Civil Rights and African American Life
Uploaded by short + black on Jul 17, 2007
Civil Rights and African American Life
So how did African-Americans get looked down on? Well it was in 1619 when Africans were brought to America as slaves for the white settlement. While slavery was eradicated after the Civil war the racism and segregation side of it still occurred. During the 20th century the fight for equality for African-Americans led to massive civil rights campaigns.
While many of you may have heard of Martin Luther King there may have been things that were left out and today I will tell you a little more about the man that America calls their hero. Martin Luther King was born on the 15th January 1929. While he was originally known as Michael Luther King, he later changed his name to Martin. While Martin was formerly a preacher he became a figurehead of modern civil rights movement by 1957. He married Coretta Scott and raised four children.
Both Martins father and grandfather were Baptist preachers and both were involved in the civil rights movement. Martin was very close to his family and at the time of his grandmas death jumped out of the second floor of his home but was fortunately not hurt. After graduating he considered careers in medicine and law but entered the ministry.
As a boy Martin suffered racial discrimination. He recalls on one occasion he and his schoolteacher were ordered to give up their seats on the bus to white passengers. Martin did not want to move but at the time it was legal for segregation and Martins school teacher pointed out that they should obey the law.
Martin Luther King practiced non violent means of getting his message across. Non violent can also be known as Passive resistance. So what is resistance? Passive resistance is the practice of applying power to achieve socio-political goals through peaceful protests, boycotts, non-cooperation, civil disobedience and other methods without resorting to any means of violence.
While studying, Martin heard a lecture regarding Mahatma Gandhi and the non violent civil disobedience campaign that he had used against the British in India. After reading and researching several books on the outline of Gandhi’s methods King came to the conclusion that the same process could be engaged by the black population in America to acquire civil rights and equality.
On the 1st of December 1955, Rosa Parks who was an African-American was coming home from a hard days work as a...