[Martin Luther King Jr., Emmett Till, Rosa Parks and The Montgomery Bus (above)]King was an American clergyman, Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the principal leaders of the United States civil rights movement.King was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister, his mother a schoolteacher. Originally named Michael, he was later renamed Martin. He entered Morehouse College in 1944 and then went to Crozer Religious Seminary to undertake postgraduate study, receiving his doctorate in 1955. King was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, a man who ruled off the British Rule from India using non-violent methods.

EMMETT TILLEmmet Till was a fourteen a Chicago. In 1955 he went to Mississippi to visit his great uncle and cousins. During his visit, he went to a general store owned by a white man and his wife. As he left the store, he spoke flirtatiously to the white woman. Some nights later, two white men, the white woman’s husband and his brother, came knocking on the door Till was staying at, and asked his great-uncle for till. They abducted the teenager, beat and mutilated him, before

finally shooting him in the head. The got a 70 pound cotton gin, tied it to his neck and disposed him off into the river, leaving him floating in the river. When Till’s body was discovered, the two white men were arrested and taken to court to be tried. Although they were guilty and there were enough evidences to convict them, the white judges and juries found them innocent. After the trial, the two white men boasted about their crime. Emmett Till’s murder

[Emmett Till’s Casket (above)]

caught great media attention worldwide, with tens of thousands attending his funeral.Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilise the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. This was organised after Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man - in the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of the bus. The bus driver called the police, who arrested her and fined her $10.

MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

Black people then refused to take bus, using theslogan, “People don’t take the bus, don’t take it for freedom.” The 382-day

boycott (13 months) led the bus company to change its regulations, and the Supreme Court declared such segregation unconstitutional.In 1957, King was active in the organisation of the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), formed to co-ordinate protests against discrimination. He advocated non-violent direct action based on the methods of Gandhi.

LITTLE ROCKThe Little Rock Nine were a group of African-American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower, is considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

[Elizabeth Eckford; one of the Little Rock Nine]

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, on May 17, 1954. The decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional, and it called for the desegregation of all schools throughout the nation. After the decision the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempted to register black students in previously all-

THE NEW YORK THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr.

white schools in cities throughout the South. In Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, the Little Rock School Board agreed to comply with the high court's ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board unanimously approved. The plan would be implemented during the fall of the 1957 school year, which would begin in September 1957. By 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance. The nicknamed "Little Rock Nine" consisted of Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed, and Melba Pattillo Beals. Ernest Green was the first African American to graduate from Central High SchoolLinda’s father, Oliver Brown, and thirteen other parents tried to enrol their children in the local "white schools" in the summer of 1950, but were turned down because they were African Americans. They were told they must attend one of the four schools in the city for African American children. These parents filed suit against the Topeka Board of Education for their children. Oliver Brown was the first parent listed in the lawsuit, so the case was named after him. At the time of the lawsuit, Blacks everywhere were not treated fairly. For every $150.00 spent on white children at the "white schools" only $50.00 was spent on African American children at the "black schools." The parents of the

African American children thought that their school was not treated as fairly because they were coloured. They did not have the most current textbooks, not enough school supplies, and overcrowded classrooms.After Oliver was turned down by the school, he went to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to fight to get Linda in the school. The NAACP hired lawyers to fight for African American children all around the United States to be able to go to the same schools as white children. This case was lost at the state level. The state courts referred to the case of Plessy v. Ferguson which allowed separate but equal school systems for black and white children. Since no court had ever overturned this case, the state courts thought there was no problem treating the black children that way. The state courts also stated that by treating the African American students like that now, they would better accept when they were treated like that when they were older. This was a time when black people of all ages were treated like they were a lower class or segregated. They were unable to eat in the same restaurants, drink from the same drinking fountains, or even ride in the same train cars as white people.Taking the Case to the Supreme CourtAfter losing the case in the state courts, the NAACP decided to take the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. They appealed to the Supreme Court on October 1, 1951. At that time there were several cases in the United States similar to this one, cases that challenged separate schools for black and white students. They were started in the states

of South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. They were all joined together to be fought as one. The Supreme Court first heard from the lawyers on December 9, 1952. The lawyers for the Board of Education argued that many people, including black scholars, did not see a problem with having black students attend all black schools. The lawyers for the Browns argued that the only reason for separate education for Blacks and Whites would be if there was proof that black children were different than everyone else. The arguments lasted for three days and the Supreme Court justices talked it over for several months. At that time instead of ruling, they asked the lawyers on both sides some more questions. In the middle of this set of questions, one of the Supreme Court justices died and had to be replaced. A year after the first arguments were heard, the Supreme Court heard the case once again.After three long years the case finally ended on May 17, 1954 with the court finding in favour of Linda Brown and the other African American children like her. The Supreme Court said that it was not fair to have black and white students separated in different schools. The judges voted on this case nine to zero. It took some states many years to put students together in schools and have them treated the same because many people were still prejudiced against Blacks.

BOMBINGHAMIn 1963, King led mass protests against discriminatory practices in Birmingham, Alabama where the white population were violently resisting desegregation. The city was dubbed 'Bombingham'

as attacks against civil rights protesters increased, and King was arrested and jailed for his part in the protests.

SELMA MARCHThe Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL). In 1963, the DCVL and organizers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began voter-registration work. When white resistance to Black voter registration proved intractable, the DCVL requested the assistance of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who brought many prominent civil rights and civic leaders to support voting rights.The first march took place on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas. The second march, the

following Tuesday, resulted in 2,500 protesters turning around after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.The third march started March 16. The marchers averaged 10 miles (16 km) a day along U.S. Route 80, known in Alabama as the "Jefferson Davis Highway". Protected by 2,000 soldiers of the U.S. Army, 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard under Federal command, and many FBI agents and Federal Marshals, they arrived in Montgomery on March 24, and at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25.

WASHINGTON MARCHAfter his release, King participated in the enormous civil rights march on Washington in August 1963, and delivered his famous 'I have a dream' speech, predicting a day when the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1965, he led a campaign to register blacks to vote. The same year the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing the discriminatory practices that had barred blacks from voting in the south.As the civil rights movement became

increasingly radicalised, King found that his message of peaceful protest was not shared by many in the younger generation. King began to protest against the Vietnam War and poverty levels in the US.

[Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech]

NOBEL PEACE PRIZEAt the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

DEATHOn the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated by James Earl Ray, who is thought to be a white racist.