How Did Martin Luther King Impact The Civil Rights Movement

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From the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 to the Selma march in 1965 martin Luther King jr grew to be one of the most influential civil rights leaders of this time, directly impacting civil rights advances and inspiring many more. However he may not have been the defining factor of this period as there were several other groups working at the same time SNCC, CORE and the NAACP on protests such as the freedom rides and Greensboro sit-ins, which were equally successful as Kings Projects. During this time there was also a huge increase in federal support for the movement with ground breaking legislation going through in this time as well as increased presidential intervention.
Martin Luther king directly impacted the cause of desegregation, with extremely successful protests across the south, as well as providing an inspirational and charismatic …show more content…

For example the success in Montgomery and masses of media attention it brought to king and his non-violent tactics would have influenced the students in Greensboro 4 years later, inspiring them to use similar tactics of economic pressure and non-violent resistance. Montgomery also led King to found SCLC in 1957, joining churches together inspiring ordinary African Americans to get involved with the civil rights movement, offering an alternative to the legislative approach of the NAACP through a church organisation and furthering the non-violence movement by placing it at the centre of the community. Kings ability to inspire people for civil rights was not limited to southern black people, as demonstrated by the growing number of white people in the movement from 1955 onwards, culminating in 30% of those at the march on Washington being white. Despite the fact that it had not been organised by king, he impressed the nation with the famous “dream” speech including the Kennedys, influencing the civil rights act john Kennedy was writing at the time. On

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