Dr. Martin Luther King, jr., was a compelling force in the Civil Rights movement, among his major achievements was the implementation of a direct action nonviolent crusade against segregation, bias and the racial injustices due to racism in all areas of American life, including education, housing, employment and public accommodations.

King's public crusader career began shortly after the Supreme Court decision of Brown Vs the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas in 1954, which overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy Vs. Ferguson (1896). The plaintiffs of Brown Vs the Board of Education would be the legal foundation for the civil rights struggle to gain equal rights and to fully participate in the "American Dream." The first major effort to end racial segregation took place in Montgomery Alabama as a boycott of public transit system.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

The mistreatment of blacks on city buses was among the black community's many grievances, where white bus drivers enforced the city's "black codes". Montgomery's blacks were forced to sit the back of the bus, and give up their seats to white passengers.

Rosa Parks, a leading member of the local branch of the NAACP on the first of December 1955, was ordered by a white bus driver to give up her seat. Her refusal led to her arrest; and became the catalyst for a citywide bus boycott. King was chosen as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association [MIA], which directed the bus boycott – which lasted more than a year.

King, with effective oratorical skills, was chosen to lead the protest and unify the community in the battle for black civil rights. The MIA filed a lawsuit in Federal Court seeking an injunction against Montgomery's segregated seating practices. The judge ruled in favor of MIA, ordered the city's buses to be desegregated, the City of Montgomery appealed the ruling to US Supreme Court. By 1956 the lower court's ruling was upheld the Supreme Court upheld.

King helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization comprised of black churches and ministers. SCLC's principle aim was to challenge racial segregation. SCLC's sought to complement the NAACP's legal efforts in the courts, and sanctioned nonviolent action in the form of boycotts, marches, and demonstrations. To bolster its success, King and SCLC created alliances with Northern whites and forged connections with radical activists, many of them Jewish.

King traveled to India and sought a clearer understanding of Ghandi's principles of non-violence, which was to be used as an instrument of social protest. While the SCLC - demonstrated against segregated restaurants, hotels, transit systems, and housing throughout. The sizes of the demonstrations increased to create dissent and disorder - forcing local white officials to end segregation to restore business relations. Many demonstrators were jailed, they encountered fierce, violence, and overt resistant to the non-violence strategies.

In Birmingham Police commissioner, Eugene "Bull" Conner sent police attack dogs and firefighters with high-pressure water, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was among those arrested during the demonstration. Scenes of young protestors being attacked by dogs and pinned against building by firehouse hoses were shown on television and the newspapers around the world.

In response to critical clergy, King wrote his "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," and argued that he had the responsibility to disobey unjust laws. The Birmingham violence would encourage white America to negotiate and support national legislation to end forms of segregation.

The March on Washington, D.C. & I Have A Dream":

August 28, 1963, King delivered the keynote address to an audience of more than 200,000 civil rights supporters, his "I have A Dream" speech expressed the hopes of the Civil Rights Movement and continued to build the momentum which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation public accommodations as well as discrimination in education, housing and employment. King as a result of his visible moral stance, was awarded The Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964.

March In Selma

The march as planned to draw attention to struggle for voting rights for African Americans. The marchers were tear-gassed and beaten by the police. Television showed the violence the marchers encountered, it became known as "Bloody Sunday." The March from Selma to Montgomery continued, which created the ground-swell of support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which President Lyndon Johnson signed into Law in August.

King's Opposition to the Vietnam War

King joined antiwar activists [in 1965] to challenge American Foreign Policy and presence in Vietnam. King alienated some of his supporters; while others shifted their activism to anti-war activities.

Poor People's Campaign

During the 1966 and 1967 King shifted the focus of his work to economic issues and poverty. King called for redistribution of the nation's economic wealth to overcome the limited means of many African-Americans. In 1967, King planned his Poor People's Campaign to pressure national politicians to address poverty and issues of economic justice.

Assassination

In the spring 1968, King, Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking black garbage workers. On April 4th, news of the assassination by a sniper in Memphis traveled around the globe. King's death prompted disbelief, sorrow, and anger. Around the country, people took to the streets as they mourned the fallen Civil Rights leader. Riots took place in more than 100 US Cities following King's death.

King had been the target of many death threats in his career. James Earl Ray, a white drifter, pleaded guilty to the King's murder in 1969 and died in prison. No accomplices have been ever been identified. After King's death, historians uncovered that the FBI taped King's phone lines and chronicled his private life. Although many questions remain unanswered, investigators don't think James Earl Ray acted alone.

Perhaps the most important memorial to the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is the national holiday designated by Congressional Order in 1983 for a day that falls on or near King's birthday of January 15th to honor his memory.