How Did Martin Luther King Jr Contribute To The Civil Rights Movement

Background and External Factors

Civil rights activist and forefront leader, Martin Luther King Jr., was a social activist who led the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. He fought in ending the legal segregation of African Americans among societies through his activism and inspirational speeches (Biography.com Editors, 2017). His accomplishments and participation in ending legal segregation include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Second, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which allowed African Americans the right to vote.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in a loving family environment with two siblings, him being the middle child. His father was a pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church who fought against racial discrimination because he believed racism and segregation was an outrage to God’s will (Biography.com editors, 2017). His father was strict while his mother was gentle, which balanced out his father’s firm conducts. However, his father’s strong discouragement of segregation left a lasting impression on him as a child. Martin Luther King

Two organizations were founded; one immediately after the Civil War and lasted until the 1870’s and the other began in 1915 and has continued to the present (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017). The 19th-century Klan was originally organized as a social club by Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866. The organization spread quickly and became a powerful tool for Southern white underground resistance to Radical Reconstruction (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017). Klan members sought the restoration of white supremacy against the newly enfranchised black freedom by intimidation and