Martin Luther King Jr.His role in the Civil Rights

Movement

Civil Disobedience

– Is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government using no form of violence.

• Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks practiced civil disobedience techniques.

Non-Violent protest/Passive Resistance

– Form of civil disobedience

• Montgomery Bus Boycott• Sit-ins• Selma Voting Rights Movement• March on Washington

– August 28, 1963– 250,000 people marched to the Lincoln Memorial– People marched for jobs and freedom– United many groups of people and called for the

passage of civil rights laws

March on Washington

• Martin Luther King Jr.– “I have a Dream Speech”• Called for the end of discrimination and

racial equality

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5RIKuH3tXM

Letters from Birmingham jail

• Open letter written April 16, 1963–Martin Luther King wrote the letters from

the Birmingham jail after being arrested for his part in the Birmingham protest.

– He asserted civil disobedience was justified

• King responded that without nonviolent forceful direct actions true civil rights could not be achieved.

Assassination!

• April 4, 1968 a shot was fired by James Earl Ray,

• Martin Luther King Jr. standing on his balcony was killed in Memphis, Tennessee

• Violence and controversy followed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmOBbxgxKvo