Dr. Martin Luther King And The Poor People's Campaign

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Martin Luther King Over the years, many people have helped the molding of today’s society. People had to put forth an initiative in order for things to be changed and to have the great society that the world resides in today. One of the most world-renowned people who made changes and had a huge impact on the world is Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King was a minister and a civil rights activist who had one dream; he wanted everyone to be treated equally and to have equal rights. He advocated for civil disobedience, which included peaceful and nonviolent demonstrations, and in 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements. Without Martin Luther King’s efforts, a majority people would not have the opportunities that they have today. …show more content…

“Since he was raised in the church, he had teachings that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect” (Civil Rights In The United States). He did not care about the color of another person’s skin; he only cared about helping others. Dr. King wanted to stop unlawful discriminations and inequalities of all people. In 1968, Martin Luther King and the SCLC created the Poor People’s Campaign to gain attention to poor Americans. “The Poor People's Campaign was a sustained multiracial effort to raise awareness of poverty in the United States” (Poor People’s Campaign). For this campaign The Poor People’s March was planned, and willing poor people marched to Washington. In Washington, they set up tents to demonstrate how poor they were, and they stayed there until the police finally ordered them to leave. This campaign did not really go as planned, but it did make a few changes. For example, more free and reduced lunch programs were created for school children so that they did not have to pay for lunch. The SCLC also led a march to the city hall in Birmingham. “The protesters, singing hymns, were halted by the police and arrested. King spent a week in jail, during which time he wrote his famous ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’" (Activists, Rebels and Reformers). In his letter, he wrote about his arrest and why he was having to do jail time. He did not think that he was doing anything wrong, and he stated that he would continue to protest peacefully in order to make a

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