CivilRights Movement

Hear a clip from “I Have a Dream”

Martin led the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. For over a yearthe black people of Montgomery did not ride the buses. In the end the SupremeCourt declared that the buses were to be desegregated. They celebrated theirfirst major victory. The boycott ended on December 21, 1956. He led “sit ins”were they would sit at white only lunch counters. When the sit-ins began tosucceed he organized “freedom riders” to ride buses into states that still hadsegregated buses. In some places the buses were burned and the freedom ridersbeaten. Eventually all buses were desegregated. Martin’s non-violent tacticshad succeeded again.

Many people did not wish for change, even some black people. Whilehe was signing copies of his book, Stride Towards Freedom: the MontgomeryStory, a black woman came in and asked if he was Martin Luther King Jr. When hetold her that he was she stabbed him in the chest with a penknife. Luckily hesurvived. In Birmingham, Alabama protesters were beaten and sprayed withpowerful fire hoses, but in the end they won again and Birmingham removed allof its white only signs.

On June 11, 1963 President John F. Kennedy made a speech ontelevision calling for equality, shortly after he submitted the Civil RightsBill to congress. The bill outlawed every kind of segregation. On August 28,1963 250,000 people gathered at the Washington monument and Martin gave his Ihave a dream speech. In October 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. At 35he was the youngest person to receive this honor. The award came with $54,000in cash. He donated it all to civil rights causes.

In 1966 he initiated Operation Breadbasket in Chicago. It was anoutstanding success, in less than one year it was responsible for more than2,200 jobs for African Americans. Marin criticized the Vietnam War, saying thatthe money going into the war would be spent fighting poverty here at home. Tolet his feelings be known he decided that another huge gathering in Washingtonwould be needed. He began planning what would be called “the poor peoplesmarch” in the summer of 1967. The march was to take place in 1968.

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