolation of the African-American citizens in the United States of America came to an end. He was determined to ensure that all Americans enjoyed equal rights while in the United States of America since they were also human beings who needed to be treated with dignity. Also, his efforts led to the formulation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act (Nayar, 2016). He also worked closely with the black American students to fight for the rights in various public institutions and places. He managed to meet with various civil rights and religious leaders who spearheaded lectures on race-related issues.

The Context in Which Martin Luther King Jr. Proposed His Ideas

King’s participation in the SCLC organization provided a good platform for over sixty ministers to address people nationwide on race-related issues. He sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in 1958 in major cities across the South of the United States to register all eligible black voters. King used his communication skills to deliver various speeches in various parts of the United States. For instance, he gave a persuasive speech,’ “I Have a Dream,” which touched many people across the world (Owens Sr, 2019). The speech changed the mindset of people who felt that they had a role in ensuring human rights and equality in the United States.

The Response of The Government and People

The Federal Government of the day was not friendly to King’s efforts. It felt that he was there to fight it hence they used the police machinery to sabotage his actions and meetings. He was arrested in several occasions and charged in various law courts across the United States. Even though the Government was threatening him, he managed to convey his message across the world, which triggered support for his release from time to time. For instance, he wrote a letter from Birmingham jail to express the torture that he was subjected to as he strived to fight for equality in American society (Owens Sr, 2019). On the other side, citizens supported his actions for equality in the United States. He received moral and financial support from all black Americans as he fought for his course. Some white American activists joined him to push for equality in their society. These efforts helped him to achieve his goals in the long run.

Conclusion

Conclusively, King’s ideas and actions influenced the changes in the political, social, cultural, and economic spheres, which helped the Americans to realize that they had a responsibility to ensure America moved forward. Through King’s efforts, the US Supreme Court governed that the separation on buses was unlawful in 1956. Black Americans were allowed to travel comfortably as their fellow whites, which was not the case before the Montgomery bus boycott. He achieved his dreams of engaging all people in the United States irrespective of the skin colour in the building of a new United States, where humanity was paramount. In the present world, King’s efforts are being recognized as the pillar that changed the economy of the United States by encouraging an all-inclusive society.

References

Nayar, P. K. (2016). Radical Graphics: Martin Luther King, Jr., BR Ambedkar, and Comics Auto/Biography. biography, 147-171. https://www.academia.edu/29405000/_Radical_Graphics_Martin_Luther_King._Jr._BR_Ambedkar_and_Comics_Auto_biography_

Owens Sr, B. A. (2019). Crusader Without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Lawrence Dunbar Reddick. Alabama Review, 72(4), 312-316. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2019/01/15/crusader-without-violence-qa-martin-luther-king-jr-biography-ahead-its-time