Tactical Insights: MLK’s Market Approach to Equality

MARCUS M. WITCHER

HUNTINGDON COLLEGE

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

• On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black seamstress and secretary of the local NAACP chapter , refused to give up her seat to a white man.
• The black community gathered to protest Parks’ arrest. The 26-year-old pastor of the Dexter Avenue church Martin Luther King Jr. led the boycott.
• They launched a 381-day boycott that was successful in desegregating the buses in Montgomery.
• The federal district court ruled 2-1 that Montgomery’s bus segregation was unconstitutional under the 14^th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference

• On January 10, 1957, Dr. King invited sixty black ministers to Ebenezer Church in Atlanta.
• There they formed the SCLC to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the south.
• Unlike the NAACP, the SCLC coordinated activities on behalf of a cluster of organizations including churches and community groups.

The Atlanta Sit-ins

• In 1959, King announced his return to Atlanta at the request of the SCLC. He would serve as the co-paster of the Ebenezer Baptist Church until his death.
• The Atlanta Student Movement had been organizing to desegregate business and public spaces and invited King to take part in their October 1960 sit in.
• King was arrested while conducting a sit in and was only released after Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy’s intervention.
• In March of 1961, King and other leaders negotiated the desegregation of lunch counters in the fall of 1961 to correspond with the integration of schools in Atlanta.
• This was a major win for non-violent direct action.

The Albany Movement

• In 1961, the Albany Coalition recruited King to help them desegregate their city.
• After a year of nonviolent activism with little results, King pushed for a day of penance to maintain the nonviolent nature of the movement.
• Divisions within the black community and the strategic understated response of local leaders defeated King’s efforts.

But for Birmingham, 1963

• King’s early efforts to create mass arrests through peaceful sit-ins and protests didn’t work and few were arrested.
• While King was in jail, SCLC strategist James Bevell decided to use black children as protestors.
• The students peacefully walked out of school on May 2nd. They were arrested and the jails quickly filled up.
• On May 3rd Bull Connor increased the water pressure to 100 pps and unleashed German Shepards on the children.

Victory in Birmingham

• As the images of children being knocked over spread across the world, protestors took to the streets in over 100 cities.
• The city of Birmingham was shut down and on May 8th, white business leaders agreed to most of the protestors’ demands.
• Nonviolent Direct Action in Birmingham revived a dying civil rights movement.

March on Washington

• The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was organized by A. Philip Randolph (the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) and Bayard Rustin (a civil rights leader, socialist, and gay rights activist).
• JFK pressured King and others to moderate the march’s content and ensure that it remained nonviolent. They agreed.
• The “Big Six” organized the events: The Congress on Racial Equality, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, The SCLC, The NAACP, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the Urban League.
• Over 250,000 people attended, and King was the final speaker. He delivered a speech that came to be known as “I Have a Dream.”

1964 Civil Rights Act

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 guaranteed equal treatment under the law for all Americans and outlawed discrimination in public places on the basis of race, sex, or national origin.

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• It also prohibited discrimination in the buying, selling, and renting of housing, as well as the hiring and firing of employees.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Black Americans refused to be satisfied with the Civil Rights Act, they pressed President Johnson to sign a new voting rights act.
• Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965.
• It prohibited racial discrimination in voting. It secured black Americans voting rights - especially in the South.

Chicago Open Housing Movement in 1966

• King and Ralph Abernathy went to Chicago to protest housing policies in the city.
• In the spring several comparisons were done between white couples and black couples looking for housing which brought to light racial steering and discrimination of the black couples who had similar incomes and backgrounds.
• King later exclaimed that they had received a worse welcome in Chicago than in the South.

The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

• Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
• MLK was assassinated the day after his "I've been to the Mountaintop” speech.
• He was in the middle of planning an occupation of Washington D.C. linked to the Poor People’s Campaign.
• His death shocked the world and validated more radical elements of the Civil Rights Movement who desired to use violence to secure rights.

One Final Victory

• Another Civil Rights Act was passed in 1968 which including the Fair Housing Act. It was passed as a direct result of King’s efforts in Chicago and his assassination.
• The Fair Housing Act prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, and national origin.

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