Martin Luther King, Jr. and Civil Rights Movement Essay

Submitted By poehlerized
Words: 617
Pages: 3

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Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the primary leaders of the Civil Rights

Movement. He led peaceful protests, made speeches, and formed an organization all for the sake of racial equality. His work had a huge impact on society. Martin Luther
King Jr. had a profound influence on the Civil Rights Movement through his leadership, speeches, and actions.!
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King grew up in a family of activists. His mother was the daughter of an

influential minister, and his father was inspired by the Back to Africa Movement that had occurred in the 1920s. He started college at fifteen and went on to seminary school to get a Bachelor of Divinity degree. He then received a Ph.D. from Boston University. He was married to Coretta Scott. In 1966 he was minister of Dexter Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL. He soon became a devoted Civil Rights activist, which he would be until his death in 1968. He led the Civil Rights Movement with a message of peaceful change. When he won the Nobel Peace Prize, he was described as “the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence.”
That description characterizes the great leader, speaker, and activist that King was. !
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King was known to most people as a leader. He led the bus boycott after Rosa

Parks inspired the movement. He led sit-ins at restaurants. He was at the front of several marches. Without him, these movements would have been without a leader, and ultimately could not have been as successful as they ended up being. The movements also would not have been as peaceful. While King did experience anger at the injustices in the United States, he always urged people to bring about change as

peacefully as possible. The people involved in the Civil Rights Movement needed a leader, and Martin Luther King Jr. rose to the occasion.!
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King was known across the nation as a speaker as well. He made speeches that

encouraged people to protest peacefully to fight inequality. He was a very skilled speaker. He knew how to draw in an audience and keep their attention. He practiced his speeches, being careful to tailor them to his audience. He could connect with his audience, sharing energy and inspiring them to act. His speeches were incredibly effective at reaching people involved in the movement and those outside it. Those in it
were