Martin Luther Kings Contribution to the Civil Rights Movement - Essay Example

Chapter Worksheet Part One: Terms Determine the most significant terms from the chapters and list them below Rosa Parks 2. Martin Luther King, Jr. 3. Malcolm X 4. The Fair Deal. 5. Termination 6. Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka 7. Montgomery Bus Boycott 8. The Southern Manifesto 9. Termination 10. Jim Crow From the above list, elaborate on five terms: 1. ___Rosa Parks_______ • Born Rosa McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on 4th February, 1913.  • Married Raymond Parks In 1932 and moved to Montgomery. • Served as the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. • On 1st December, 1955, Parks, seated in the ‘black section’ at the back of the bus, refused to give up her seat to a white person • Arrested by the police and fined for violating the segregation law. • Volunteered to let the NAACP use her as a test case to oppose segregation on buses. • Was immediately sacked from her tailoring job with Montgomery Fair. • Became the symbol of the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement. • Founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development in 1987. • Died on 24th October, 2005. 2. ____Martin Luther King, Jr.______ •  Baptist minister, preeminent civil-rights activist and orator par excellence. • Born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. • Married Coretta Scott in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice. • Elected to lead the successful Montgomery bus boycott in December 1955. • Co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in January 1957 • Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, led several non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. • Led the 1960 “sit-in” movement in Greensboro and the1963 demonstration in downtown Birmingham. • Led the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963, which drew more than 200,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial and made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. • Instrumental in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1964. Assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis on April 4, 1968 3. ____Malcolm X_____ • Civil Rights Activist, nationalist leader and charismatic spokesman for the Nation of Islam • Born Malcolm Little in May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska.  • Father’s civil rights activism led to his harassment and murder by white supremacists. • Dropped out of school at 15 and turned to crime and drugs to finance his extravagant lifestyle • Arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to ten years in jail in 1946 • Converted to the Nation of Islam and changed his surname to “X” – a tribute to the unknown name of his African ancestors. • Urged any means, including violence, to fight racism and establish an independent state for black Americans • Married Betty Sanders, a fellow member of the Nation of Islam, in 1958. • Broke away from the Nation of Islam in 1964, converted to traditional Islam, changed name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and considered prospects for peaceful resolution to racism. • Assassinated on February 21, 1965, in Manhattan, at the age of 39, by members of the Nation of Islam.  4. __The Fair Deal________ • Name given to Truman’s domestic program set out in his 1949 State of the Union speech. • Proposed federal initiatives to solve economic and social problems in post-war America. • Envisaged the redistribution of income among all classes. • New civil rights legislation • Federal housing programs • Unemployment insurance benefits • New tax cuts for the poor • Federal funding for education • A federal health care and health insurance program. • Failed as it was blocked by the conservative political coalition  5. ___ Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka ____ • Acknowledged to be one of the greatest US Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legalized separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites. • In 1951, the NAACP moved the court for the desegregation of Topeka's public schools on behalf of Oliver Brown, father of a black student. • NAACP held Topeka's racial segregation to violate the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.  • The federal district court felt compelled to rule in favor of the Board of Education because of the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson. • Brown and the NAACP appealed to the Supreme Court on October 1, 1951. • The Court’s unanimous decision held that racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. • Held that separating children on the basis of race creates dangerous inferiority complexes. • The Supreme Court struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine for public education. • The Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and required the desegregation of public schools across America. Part Two: Essays After reading the chapters, write three essay/discussion questions: 1. Explore Martin Luther King’s contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. 2. Trace the course of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 3. What is the significance of Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka? From the above list, respond to one of the above questions: 1. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia to Michael King and Alberta Williams King. His father was a Baptist minister, whose opposition to racism deeply influenced him. King attended Booker T. Washington High School. He attended Morehouse College and the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He was awarded his Ph.D degree when he was only 25 years old. King married Coretta Scott in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott, and Bernice. In 1954, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. In December 1965 King was chosen by NAACP to spearhead the Montgomery Bus Boycott. His inspirational oratory energized the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. The campaign succeeded after 382 days: Montgomery repealed the law mandating segregated public transportation. In January 1957, in the aftermath of this victory, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which adopted a campaign of non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform. The SCLC conducted meetings on enfranchisement and King gave nation-wide talks on racism. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, King made non-violent activism the keystone of his policy. In 1960, King encouraged the student “sit-in” movement in several Southern cities, and coordinated the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. King was now a national celebrity and the symbol of the Civil Rights Movement.  On August 28, 1963, King led the mammoth ‘March on Washington’ which drew more than 200,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial. It was here that King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, asserting his belief in the brotherhood of all men. He played a pivotal role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandating desegregation of public accommodations and in publicly owned facilities and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.He received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1964. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray, a former convict, in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King Jr. may be considered one of the greatest personalities who shaped the American Civil Rights Movement. Part Three: Document After looking over the documents, which three do you view as most significant? Why? 1. 27-3 Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka served as the turning point in the constitutional battle against segregation. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legalized separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites. By rejecting the contention of the School Board that the segregated public schools were “substantially” equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine, the Supreme Court did away with that legal precedent and asserted that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal education. The Court concluded that separating children on the basis of race creates dangerous inferiority complexes, making racial segregation in schools “inherently unequal" and thus always unconstitutional. In spite of its limited terms of reference, the ruling is justly acknowledged to be one of the greatest US Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. 2. 27-4. Rosa Parks’ first-hand account of the incident which served as the spark which ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott is significant because it offers several insights into the personality and motivation of the woman who came to be a symbol of the American Civil Rights Movement. Her narration glows with the quiet courage of her conviction that segregation is wrong. Her submission to the arrest and compliance to all the attendant formalities demonstrates her adherence to the policy of non-violent forms of protest adopted by the SCLC. The fact that she is willing to go to jail and face the loss of her livelihood is a testimony to the sacrifices ordinary African Americans are willing to make to achieve their goal of equality and the end of racism. It is a moving account of the ability of one woman to make a difference to a larger cause. 3. 27-7 (a). Malcolm X’s speech to Mississippi students is significant because it eloquently expresses the point of view of black nationalism in the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King’s policy of non-violent activism is common knowledge and has come to dominate any record of the struggle against racism. In this context, Malcolm X’s speech creates awareness of the other perspectives. The speech also dispels the mistakenly held common opinion that Malcolm X was committed to violence and unrealistic plans for an independent black nation in America. His pan-African visions, and his linking of the Civil Rights Movement to global actions, reveal the presence of a clever strategist. The speech presents Malcolm X’s justification of violence and shows him to be a multi-faceted personality, with his unique dedication to the cause of racial equality. Read More