Early Life

• In 1954, Martin Luther King becomes a Pastor at the Baptist church in Montgomery Alabama.

• He also heads a committee to promote African American rights and to look into arrests.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• March 1955 – Claudette Colvin

• December 1955 – Rosa Parks refuses to take a seat at the back of the bus.

• Results in arrest.

Montgomery

• Martin Luther King organizes a boycott which lasts a year.

• Takes the Parks case to Supreme Court where it is ruled that Alabama law is unconstitutional.

• He was arrested and chose to spend two weeks in Jail.

• This brought national awareness to the Boycott.

• “I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice.”

• In the end, African Americans won the right to sit anywhere on public transit.

• Boycott ended on Dec 20, 1956.

• Martin Luther King jr becomes a national hero.

Sit ins

• Restaurants were also segregated

• Many would not serve African Americans.

• The sit in movement was led by students that would occupy resturants and refuse to leave.

• This led to many arrests

Birmingham

• Highly segregated city

• African Americans could not have jobs that involved contact with whites.

• To protest, a boycott of those stores was enacted and sit ins were used to disrupt business.

Birmingham

• Use of Children in protest

• Eugene “the bull” Connor orders use of fire hoses and dogs to quell protesters including children.

• "The Civil Rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln." JFK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birmingham_campaign_dogs.jpg

• To gather more attention for the movement, Martin Luther King led a March on Good Friday and was also arrested.

• After pressure from the media and the president, King was released.

• May 8th, business removed segregation policies and Jim Crow laws signs.

March on Washington

• On August 28th 1963, 250,000 protestors converged on Washington D.C

• They wanted to ensure that Kennedy's new civil rights act was passed

• They also wanted equality in law and employment.

• Martin Luther King delivered the “I have a Dream Speech.”