To What Extent Was the Contribution of Martin Luther King Central to the Success of the Civil Rights Movement Essay Example for Free

To What Extent Was the Contribution of Martin Luther King Central to the Success of the Civil Rights Movement Essay The first major event of King’s civil rights career was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On December 5, 1955, five days after Montgomery civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to obey the citys rules mandating segregation on buses, black residents launched a bus boycott and elected King as president of the newly-formed Montgomery Improvement Association. As the boycott continued during 1956, King gained national prominence as a result of his exceptional oratorical skills and personal courage. His house was bombed and he was convicted along with other boycott leaders on charges of conspiring to interfere with the bus companys operations. Despite these attempts to suppress the movement, Montgomery bus were desegregated in December, 1956, after the United States Supreme Court declared Alabamas segregation laws unconstitutional. There can be no doubt that Martin Luther King was essential in giving the movement mass appeal. He gave it the charismatic figurehead that it lacked until that stage and he helped move it out of the courtroom and the control of the NAACP onto the streets. His charisma helped push the Montgomery Bus boycott into the public eye and keep it there. In 1957, seeking to build upon the success of the Montgomery boycott movement, King and other southern black ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Under the leadership of Martin Luther King from 1957-1968 the SCLC became a highly publicised and popular organisation in the fight for racial justice. It was a southern movement and was based on the black church. The SCLC therefore differed greatly form the NAACP, which was northern, secular and regarded as overly influenced by white members. Although increasingly portrayed as the pre-eminent black spokesperson, King did not mobilize mass protest activity during the first five years after the Montgomery boycott ended. While King moved cautiously, southern black college students took the initiative, launching a wave of sit-in protests during the winter and spring of 1960. King sympathized with the student movement and spoke at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in April 1960, but he soon became the target of criticisms from SNCC activists determined to assert their independence. Even Kings decision in October, 1960, to join a student sit-in in Atlanta did not allay the tensions, although presidential candidate John F. Kennedys sympathetic telephone call to Kings wife, Coretta Scott King, helped attract crucial black support for Kennedys successful campaign. The 1961 Freedom Rides, which sought to integrate southern transportation facilities, demonstrated that neither King nor Kennedy could control the expanding protest movement spearheaded by students. The Freedom Rides achieved the goal it set out to accomplish. At the request of Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, all bus segregation was outlawed, much more forcefully than the previous Supreme Court ruling. King cannot accept full credit for this campaign, but he is due the credit where it is deserved. Although he did not initiate the Freedom Rides, nor take part immediately after they began, he did raise full awareness of the cause and successfully united all the civil rights leaders together. By this point in King’s history it is clear that he had learned how to use the media to his advantage, an invaluable skill. Many of Kings critics however have stated that his involvement in the protest was very minimal, and his main aim of joining the movement was to promote the SCLC. Conflicts between King and younger militants were also evident when both SCLC and SNCC assisted the Albany (Georgia) Movements campaign of mass protests during December of 1961 and the summer of 1962. Shortly after the failed civil rights campaign in Albany, King began one his largest civil rights movements yet. After achieving very few of his objectives in Albany, King recognized the need to organize a successful protest campaign free of conflicts with SNCC. During the spring of 1963, he and his staff guided mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, where local white police officials were known from their anti-black attitudes. Clashes between black demonstrators and police using police dogs and fire hoses generated newspaper headlines through the world. In June, President Kennedy reacted to the Birmingham protests and the obstinacy of segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace by agreeing to submit broad civil rights legislation to Congress (which eventually passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964). Subsequent mass demonstrations in many communities culminated in a march on August 28, 1963, that attracted more than 250,000 protesters to Washington, D. C. Addressing the marchers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered his famous I Have a Dream oration. During the year following the March, Kings renown grew as he became Time magazines Man of the Year and, in December 1964, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Despite fame and accolades, however, King faced many challenges to his leadership. Malcolm Xs (1927-1965) message of self-defense and black nationalism expressed the discontent and anger of northern, urban blacks more effectively than did Kings moderation. During the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, King and his lieutenants were able to keep intra-movement conflicts sufficiently under control to bring about passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but while participating in a 1966 march through Mississippi, King encountered strong criticism from Black Power proponent Stokely Carmichael. Shortly afterward white counter-protesters in the Chicago area physically assaulted King in the Chicago area during an unsuccessful effort to transfer non-violent protest techniques to the urban North. Despite these leadership conflicts, King remained committed to the use of non-violent techniques. Early in 1968, he initiated a Poor Peoples campaign designed to confront economic problems that had not been addressed by early civil rights reforms. Kings effectiveness in achieving his objectives was limited not merely by divisions among blacks, however, but also by the increasing resistance he encountered from national political leaders. Also although King was seen as a leader among a majority of the black community it has been argued that he did not make the radical actions by himself. This point ties in with an argument put forward by Vivien Saunders; who states, â€Å"As in Montgomery, King was led rather than leading†. The idea that King was not a definitive leader and could often take advice from outsiders poses the question of how effective King was as a leader. In addition to this it suggests that his effort towards the campaigns were in fact weak. After his death, King has remained a controversial symbol of the African-American civil rights struggle, revered by many for his martyrdom on behalf of non-violence and condemned by others for his militancy and insurgent views.