Civil Rights and Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin's father was the pastor of a local Baptist church and his grandfather was the founder of Atlanta's chapter of the NAACP. Martin Luther grew up in a very religious household. He was brought up to stand up for what he believed in. Later he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. Afterwards, he went on to study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. Next he went on to Boston University where he began to study Mahatma Gandhi and his practices of non-violent protests to promote social change.
The law did very little to protect blacks. In fact, some laws, known as segregation laws, often limited black people's freedom and discriminated against them. Blacks were not allowed to go to school with whites, they had to use separate restrooms and drinking fountains, and blacks had to enter public places through different entrances than whites, and they even had to sit in a different section in the back of buses and trains.
English: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin ...
English: Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I Have...
Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: ...These laws grew out of a racist attitude toward blacks. They were discriminated against based solely on their skin color. Many whites believed that blacks were inferior to whites in all respects and therefore they should not be allowed the same rights.
During the 1950's and 60's, there was much unrest going on in the United States. It was the civil rights movement. Black Americans wanted to be treated equally and fairly. A secret society known as the Ku Klux Klan had been organized to uphold "white supremacy". Members of this group resorted to violence against the black people. They burned their homes and churches, and even hung them. The blacks also had leaders coming out and supporting their fight for...