Martin Luther King Jr Role In The Civil Rights Movement

Improved Essays
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary

determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent

superiority of a particular race” (Racism). The United States is no stranger to racism as it had

suffered from it for well over four hundred years. The stimulant that started the chaos of racism

was slavery in which there were injustice and segregation of the blacks in the community even

after the Civil Rights Movement. Racism is still occurring in the United States to this day despite

all the disarray that was meant to fix it.

The first occurrence of slavery in North America transpired in 1619, when the first

African slaves were brought to help in the production
…show more content…
After months of Brown v. Board of Education case

laws were passed, the actions of Rosa Parks and her refusal to give up a seat in a bus commenced

protests. Martin Luther King, Jr., was one of the most effective leaders in this boycott and the

Civil Rights movement in general. He was the leader that America desperately needed for peace

among whites and blacks. Martin Luther King, Jr., mainly used teachings of Gandhi, an Indian

nationalist, who used non-violence to free India from Britain. Martin Luther King, Jr., led

innumerable boycott movements with this strategy. There were various prominent groups present

during this time such as the NAACP and SCLC which helped these boycotts. Five years after the

Rosa Parks incident, four freshmen at a North Carolina college began sit-ins as an act of protest

to end segregation on their campus. This action caused the insurgent of a group known as SNCC.

The protests of these big groups gained attention of President John F. Kennedy who pushed for

Civil Rights bills. Martin Luther King, Jr., had accumulated such a mass amount of supporters

that in 1963, he made his famous “I have a dream speech” in Washington DC in front of
…show more content…
Dylann Roof, aged 21, entered

the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and killed 9 people. Hatred and racism were

the two dominant factors of motivation that led to the killing of those 9 innocent people. There

was one victim who tried to reason with Roof, but he then proceeded to state “I have to do it…

you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” Furthermore, when one of the victims

pretended to be shot, Roof questioned another victim if she had been shot, when the victim

replied with a “no,” he said “good” and left the church. Dylann Roof was eventually found and

captured. Joe Riley, Mayor of Charleston, expressed that “The only reason someone could walk

into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate.” There were many people that interrogated

the reason Roof probably committed the actions that he did was to start a race war between

blacks and whites. Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was a historic church that had

been visited by leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., who devoted his life to reduce the hatred

amid white and black citizens and for a racist to walk in and kill innocent African Americans is

depressing.

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