Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”
Jimmy Neutron
Period 2
March 29, 2017
Mr. Fuhrman Martin Luther King Jr., a man who was famous for giving speeches on equal rights during the Civil Rights Movement, only earned a C in his college Public Speaking class (Hiskey
10). During Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, the United States was experiencing a Civil Rights
Movement which included events such as Supreme Court deciding that racial segregation was unconstitutional, Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refusing to give up her seat, and the
“Freedom Riders” taking a stand to desegregate public transportation. King is an American hero because he was a strong worker for civil rights, became the youngest person to win the Nobel
Peace Prize, and organized the March on Washington (Biography.com 4).
Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King (History.com 2). King attended Booker T.
Washington High School, where he skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered
Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944. In 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. King enrolled in Boston University to earn his doctorate (History.com
3-4).
During the work on this doctorate, Martin Luther King Jr. met Coretta Scott and they were married in June 1953. They had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter
Scott and Bernice (Biography.com 1). Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. He was only 39 years old (Biography.com 5).
During the Civil Rights Movement, the United States was changing as the result of protests demanding equal rights for all citizens. On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in
Brown vs. Board of Education that (Burrows 222). President Kennedy and the First Lady, Jacqueline, were traveling in a motorcade through downtown Dallas on their way to a speaking engagement at a luncheon. Unfortunately, while they were traveling, the President was struck by gunfire as they were passing the Texas School Book Depository. The result was an assassination of our 35th President (Bowman 156). John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20th, 1962. He circled the Earth three times in under five hours (Burrows 297).
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a strong worker for civil rights during the 1950s and 1960s.
He was a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1955, he accepted the leadership of the “Great Bus Boycott.”
The boycott lasted 382 days. As a result of the boycott, on December 21, 1956, the government ruled that racial segregation in transportation was unconstitutional. During the boycott, King was arrested and his house was bombed. This changed society by moving the US forward to provide civil rights for the country’s population (Biography.com 2).
King became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He won the award in
1964. He was 35 years old. He delivered his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway with some very powerful remarks. He said, “Right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant (“About
Dr. King” 8).” King donated the prize money of $54,123 to strengthen the civil rights movement
(Biography.com 4). He felt winning the Nobel Peace Prize was a tribute to millions of
Americans who followed the precepts of nonviolence (New York Times 13). This changed society by showing that race, religion, and ethnic background should not matter when it comes to impacting the world.
Martin Luther King Jr. also worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March of Washington. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was held on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C (History.com 9). Between 200,000 and 300,000 people participated in this march. The highlight of the event was his famous “I Have a Dream” speech which called for peace and equality. As a result of his efforts, he was named Man of the Year by
TIME Magazine (History.com 10). This peaceful protest is believed to have played a huge factor in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and changed society by showing that when individuals place others before themselves, the results can be astounding.
In conclusion, King is important to American history because he stood tall for an entire race when racial segregation was running rampant in the United States. He was a strong worker for the civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, he became the youngest person to win the
Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35. Finally, King worked with a number of civil rights and religious groups to organize the March on Washington.
People who believed in equality and equal rights would have viewed King as a hero because many people were not granted the same rights based upon their race. White supremacists such as the Ku Klux Klan may not have viewed King as hero because they believed people of different races and cultures should not be equal to whites. Cornell William Brooks, the President of the NAACP, would view Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a hero because the NAACP continues to grow and has over a half million members. The Council of Conservative Citizens, a reincarnation of a group in the 1950s would not view King as a hero. This group is known to resist segregation. However, I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a hero because he consistently put himself before others so future generations of African Americans would benefit from his efforts long after his time. Works Cited
“About Dr. King.” http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-dr-king. Accessed 8 February 2017.
Bowman, John. The History of the American Presidency. Chartwell Books Publishing Company, 1998
Burrows, Terry. Visual History of the Twentieth Century. Carlton Books Publishing Company, 1999.
“Martin Luther King Jr.” http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr. Accessed 10 February 2017.
“Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Activist, Minister.” http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr. Accessed 8 February 2017.
“Martin Luther King Wins the Nobel Prize for Peace” New York Times, 21 October 1964, Page 1.