The Life and Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. PARTS 1

1
The Life and Death of MartinLuther King, Jr.
(PARTS 12)

• By
• Dr. Matt Robinson

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(PART 1 -- MLK PART 2 -- Historical Context)
3
MLK -- the man

• Born January 15, 1929 as Michael Luther King
• Son of pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in
  Atlanta
• Attended segregated public school in Atlanta

4
MLK -- the man

• Entered Morehouse College in 1944 (15 years old)
• Bachelors degree in sociology in 1948 (19 years
  old)
• Also ordained as minister in 1948

5
MLK -- the man

• Graduated with honors from Crozer Theological
  Seminary in Pennsylvania as valedictorian in 1951
  (22 years old)
• Won Plafker Award for outstanding student of
  graduating class and J. Lewis Crozer Fellowship

6
MLK -- the man

• Received Cs in 2 public-speaking courses in
  first year at Crozer
• Met Coretta Scott, music student, in school and
  married her in 1953
• 1954 became Pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptists
  Church in Montgomery, Alabama
• What else in 1954?

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1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas

• Blacks sought admission to public schools on
  non-segregated basis
• Claimed local schools for blacks inferior to
  whites

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1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas

• Claimed separate but equal doctrine announced
  by Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson violated
  equal protection clause of 14th Amendment
• Used doll test to demonstrate effects of racial
  exclusion/ discrimination

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1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas

• Unanimously overturned separate but equal
• Saw segregation as a last vestige of slavery
  and claimed separate but equal was conceived
  in error

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MLK -- the man

• 1955 -- Earned Ph.D. from Boston University in
  systematic theology (26 years old)
• December 1955 first Civil Rights activity
• Montgomery Improvement Association formed to run
  black boycott of citys buses

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MLK -- the man

• (5 days after Rosa Parks arrested)
• King elected president of organization
• Protested Montgomerys segregated bus system

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MLK -- the man

• Protest of Montgomerys buses by
• Thousands for 382 days, non-violently

13
MLK -- the man

• Home bombed in Montgomery, Alabama as result
  (January 1956)
• Boycott occurred even in face of violence,
  threats, arrest for conspiracy to interfere with
  bus company operations.

14
MLK -- the man

• 1956 Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to
  provide equal, integrated seating on public buses
• Boycott ended because goal was to assimilate not
  to be separate
• AND, message was
• We can win!
• Legally!
• (Right always wins)

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But, movement started long ago...

• Highlander School
• Myles Horton (1905-1990)
• Teacher and community activist, opened the
  Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, TN, in 1932

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But, movement started long ago...

• Principle guiding efforts education must begin
  where the people are, and the people must decide
  what's important for them to know and have power
  over their own lives.
• (SMALL GOVT.)

• Workshops and classes in union organizing,
  worker's rights, race relations, socialism,
  economics and sociology.

17
But, movement started long ago...

• Rosa Parks attended workshop here before bus
  boycott
• Student activists gathered here to plan
  strategies 2 weeks before creation of Student
  Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

• at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC
• Freedom songs written, taught, and learned here
• Citizenship Program started here and registered
  over 50,000 voters by 1965

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MLK -- the man

• After Supreme Court ruling, in 1957 founded
  Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
• SCLC wanted to expand non-violent struggle
  against segregation of education, transportation,
  and recreation
• Voter registration, encouraging blacks to vote

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Eventually, methods of King ...

• Civil disobedience
• Non-violent resistance
• Marches
• Protests
• Boycotts
• Freedom rides
• Legal challenges

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Kings goals

• Equal access
• Equal justice
• Equal opportunity
• Equal rights