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MLK and the SCLC

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MLK and the SCLC MLK !! Mar(n Luther King Jr. was a Bap(st minister and social ac(vist, who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the mid-1950s un(l his death by assassinaon in 1968. BacKground • Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929 • The middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. • Michael King Sr. was a successful minister • Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Mar(n Luther King Jr. entered public school at age 5. In May, 1936 he was bap(zed, but the event made liTle impression on him. In May, 1941, Mar(n was 12 years old when is grandmother, Jennie, died of a heart aacK. The event was traumac for Mar(n, more so because he was out watching a parade against his parents' wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young Mar(n jumped from a second story window at the family home, allegedly aemp(ng suicide Southern Chris(an Leadership Conference (SCLC) • With the goal of redeeming ‘‘the soul of America’’ through nonviolent resistance, the Southern Chris(an Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established in 1957, to coordinate the ac(on of local protest groups throughout the South (King, ‘‘Beyond Vietnam,’’ 144). Under the leadership of Mar(n Luther King, Jr., the organizaon drew on the power and independence of blacK churches to support its ac(vi(es. I Have a Dream Speech • On August 28, 1963, Mar(n Luther King Jr., delivered a speech to a massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought together the naons most prominent civil rights leaders, along with tens of thousands of marchers, to press the United States government for equality. The culminaon of this event was the influen(al and most memorable speech of Dr. King's career. Popularly Known as the "I have a Dream" speech, the words of Mar(n Luther King, Jr. influenced the Federal government to take more direct ac(ons to more fully realize racial equality. OPCVL • Origin: • Purpose: • Value: • Limitaon: LeTer from Birmingham Jail • As the events of the Birmingham Campaign intensified on the city’s streets, Mar(n Luther King, Jr., composed a leTer from his prison cell in Birmingham in response to local religious leaders’ cri(cisms of the campaign: “Never before have I wriTen so long a leTer. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious (me. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been wri(ng from a comfortable desK, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long leTers, thinK long thoughts and pray long prayers?” (King, Why, 94-95). • King’s 12 April 1963 arrest for violang Alabama’s law against mass public demonstraons tooK place just over a weeK aer the campaign’s commencement. In an effort to revive the campaign, King and Ralph Abernathy had donned worK clothes and marched from Sixth Avenue Bap(st Church into a wai(ng police wagon. The day of his arrest, eight Birmingham clergy members wrote a cri(cism of the campaign that was published in theBirmingham News, calling its direct ac(on strategy “unwise and un(mely” and appealing “to both our white and Negro ci(zenry to observe the principles of law and order and common sense” (“White Clergy Urge”). Interac(on with the Kennedy administraon • Candidate Kennedy’s purpose was simply to express sympathy to CoreTa ScoT King over her husband’s plight. Many of his aides opposed the call as liKely to lose votes in the South. But King was released from jail shortly aerwards, and reports of Kennedy’s concern energized African-Americans. Many historians feel it shiled crucial votes in Northern states away from Richard Nixon to give JFK his razor- thin victory. ….JFK and MLK • JFK and MLK shared an era and a cause, but they were not close allies, as the tone of these remarKs makes clear. They admired each other’s best quali(es but were suspicious of the other’s flaws. On civil rights, they marched to different cadences. • Early in his administraon, President Kennedy did not want to be seen as too eager to press for such moves as equal housing and vo(ng protec(on for minori(es, even though he saw such changes as inevitable. King was not invited to his inauguraon or to an ini(al mee(ng of civil rights figures in the Oval Office. SCLC’s origin • he very beginnings of the SCLC can be traced bacK to the Montgomery Bus BoycoT. The Montgomery Bus BoycoT began on December 5, 1955 aer Rosa ParKs was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. The boycoT lasted for 381 days and ended on December 21, 1956, with the desegregaon of the Montgomery bus system. The boycoT was carried out by the newly established Montgomery Improvement Associaon (MIA). Mar(n Luther King, Jr. served as President and Ralph David Abernathy served as Program Director. It was one of history’s most dramac and massive nonviolent protests, stunning the naon and the world. • The boycoT was also a signal to BlacK America to begin a new phase of the long struggle, a phase that came to be Known as the modern civil rights movement. As bus boycoTs spread across the South, leaders of the MIA and other protest groups met in Atlanta on January 10 – 11, 1957, to form a regional organizaon and coordinate protest ac(vi(es across the South. • As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduc(on and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talKing about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you, and Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. — Mar(n Luther King Jr SCLC’s role with ministers • On May 20, 1961, the Freedom Riders stopped in Montgomery, Alabama while on their way from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, Louisiana to protest the s(ll segregated buses across the south. Many of the Freedom Riders were beaten once they arrived at the Montgomery bus staon, by a white mob, causing several of the riders to be hospitalized. The following night Abernathy and King setup an event in support of the Freedom Riders, where King would make an address, at Abernathy's church. More than 1,500 people came to the event that night. The church was soon surrounded by a mob of white segregaonists who laid siege on the church. • King, from inside the church, called the United States ATorney General Robert Kennedy, and pleaded for help from the federal government.[31] There was a group of United States Marshals sent there to protect the event, but they were too few in numbers to protect the church from the angry mob — who had begun throwing rocKs and bricKs through the windows of the church. Reinforcements with riot experience, from the Marshall service, were sent in to help defend the perimeter.[34] By the next morning, the Governor of Alabama - aer being called by Kennedy — sent in the Alabama Naonal Guard, and the mob was finally dispersed Other Civil Rights groups • The SCLC hoped to ini(ate Gandhian, nonviolent direct ac(on throughout the South. It hoped that such ac(on would secure racial desegregaon, vo(ng rights, and other gains for African Americans. Through this approach, the SCLC sought to take the civil rights cause out of the courtroom and into the community, hoping to nego(ate directly with whites for social change. As one of its first ac(ons, the group led the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., which drew an es(mated twenty- five thousand people. In 1959, it organized a youth march on Washington, D.C., that aracted forty thousand people. • Despite these successful marches, the SCLC was hampered by disorganizaon during its early years. It experienced difficulty in mee(ng many of its major goals during the late 1950s, par(cularly in voter registraon. It charted a new course in the early 1960s, when it recruited leaders such as the Reverends Wya T. WalKer and Andrew J. Young. Between 1960 and 1964, the number of full-(me SCLC staff members grew from five to sixty, and the organizaon's effect on the civil rights movement reached its zenith. .
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