Answer:
Martin Luther King was a heavy hitter in several of the civil rights movements of the 1950s and ‘60s. His nonviolent tone was precisely what was needed for the United States government to take heed. Here are a few of the notable boycotts, strikes, and speeches King is famed for:
In 1955, King became one of the leaders for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. For 381 days, King and his followers boycotted the bus system that allowed segregation on public buses. They walked unimaginable lengths to work and other outings, but nonviolently made their point that segregation on buses was not only discriminatory, but unlawful.
In 1957, King established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. To this day, it aims to advance the cause of the civil rights movement in a nonviolent manner.
In 1963, King’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech” was delivered to over 200,000 people, more than any other rally in Washington D.C.’s history at that point. People took heed to his message, laced with truths from the Bible and the U.S. Constitution. It not only marked him as a master orator and a brilliant wordsmith, but also put pressure on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration to push for civil rights laws to pass through Congress.
In 1968, King traveled to Memphis to advocate for the Memphis Sanitation Worker Strike. Black workers were being forced to work under unthinkable - not to mention unsafe - conditions while receiving a lower wage than their white counterparts. After much trial and tribulation, the workers did receive a fairer wage, but it also came with King’s brutal assassination.Students are taught about Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. He envisioned a world where his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. In a tumultuous time, Martin Luther King Jr. led a civil rights movement that focused on nonviolent protest.
No matter how many times he was attacked in public, or how often his home was bombed, King was firm on nonviolence as a means to an end. So, how did Martin Luther King’s vision change the world? He changed the lives of all African Americans in his time and subsequent decades.
