Martin Luther King Jr.
There are a select few individuals who have come variously to be called "great", "leading", "brilliant" etc. because they and their accomplishments have forever changed society and the world (Siebold 9). Martin Luther King Jr. was one of those individuals. Dr. King's one mission was to improve race relations for all people regardless of color through non-violent means. Dr. King was beaten, arrested and in constant danger yet he refused to give up on his dream that all men would be treated equal. He would eventually be assassinated attempting to achieve his dream but along the way he made many accomplishments. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the second of three children born to Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta William King (Siebold 12). Martin and his siblings grew up in a relatively nice neighborhood that contained many successful black-owned businesses. At the early age of five he was already reciting Scriptures, singing hymns, and studying the dictionary hoping to improve his vocabulary. Martin would grow to be a very intelligent, athletic, and handsome young man. He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School at the age of fifteen and earned his degree
Martin's success and popularity made him a prime target for racist behavior. He and his family received threatening phone calls, harassment from police and prominent city officials, he was arrested and, in, January 1956, the King house was bombed (Siebold 18). Coretta was severely shaken by this incident but, despite the danger, Martin was determined to stand by his belief of non-violent retaliation. This motivated Dr. King to travel abroad preaching relentlessly and during this period he wrote his first book titled 'Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story'. He also sought to broaden the base of the Civil Rights Movement by establishing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Its first meeting was held on February 14, 1957, and Martin was elected its first president (Siebold 19). This was only the beginning of Dr. Kings stride toward his dream. A year before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Negroes of Montgomery planned to organize a boycott of the bus lines to protest the treatment of Rosa Parks. Mrs. Parks minister, Reverend Ralph Abernathy, asked Martin to join and assist in organizing the boycott. Reluctant at first due to being a new parent, Dr. King eventually agreed to help as much as he could, later becoming one of the main persons involved with the boycott (Davis 89). The Negroes wanted to achieve more satisfactory seating practices on the buses and to secure employment of Negro drivers on buses in predominantly black neighborhoods. As the boycott proceeded the white community was outraged. Almost one hundred Negroes were indicted under an antiunion law forbidding obstructing the operation of a business (Davis 89). The bus company sought to solve the problem as soon as possible to avoid going bankrupt since Negroes made up almost seventy percent of its passengers. The blacks of Montgomery won the battle and Negroes all across the South realized that boycotts were an effective weapon in the battle for equality (Siebold 18). Over the next eleven years Martin would travel the country delivering hundreds of speeches, organizing marches and boy
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Approximate Word count = 1420
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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