Role of MLK Jr.

Introduction: Context

• emerged during the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

• period where Jim Crow & white supremacy were dominant social structures in the south

Introduction: Define Success

• de jure (legal) equality → voting rights & public accommodations

• de facto (social & economic equality) → housing & poverty levels accommodations

Thesis

• highly sucessful in dismantling the architecture of legal segregation and securing federal protection of civil rights

• less successful in achieving economic redistribution or maintaining a unified front as the movement radicalized in mid-1960s

Legislative Equality #1

Mass Mobilization & Direct Action

• leadership in the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56) = united African American community can use non-violent protest to force desegregation of city buses

Legislative Equality #2

Birmingham Campaign (1963)

• created a crisis

• forced government to move civil rights from "back-burner” to forefront of national agenda

  • police brutality = media attention

Legislative Equality #3

Legislative Influence

• pivotal ally to Kennedy & LBJ → pressured them to pass Civil Right Act (1964) & Voting Rights (1965)

Moral Leadership

• “I have a Dream” speech → linked American democratic ideals to quest for racial justice

• won over significant portion of white middle-class

Limitations: Early Years #1

Albany Movement (1961-1962)

• cited as a failure for King

• local authorities successfully diffused confrontations → didn’t grant any concessions

  • briefly damaged King’s national image

Limitations: Early Years #2

Criticism from Younger Activists

• leaders in the SNCC → criticized King for his perceived caution & reliance on top-down leadership rather than grassroots organizing

Limitations: Early Years #2

Radical Challenge:

• Malcolm X & NOI ridiculed King’s integrationist goals

• argued non-violence = white agression

• Black nationalism/separatism = only viable to true equality

Limitations: Later Years #1

Economic Inequality

• later recognized that legal rights did not solve the “airtight cage of poverty” → smothered millions of African Americans

Limitations: Later Years #1

Chicago Freedom Movement (1966)

• attempt to tackle housing discrimination in the North met with violent backlash & resulted in another “unfulfilled promise” regarding open housing

Limitations: Later Years #1

The Poor People’s Campaign (1968)

• focus shifted toward a radical critique of capitalism & the Vietnam War → lessened influence with LBJ & alienated some supporters

Final Judgement

• King’s work was formative in establishing legal equality & political enfranchisement.

• "unresolved problems” of economic disparity and residential segregation → limited overall success