Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor, activist and a humanitarian. King wasn’t interested in following in his dad’s footsteps; however, he later changed his mind and that is when his legacy started and changes were bound to be made. Martin Luther king Jr. was the most influential person to the 20th century of American history because of the major changes that he brought forth to African American citizens in the United States; he helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that let African Americans vote, as well as fighting for social and racial equality. MLK stood for a system among people to be equal no matter if they were a different race or if they came from a different religion; King wanted to achieve this dream in a way of peace and nonviolence.
MLK wasn’t only the only person fighting for African American citizens but he was the only one who put his life on the line to do it, he was literally doing everything in his power to fight for his people and would not stop until it happened. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was one of his biggest accomplishments. This act ended segregation and although there was still a large group who felt blacks couldn’t live up to the expectations of whites, it gave them hope and chance to live a better life. Before all of this happened, King had come to Montgomery and and saw that certain groups of people were isolated and treated differently. For example one of the Jim Crow laws was that the first four rows on public buses were to only for white people and the seats in the back of the bus were for the colored. In the bus system all of the bus drivers were white, which didn’t help anything. As black passengers boarded the bus the drivers would disrespect them and call them names such as “niggers” or “black apes”. At times when the buses would be full, African American people would have to get up from their seats and stand in the aisle and the whites would move back and take their seats. With such discrimination one might think that this would bring the public’s attention; it didn’t it. Shortly after King’s arrival, a woman by the name of Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person in the front of the bus and she was then arrested for her defiance. Parks’s arrest helped the Montgomery Improvement Association come up with the NAACP. This program had led to a boycott of the bus system and chose Martin Luther King to be the leader. The boycott had lasted over a year, and although King had went through some very hard times, being threatened, arrested and even having his house bombed, he had a goal in mind and would stop at nothing until he finished what he promised his people. By December of 1956 the boycott had a clear victory and the court had ruled that the racial segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. Another big Supreme Court case that caught the attention of King was the Brown v. Board of Education. This was a time when schools were segregated, blacks were not allowed to attend the same schools as whites; they would have a water fountain for African Americans and a separate one for whites. The injustice wasn’t only about separating kids based on their race, but that blacks were not getting the same education or getting treated the same as whites, and that’s what brought it to the attention of the public. King combined this case with the Plessy v. Ferguson and declared that it had gone against the “separate but equal” Doctrine declaring that it violated the 14th amendment. By May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court had declared the racial segregation in schools unconstitutional.
Although people now see Martin Luther King as a hero, back then he was both the most loved and the most hated men of that time. In 1965 King felt like African Americans should have a right in who is running the country in which they are living in. In order to advance with King’s idea of blacks being treated equally they had to get through to the government, at all levels, in order to gain power for themselves. MLK southern Christian leadership conference made their main focus towards blacks so that they could register them to vote. A group of people got together and marched to Montgomery; taking them 3 days and with King’s participation in it, it helped show people and bring attention to the struggles that blacks were facing in the south with voting rights. Later that year the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed.
Martin Luther King stood for one main reason which was about all blacks being treated as equals. Even though slavery ended in the 19th century; many years later there were many people who still felt as if black people were not good enough to live among white people. Not only were they discriminated against but some would even get lynched for no good reason. Kings main dream was to completely get rid of racism and the discrimination of blacks. He did not have one main plan to do this, he came up with multiple little plans that would bring this to people’s attention. Most people’s plans might have to do with fighting physically but MLK stood for fighting for blacks in a nonviolent way, and that is what he is most known for. While other urged him to fight in a violent way, he refused to do so and instead did other things: protests, grassroot organizing, and civil disobedience. King was a man that saw the good side of everyone; he wasn’t only looking to help African Americans, he was trying to help everyone that wasn’t being given an equal chance. MLK went on several different quests to help people; he would run or go on campaigns that would help with poverty and international conflict and even do things to help the black not be discriminated when trying to get jobs.