How Did Martin Luther King's Impact On The Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King’s leadership and his beliefs had a powerful impact on the Civil Rights Movement. Their methods of peaceful resistance and civil disobedience to achieve integration, reflected his teachings. These methods later proved to be successful in achieving the goal integration of minorities when the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Demonstrations like the bus boycotts and non-violent marches were just some of the acts the led to this result.

The CRM initially began in 1955 with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On 1 December 1955 Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to give her seat to a white passenger. It was the Jim Crow etiquette for a black person to give their seat to a white person, so this small act of civil disobedience was hugely frowned upon. This cause an uproar that led to Parks being fined and arrested. This was the first step in Martin Luther King 's peaceful resistance as Parks’ actions led to as many as 50 000 African-Americans boycotting the buses. Eventually after 381 days, in November 1956, the Supreme Court outlawed all segregation on buses. The Bus Boycott was a victory for all African-Americans and the CRM.

The CRM was gaining support from the Supreme Court. This was visible in 1957 when President Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock, Arkansas in order to protect a group of nine black students as they were integrated into a white school. This peaceful method of protest was influenced by Martin Luther KIng’s teachings.

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