ESSAY SAMPLE :How far was Martin Luther King the most important African American leader in the development of civil rights from 1865 to 1984?

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How far was Martin Luther King the most important African American leader in the development of civil rights from 1865 to 1984?

 

There is no doubt that Martin Luther king (MLK) is seen as the face of the civil rights movement by many, and therefore being regarded as the most influential leader. Proponents of that philosophy justice their stance in light of King’s outspoken, talebearer position in leading civil rights actions [1]. As later elucidated in this text, King subscribed to and facilitated nonviolent protests and legal reforms, respectively, towards the development of civil rights. Moreover, his international influence is momentous. On the other hand, some view King’s role in the civil rights movement significant but will not see him has the most important leader in the development of civil rights. For instance, in a 1987 Journal of American History, Clayborne Carson maintained that ‘‘If King had never lived, the black freedom would have followed a course of development similar to the one it did’[2]. This paper does not discount that supposition. However, it leverages it to reinforce the fact that King was actually important by discussing two other prominent figures. Prior to King, Marcus Garvey led the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which represented the largest movement in African-American history. He believed in black excellence. King praised the work of Garvey as the first man in the US history to galvanize a large-scale mass movement for blacks, providing them with a sense of dignity and destiny [3]. Thus, he continued Garvey’s work of ensuring blacks felt like human beings. Besides, historian Lawrence Reddick has sided with the view that Martin Luther King was the most important African American leader in the development of civil rights from 1865 to 1984. Through his encounters with King, he has written books and commentaries highlighting King’s importance. While historian Stephen Tuck acknowledges the momentous contributions by King on civil rights development, he holds the contrary opinion that King is not the only important person in the struggle, espousing the fervent fight by the Black Power Movement.

Martin Luther King was born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929. He was a Baptist Church minister and an activist who emerged as the most noticeable leader and spokesperson in the Civil Rights Movement. King is famed for using nonviolent tactics inspired by Mahatma Ghandi as well as his Christian beliefs. His civil rights leadership was fervent during the 1950s and 60s when he fought to safeguard the rights of black people in the South. He aimed to desegregate the region and protect the political rights of black people through love and peaceful protests. He rose to national fame following the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. On many occasions, King purposefully incited against the southern segregationists. Moreover, he was a talented writer and orator. In 1964, he received the Nobel Peace Prize, which bolstered his global awareness of his civil rights movements and exerted pressure on the US and the world to address the issue of racial inequality [4]. At the time of his assassination, he was leading the Poor People’s Campaign. His death triggered violence in many US cities.

King is known for his nonviolent campaigns for civil rights. In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr., alongside more than 100 southern ministers, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to rally the church’s support for civil rights movement [5]. The founders preached integrating blacks and whites in the US through love and nonviolence. Historian Laurence Reddick attested that King was a crusader without violence, maintaining that he was a national asset that symbolized unity, which America needed in a divided world [6]. SCLC played a prominent role in nonviolent campaigns staged between 1957 and 65. One of such protests was staged in Birmingham, Alabama. Through the protest, King intended to provoke a reaction from the racist whites and attain the attention of the media. The tactic worked. City commissioners, Bull Connor, pronounced an order for the police to use force to suppress the protestors, while the northerners watched on national television as the violence and the subsequent altercations unfolded. King later served a short jail term in the town. While in custody, he wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail. In the correspondence, he elucidated to his critics, the role of the civil rights movement [7]. Through the campaigns, President JF Kennedy endorsed the movement fully; he pressured the Congress to pass more legislation on civil rights[8].

In collaboration with the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, King’s SCLC organized the Freedom Rides and the March on Washington nonviolent protests. The various interracial rides were aimed to provoke southern racists by gaining white sympathizers in the North[9]. Unfortunately, the freedom riders encountered violent mobs throughout Alabama; the mobs not only burned buses but also beat some riders to death. As such, the Southern police made several arrests and charged the riders for inciting violence and breach of peace. Later, in 1963, King organized one of the major political rallies in the US history. The March on Washington rally saw more than 200,000 blacks and whites congregate at the Lincoln Memorial to show their support for more legislation on civil rights from Congress[10]. The rally ended with the famous speech ‘I have a dream’. Five years later, King furthered his agenda for civil rights by organizing the Poor People’s March on Washington. The 1968 campaign was designed to attain economic justice for the poor. King’s idea was that people should have what they require to live. Among other things, the movement called for Congress and executive agencies to promote economic and human rights for poor people of diverse backgrounds[11]. The multiracial effort encompassed blacks, whites, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Native Americans. King was backed by more than 3,000 protestors who camped on the Washington Mall for six weeks. When he delivered the ‘I have a dream’ speech, thousands of people also marched in London, Tel Aviv, and Accra[12].

Martin Luther King Jr. influenced legal reforms that saw the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1964, and other legislation in western countries, which promoted civil rights development in the US and the world. In 1896, racist laws and social orders known as Jim Crow Laws were formed in the South. The legislation was designed to separate blacks from and make them subordinate to whites[13]. The law emerged following the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, which forced blacks to operate (eat, sit, study, sleep, and work) in separate facilities. However, more than half a century later, Rosa Parks defied Jim Crow laws of Montgomery by declining to surrender her bus seat to a white man. Parks was arrested and fined, triggering the 20th century civil rights movement. The yearlong boycott commenced in 1955 with blacks boycotting the city’s public transportation. Like any other time, King responded by taking charge of the boycott and subsequent protests. The following year, the Supreme Court ended the boycott and forced the city to desegregate public transportation. King became a not only a national but also an international figure.

Historian Laurence Reddick in appeared in the first mass meeting [14]. At first, he was baffled by the unfolding events, but quickly realized that something socially substantial was on. Consequently, he began taking notes about the event. As the chairman of the Montgomery Improvement Association History Committee, Reddick recorded the events of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In his own account, he maintained that King made major strides towards freedom in the US[15]. Similarly, historian Stephen Tuck records that King’s influential endeavors was overwhelmingly adopted in his own country, Britain. According to Tuck, Britons followed King’s speech via Telstar satellite[16]. They were motivated to march to the US embassy with slogans that read ‘Your fight is our fight’. It was more than a mere expression of empathy. That summer, a black community organizer, Paul Stephenson, led a boycott of Bristol city’s buses. Stephenson, a charismatic and gifted orator, just like King, learned the tactics of his mentor and spoke reverently of King’s boycott[17]. Even so, the boycott by Stephenson was a protest by city bus drivers who sort better working conditions unlike King’s passenger boycott.

Through King’s Montgomery Bus Boycott, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which ostensibly outlawed racial segregation besides creating a civil rights division within the US Justice Department[18]. However, the bill, signed reluctantly by President Dwight Eisenhower, had a more symbolic impression that a legal one. Later, in 1964, the federal government assisted King’s movement by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The legislation outlawed any form of racial, religion, nationality, and gender discrimination in public places and in the workplace[19]. Most importantly, the Act established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to ensure that employers implemented the law. King’s aspiration was coming to fruition as President Lyndon Johnson pushed the bill through Congress using his political muscle. Another important thing to note is that having incorporated the word ‘gender’ in the legislation, US assisted the feminist movement to gain impetus towards the late 1960s[20]. Meanwhile, in Britain, King met with British activists, leading to the formation of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination. According to Tuck, CARD was a pre-eminent anti-discrimination movement designed on King’s nonviolent, pro-integration model[21]. The historian augments that the British liberals adopted King’s movement as a template for resolving the unending immigrant issues in Britain[22]. Political leaders who sort to inaugurate civil rights legislation met with King as well as travelled to America for reconnaissance. King’s actions also inspired racial minority countries such as New Zealand and other Western European countries to rethink about racial justice[23].

However, some historians record that Martin Luther King Jr. might not have been the only most important African American leader in the development of civil rights between 1865 and 1984 after all. Other black leaders as well as movements came before and after King that propelled the struggle for civil rights during that period[24]. Marcus Garvey was born on August 17, 1887 who advocated for Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism. His work inspired both the Nation of Islam and the Rastafarian movements. In the 1920s, during the Harlem Renaissance, Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant, promoted the ideology of ‘new negro’, in African American communities in New York [25]. To further his agenda, he formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which unlike King’s agenda to promote integration, encouraged black communities to enhance their independence and self-sufficiency, and do business within themselves. Garvey perceived himself as a low class black and overruled the notion of integration. Apparently, he was a pessimist compared to King. He convinced the blacks who failed to secure civil rights in the US and other countries to support the repatriation movement to Africa.

In 1920, Garvey’s UNIA had 4 million members, holding its first International Convention at Madison Square Garden. His first outstanding achievement is when he spoke before a crowd of 25,000 people derived from all parts of the world[26]. Similar to Martin Luther King Jr., his utterances were inspiring, but not to all. Some established and prominent black leaders perceived his separatist philosophy as ill-founded. For instance, WEB Du Bois, officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which collaborated with King in several nonviolent campaigns referred to Garvey as the most dangerous enemy of the black race[27]. Conversely, Garvey perceived Du Bois as an agent of the white elite. Garvey’s activism was further hindered by the FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, the same agent who frustrated Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X. Hoover portrayed Garvey as a dishonorable negro agitator. Similar to King and Malcom X, Garvey’s personal information was at stake. Hoover employed black FBI agents to the activists’ ranks and spy on them[28]. This was to stop the agitation for the black race. In 1927, he was convicted of mail fraud, and immediately deported to Jamaica, where he continued his repatriation to Africa agenda.

Martin Luther King Jr. collaborated with whites to promote social equality; on the other hand, Garvey collaborated with Theodore Bilbo, an outspoken white supremacist and segregationist to facilitate the repatriation scheme[29]. His goals were for Africa, to ensure it is modern and urban societies by ending the imperialist rule. He was almost successful. He influenced the Great Liberia Act of 1939 that would see 12 million blacks deported to Liberia[30]. Even so, the bill appallingly failed in Congress, and he lost more support among the black community. Notwithstanding his failure, he continued to promote Garveyism, a global mass movement, which eventually inspired the Nation of Islam and the Rastafari crusade. His messages inspired many black leaders in the early days of the civil rights movement in during the time of King. He also received recognition having been displayed in the Hall of Heroes by the Organization of American States. His work inspired Malcom X and his mentor Elijah Muhammad, and other important black figures who continued the cause of Pan-Africanism, alongside self-determination and –defense by blacks. They inspired the establishment of the Black Power movement.

The Black Power movement emerged as a political movement to promote black empowerment and influence. Its many activism philosophies incorporated both violent and nonviolent protests. Moreover, it represented a socialist movement motivated to enhance the standing of blacks in the society[31]. Thus, the organization mothered numerous civil rights organizations to promote its cause. In fact, the first time the word ‘Black Power’ was used it was both a social and a racial slogan. Kwame Ture, who used it in a speech following the attempted assassination on James Meredith, coined it, alongside Mukasa Dada, another passionate civil rights activist, both of whom led the SNCC[32]. The speech was delivered during the March Against Fear, a 220 miles demonstration aimed to subvert racism in Mississippi Delta. During the campaign, Kwame encouraged blacks to register as voters. He was prominent entity in the civil rights movement, and subscribed to Garvey’s Pan-Africanism. Eventually, he became an active member of the Black Power movement, first as the SNCC leader, and later as the Black Panther Party’s Honorary Prime Minister, and finally as the talebearer of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party[33]. Accordingly, while it emerged during the civil rights movement, Black Power inclined towards a more radical action influenced by Malcom X.

Malcom X was a human rights activist and a Muslim minister. His admirers in the Black Power movement adored him for his courageous advocacy for the rights of blacks. He vehemently indicted whites for their crimes against blacks to the extent that he was accused of preaching racism and violence. According to historian Tuck, he is not only one of the greatest but also among the most influential black in history[34]. Malcom began by studying Elijah Muhammad’s teachings, which he subscribed to. Elijah taught demonstrated that the whites were striving to ensure that blacks did not empower themselves and achieve socioeconomic and political success. He led the Nation of Islam, which was also inspired by Garvey’s Pan-Africanism. Through the movement, Elijah he championed for a separate state from the one populated by whites[35]. Eventually, he noticed Malcom’s intelligence and articulation, and appointed him as the Nation of Islam’s minister and national spokesperson. Malcom used this avenue to further his activism agenda. He utilized the media to convey the Nation of Islam’s message to the world. His charisma, conviction, and drive attracted many new members into the movement, extensively increasing the movement’s membership from 500 to 30,000 between 1952 and 1963[36][37]. By 1960, Malcom influenced the Black power to demand more immediate violent actions against the white supremacy; he criticized King’s peaceful protest methods[38].

More so, the cornerstone of Black power was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence, an organization within black power dedicated to achieving socialism through violence[39]. Unlike Martin Luther King’s organization, it became so violent that most of its members ditched the group, and the law enforcement agencies began to arrest its violent actors. Eventually, black power spilled into Garvey’s backyard in the Caribbean, influencing the establishment of the Black Power Revolution. Even so, in 1965, following the Watts riots in Los Angeles, SNCC broke ties with the violent group as well as all the liberal institutions that supported it[40]. Instead, its leadership, headed by Kwame, contended that blacks needed to establish their own power rather than to be accommodated in the existing power structures. Apparently, the group was prolonging Elijah’s agenda of separation, which were contrary to Martin Luther King Jr.’s quest for equality within the same system[41]. Surprisingly, Kwame and his disbanded their nonviolence philosophy to accommodate militancy as an advocate of the expanding black power movement as a facet of Black Nationalism. Under the black power organization, SNCC associated with radical groups such as the Students for Democratic Society. Later in 1966, the Black Panther Party was formed on a political agenda, with its leaders – Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, drawing their experiences from the work of different black power organizations. A year later, policy wrangles in SNCC increased as its leadership engaged in policy disputes. Most of SNCC members left for the Black Panther Party to continue their quest for civil rights. However, Reddick complained that the latter black power organization became more violent, thwarting King’s peaceful protest philosophies[42].

By 1968, many leaders in Black Panther, including Huey Newton, its founder, were arrested for killing a police officer, but their number increased. Later, the organization continued to engage the police in cross firefights. The same year, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. For Tuck, King had played his part in the development of civil rights movement, leaving the stage for other leaders such as Malcom X to continue the cause and prove their prominence[43]. Even so, historian Reddick countered that due to King’s prominence, his assassination sparked the wave of nationwide riots that transpired[44]. But for Tuck, the riot in that year were the largest form of social unrest towards civil rights since the Civil War, which King did not achieve in his life[45]. The historian points to several other instances of social unrests such as the Republic of New Libya’s riot in Cleveland, Ohio, in which black radicals engaged the police in firefights[46]. The same year, a group of whites who were dedicated to the Black Panther’s cause formed the White Panther Party. This group, according to Tuck, was instrumental in championing for civil rights[47].

Today, the Black power movement is one of the most controversial, misunderstood, and extremely neglected in terms of its important role in promoting civil rights. Tuck contends that that on the contrary, his fellow historians have only been considerably attentive to the civil rights movement, particularly between 1954 and 1965[48]. These were the years marked by nonviolent campaigns such as the bus boycotts and sit-ins, alongside legal and legislative victories, which have been engraved in the national conscience. While we acknowledge that there were equally important individuals who came before, during, and after Martin Luther King Jr., the quest for civil rights was best done by King. Reddick once pointed that King promoted moral and political good despite the fact that the fight for racial justice it still incomplete.

Conclusion

Overall, Martin Luther King Jr. was the most the most important African American leader in the development of civil rights from 1865 to 1984 to the extent of influencing legal and social reforms through his nonviolent protest, which achieved both local and international recognition. Historian Laurence Reddick attests that King was a crusader without violence, maintaining that he was a national asset that symbolized unity, which America needed in a divided world. In collaboration with the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, King organized successful nonviolent protests geared towards civil rights development in the country. He also influenced establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1964, and other legislation in western countries, which promoted civil rights development in the US and the world. Historian Laurence Reddick in appeared in the first mass meeting of the Montgomery Bus Boycott maintained that King made major strides towards freedom in the US. Similarly, historian Stephen Tuck records that King’s influential endeavors was overwhelmingly inspired racial minority countries such as Britain, New Zealand, and other Western European countries to rethink about racial justice legislation. To dress the notion that King Jr. was the most the most important African American leader in the development of civil rights from 1865 to 1984, the world recognized his achievements. In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest recipient of the award at the age of 35. According to historian Tuck, King, is an international icon who must be remembered for championing for civil rights on a national and international level. However, the historian was not confident that he was the most important person in the quest for civil rights. Other prominent blacks and groups also supported civil rights activities before and after King. They include Marcus Garvey, WEB Du Bois, Malcom X, Huey Newton, Kwame Ture, Mukasa Dada, and Elijah Muhammad. Particularly, the Black Power movement, which accommodated those entities, was extremely instrumental in the development of civil rights. They advocated for Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism, and discounted the notion of integration, which contradicted the efforts of King. They also promoted violence.

Bibliography

Archer, Jules. They Had a Dream: The Civil Rights Struggle, from Frederick Douglass to Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. New York: Puffin Books, 1996.

Jackson, Thomas F, and Martin L. King. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.

Kirk, John A. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010.

Verney, Kevern. The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006.

  1. Jackson, Thomas F, and Martin L. King. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. ↑
  2. Verney, Kevern. The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America. Manchester [u.a.: Manchester University Press, 2006. ↑
  3. Archer, Jules. They Had a Dream: The Civil Rights Struggle, from Frederick Douglass to Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. New York: Puffin Books, 1996. ↑
  4. Kirk, John A. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 ↑
  5. Verney, Kevern. The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. ↑
  6. Jackson, Thomas F, and Martin L. King. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. ↑
  7. Ibid ↑
  8. Verney, Kevern. The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. ↑
  9. Ibid ↑
  10. Kirk, John A. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007 ↑
  11. Verney, Kevern. The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. ↑
  12. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  13. Jackson, Thomas F, and Martin L. King. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. ↑
  14. Ibid. ↑
  15. Ibid. ↑
  16. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  17. Ibid. ↑
  18. Ibid. ↑
  19. Archer, Jules. They Had a Dream: The Civil Rights Struggle, from Frederick Douglass to Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. New York: Puffin Books, 1996. ↑
  20. Kirk, John A. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ↑
  21. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  22. Ibid. ↑
  23. Ibid. ↑
  24. Ibid. ↑
  25. Archer, Jules. They Had a Dream: The Civil Rights Struggle, from Frederick Douglass to Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. New York: Puffin Books, 1996. ↑
  26. Ibid. ↑
  27. Ibid. ↑
  28. Ibid. ↑
  29. Ibid. ↑
  30. Ibid. ↑
  31. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  32. Verney, Kevern. The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006. ↑
  33. Ibid. ↑
  34. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  35. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  36. Ibid. ↑
  37. Archer, Jules. They Had a Dream: The Civil Rights Struggle, from Frederick Douglass to Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. New York: Puffin Books, 1996. ↑
  38. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  39. Ibid. ↑
  40. Kirk, John A. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ↑
  41. Ibid. ↑
  42. Jackson, Thomas F, and Martin L. King. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. ↑
  43. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  44. Jackson, Thomas F, and Martin L. King. From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. ↑
  45. Tuck, Stephen G. N. We Ain’t What We Ought to Be: The Black Freedom Struggle, from Emancipation to Obama. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. ↑
  46. Ibid. ↑
  47. Ibid. ↑
  48. Ibid. ↑

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