Reference no: EM133360894

Assignment:

Question

What do you think is an important legacy of Dr. King's? How did this legacy change people's lives? Cite evidence from the article, and use your own reasoning to support your ideas.

RED BANK, New Jersey (Achieve3000, January 17, 2022). The boy was six when his dad took him to a shoe store in Atlanta, Georgia. They went in the front, sat down, and waited to be helped. The clerk, though, said he would not serve them there-because of the color of their skin. They had to move to the back of the store. Angry but calm, the father led his son outside. The boy remembered him saying, "I don't care how long I have to live with this system, I will never accept it."

The boy's name? Martin Luther King, Jr. He would grow up and devote his life to confronting injustice and ending segregation.

Each year on the third Monday in January, Americans observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This national holiday is an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King. He was dedicated to advancing the civil rights of Black Americans. He did so by promoting peaceful protest as a means to challenge unjust laws and racism. His purpose and strategies continue to guide political movements today. They stand in sharp contrast to violent, angry mobs who hurt others to get their way.

An ordained minister, Dr. King became a leading figure in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929, he grew up at a time when the United States was largely segregated by race. So-called Jim Crow laws in southern states blocked people of color from certain restaurants and swimming pools. They were forced to attend inferior schools and use separate public bathrooms and water fountains. Outside the South, racist policies controlled where Black people lived and worked. Opposition to such laws and policies was often met with arrests or violence.

Dr. King first rose to national prominence in 1956 when he helped lead a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. For more than a year, Black citizens there refused to ride city buses. This act of civil disobedience was aimed at desegregating public transportation. The boycott finally forced the city to give in to protestors' demands.

This nonviolent strategy of protest and economic pressure formed the core of Dr. King's efforts. He urged followers not to fight back with fists or weapons. Instead, the movement sought high-profile confrontations with authorities. These showdowns showed the world the unjust treatment and brutality Black Americans routinely faced.

Over the next 10 years, the civil rights struggle advanced the laws of the United States. In 1964, Congress voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act. It finally ended legal segregation. A year later, it passed the Voting Rights Act. This law sought to protect the rights of Black American voters. Increasingly, Dr. King turned his attention to anti-poverty causes. His intention was to help low-income Americans, especially in Black communities. His work made enemies, though. In April 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis, Tennessee, to support a labor strike when he was murdered by an assassin.

More than a half-century later, Dr. King's ideals and beliefs still guide many who take direct action against injustice. Nonviolent protest is part of the training and practice of anti-racism protestors and other social justice groups. This approach to righting wrongs seeks to avoid deadly clashes and appeal to moral values. The goal, Dr. King believed, must be to resolve disagreements and expose injustice in ways that leave the community and nation stronger.

"Nonviolence," Dr. King said, "is a powerful and just weapon...which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals."