Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

2. Objectives • Identify the causes, consequences and effects of the Civil Rights Movement. • Determine the impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the lives of African American’s in the past and today. • Propose solutions to problems of racial and social justice • Analyze Dr. King’s character, leadership, speeches/writings, and beliefs and their effects on history, the Civil Rights Movement, and the world.

3. Background • Born on January 15, 1929 at his family home in Atlanta, Georgia. • Was an eloquent Baptist minister and leader of the civil-rights movement in America from the Mid-1950s • Death by assassination in 1968. • Promoted non-violent means to achieve civil-rights reform • Awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

4. Influences • While at seminary King became acquainted with Mohandas Gandhi’ philosophy of nonviolent social protest. • On a trip to India in 1959 King met with followers of Gandhi. • Became increasingly convinced that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom

5. Montgomery Bus Boycott • Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. • The city's small group of civil rights advocates decided to contest racial segregation on that city's public bus system • Chosen to lead the MIA • New in town, well-respected, well educated

6. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) • Recognizing the need for a mass movement to capitalize on the successful Montgomery action • Gave him a base of operation throughout the South • a national platform from which to speak • lectured in all parts of the country and discussed race-related issues with religious and civil rights leaders

7. 1963 • Was noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations • Nationwide outrage was sparked by media coverage of police actions in Birmingham, Alabama, where attack dogs and fire hoses were turned against protestors, many of whom were in their early teens or younger • Dozens of additional demonstrations took place across the country, from California to New York, culminating in the March on Washington

8. March on Washington • Nobody was sure how many people would turn up for the demonstration in Washington, D.C. • Some travelling from the South were harassed and threatened. • August 28, 1963, an estimated quarter of a million people—about a quarter of whom were white—marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in what turned out to be both a protest and a communal celebration.

9. King’s Final Years • The first signs of opposition to King's tactics from within the civil rights movement surfaced during the March 1965 demonstrations in Selma, Ala., • which were aimed at dramatizing the need for a federal voting-rights law that would provide legal support for the enfranchisement of African Americans in the South. • The marchers were turned back by state troopers with nightsticks and tear gas • The country was nevertheless aroused, resulting in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 • The strain and changing dynamics of the civil rights movement had taken a toll on King, • Especially in the final months of his life. “I'm frankly tired of marching. I'm tired of going to jail,” he admitted in 1968

10. King’s Final Days