6.17 MLK Day

​6.17
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By John Christiansen

Learners can:

• identify how Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others helped advance civil rights legislation

• explain how the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. resonates in current times

Vocabulary: beloved community

​Overview

​Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday became a national holiday in 1983 by an act of Congress, fifteen years after he was assassinated.

People are encouraged to make the holiday a “day on, not a day off” and take action to improve their local communities. This day of service hopes to realize King's ideal vision of a beloved community, a community in which everyone is cared for and is free from hate, hunger, and poverty.

People are encouraged to volunteer in community projects, participate in their religious organizations or act on their own and perform large or small acts of kindness

​Engage

Many historians mark the start of the modern civil rights era with the 1954 landmark in Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka. The Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated “separate, but equal” facilities violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Black civil rights activists saw this court decision as an opportunity.

Although Martin Luther King, Jr. is perhaps the most well-known civil rights activist in the United States, King's successes and challenges were shared with many others.

Discover

​King's vocation as a Baptist minister was the basis for his non-violent philosophy. He urged his followers to resist using violence when confronted with violence to expose the injustice of segregation, discrimination, and unequal treatment before the law.

King was a skilled orator and communicator whose sermons and speeches stirred his audiences and the public.

As a leader, King set focused goals for the civil rights campaigns he undertook, in some instances, his efforts failed but was able to regroup and retry.

​MLK

Rosa Parks was one of these Montgomery leaders. In December 1955, her act of civil disobedience, willfully breaking an unjust law in a peaceful manner, started the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

King led the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), which organized the boycott of the public transportation system.

King and the other leaders of the MIA knew that the Black community had little political power in the state of Alabama. Jim Crow laws ran rampant. Fewer than 5 percent of eligible Black voters registered to vote because of barriers such as literacy tests and poll taxes.

In some areas, white supremacy groups like the Ku Klux Klan threatened Black voters with violence if they attempted to exercise the right to vote.

However, King and the MIA knew that the Black community had economic power over the bus company because it relied on Black riders for the majority of its revenue.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Multiple Select

Select all that apply.

• The SCLC maintained nonviolent resistance as a core strategy to advance civil rights

• The SCLC was open to members from all races.

• The SCLC sought to address other issues affecting the Black community such as poverty.

• The SCLC limited membership to Christian churches.

​Violent confrontations between Black people and white people that resisted integration occurred often. King's house was bombed two months into the protest while his wife and seven-week-old daughter were inside; they escaped injury.

King, Parks, and others were arrested numerous times during the 13-month-long protest. In fact, King was arrested nearly 30 times during his civil rights campaigns.

More than 90% of the Black community of Montgomery refused to ride the busses. Finally, the bus company desegregated the buses after a federal court cited the Brown decision in Browder v. Gayle (1956).

​Violence

The majority of Americans did not support the civil rights movement when it gained momentum after the Brown decision.

Many white politicians or government officials were unwilling to support the civil rights movement publicly to avoid offending white voters and upsetting the social, economic, and political power of white people over Black people. Many government officials saw King as a radical and a troublemaker.

Martin Luther King, Jr. had to navigate a politically volatile environment. He never publicly revealed his political leanings or openly endorsed either the Democratic or Republican parties. However, he recognized that the support of political leaders was crucial to the movement.

Political Engagement

King met with Vice President Richard Nixon in 1957, after the successful Montgomery boycott. King asked Nixon to encourage President Dwight Eisenhower to take public steps in support of Black voting rights. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which empowered the Justice Department to protect the right to vote and established a federal Civil Rights Commission to investigate claims of discrimination.

1960 President Kennedy signaled his support for the civil rights movement. Kennedy worked behind the scenes to secure King's release from jail after King was arrested in a protest in Atlanta, Georgia.

Political Engagement

Multiple Choice

Why did Martin Luther King avoid endorsing any political party?

• to keep the focus on the moral issues of civil rights

• to minimize the importance of politics in the civil rights movement

• to discourage politicians from becoming involved in the movement

• to concentrate on Black economic rights over political rights

​Resistance to the civil rights movement among white Americans gradually declined as they witnessed the steadfast commitment to non-violent protest Black Americans demonstrated despite the often violent treatment they withstood.

Presidents Kennedy and Johnson took significant action on civil rights even though they faced opposition within their own party from Southern Democrats. Johnson carried through Kennedy's commitment to civil rights when he became president, signing landmark legislation that protected the civil rights of Black Americans and other minority groups.

​Landmark Legislation

Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States in the early 1960s. King and other leaders organized a boycott campaign using Black economic power to desegregate the city and pressure businesses to hire Black workers.

The city met those demands. However, during the five weeks of the campaign, protesters faced violent resistance from the Birmingham police. The police used police dogs to attack protestors, and they used fire hoses to disperse crowds of children who joined the protest.

King was arrested and wrote his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Writing, "Injustice anywhere is a treat to justice everywhere."

​Birmingham Campaign 1963

Multiple Choice

Protestors were attacked by police dogs and fire houses in an attempt to stop their march

• True

• False

After the Birmingham Campaign, President Kennedy spoke in a televised address to the nation. He announced that he would ask Congress to enact landmark civil rights legislation immediately in response to the growing unrest and violence surrounding civil rights demonstrations.

Just days before his June 11, 1963 speech, he sent the National Guard to protect Black students who were barred by the governors in Alabama and Mississippi from attending their state universities.

​The Call for Civil Rights Legislation 1963

King and other civil rights leaders had planned the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for months. Organizers knew that the large numbers of demonstrators would pressure Congress to act on Kennedy's civil rights legislation.

More than 250,000 people gathered in the capital to rally for voting rights and civil rights protections in schools, work, and housing.

King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the event. Later that day King and other leaders met with President Kennedy to keep up the momentum of his call for civil rights legislation.

​March on Washington 1963

President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 25, 1963.Johnson helped secure the passage of Kennedy's proposed civil rights legislation.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited:

• discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin

• unequal application of voter registration requirements

• racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination

Today, the law continues to protect minorities from discrimination and has been amended to prohibit discrimination based on age and disability.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Working with other civil rights activists, King turned his attention to securing the political rights of Black Americans. They planned to walk 54 miles from Selma, Alabama to the state capital in Montgomery to bring attention to the barriers to voting that Black Americans experienced.

On their first attempt, marchers met fierce violence. Police attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas. That event became known as Bloody Sunday.

On their 3rd attempt, more than 25,000 people had joined the march protected by more than 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard under federal command.

The March from Selma to Montgomery 1965

The Selma March had a powerful effect on the American people. Public support for the civil rights movement increased as millions of Americans watched the news of the brutal attacks on the marchers.

President Johnson urged Congress convene to sign The Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This landmark legislation enables the federal government to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution to secure the right to vote for racial minorities

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

King and other leaders expanded the scope of their efforts to more issues that affected black people in all parts of the country including poverty, lack of adequate healthcare, and poor living conditions in unsafe neighborhoods. King moved his efforts to the North and focused on these kinds of issues in Chicago, especially housing issues, through 1965 and 1966.

Another campaign took place in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. King was there in support of the sanitation workers on strike, when a white supremacist assassinated him. The nation was stunned and more than 100 U.S. cities experienced riots and protests on hearing the news of his death.

The following day, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, and as amended later, disability and family status.

Other MLK Campaigns

In this lesson, you answered the Essential Question:

• How does the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. continue to resonate today?

You learned about the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Summary