# data[].attributes.body
He is known as a dreamer who envisioned and fought for America to become what its founders said it was today. He changed the lives of African Americans in his time and subsequent decades. Consequently, because of his commitment to peace, nonviolence, and equality, King's civil rights protests made genuine headway in American society. His genuine desire for the country to come together was recognized as a great contribution to America.

# data[].attributes.headline
                    Involvement and Importance in the Civil Rights Movement 

# data[].attributes.subject
                    Involvement and Importance in the Civil Rights Movement 

# data[].attributes.body
King’s tenacious perspective to engage in protesting with non-violent means was a major factor in the acknowledgment given to the civil rights movement during such a time of unrest.

1.  Subsequently joining the leadership of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter, the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1954, he was a significant influential in establishing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. The civil rights organization’s basis was established on the philosophy of nonviolence. Consequently, it was formed to provide leadership for the burgeoning civil rights movement. as well as being a national platform for him to provide his peaceful message of civil rights to the world.

2. King instituted a year-long bus boycott ensuing Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955 for refusing to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery. The "Montgomery Movement" led to the integration of the city's buses and launched a non-violent protest movement that spread across the United States. However, when Martin Luther King Jr., along with Fred Shuttleworth and others led the Birmingham Campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama, they were met with death threats, violence, and legal prosecution. The brutality displayed towards the Campaign's demonstrators and King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", written while he was incarcerated, brought national and international attention to the civil rights movement. Even though King and his followers were sent to jail, the boycott did succeed and the unfair, racist law allowing segregation aboard the buses was changed. History reports this as the boycott that put King on the map. He emerged as a leader in the civil rights movement while cementing his dedication to change via nonviolent methods.

3. In 1963, King and other leaders of the civil rights movement organized a huge march for equal rights in Washington, D.C. Consequently, mass demonstrations in many communities culminated in a march that attracted more than 250,000 protestors The march protested racial discrimination in schools and the workforce. They demanded minimum wage for all workers. It was the largest gathering in Washington, D.C.'s history. It was also the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s now-iconic “I Have A Dream” speech his true belief in the ability of mankind to live in peace went a long way toward the advancement of civil rights during this tumultuous time in history.

4. In 1968, King was building the Poor People's Campaign to advocate for underprivileged Americans of diverse races. The sanitation workers’ movement was “one that was explicitly about the link between economic injustice and racial injustice," says Sokol, so it was "exactly the type of thing that King was working on." In a speech to a 25,000-person crowd in Memphis on March 18, 1968, King affirmed the value of the sanitation workers’ labor, saying, “whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, and it has worth.”

5. On April 3, 1968, nearly two months after the initial start of the strike, King returned to Memphis and delivered what would be his last public speech. The following evening King was assassinated on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel due to a sniper that shot him in the face. Shortly after the attack, he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at St. Joseph Hospital. The assassination and riots radicalized many, helping to fuel the Black Power movement. King’s assassination brought deep mourning and civil unrest to cities around the country. In the wake of King's death, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent James Reynolds, undersecretary of labor, to Memphis to help resolve the strike. Nearly two weeks later on April 16, the Memphis sanitation workers' strike ended when the city agreed to issue raises to African American employees and recognize the workers' union.

Ultimately, King was arrested 30 times for his participation in civil rights activities. Although,

King’s actions did help pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law ended the legal separation of people by race in public places. The act also banned job discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin. King and other activists watched the president sign the law. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a great vision in which we all can exist in a society where race is not an issue in how people were treated or in how they were allowed to live their lives.

# data[].attributes.body
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a clergyman with the significant role of being a leader in the Civil Rights Movement; he was a social rights activist who advocated social change through non-violent means.

# data[].attributes.body
Date of Birth
January 15, 1929
Segregated South of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Date of Death
April 4, 1968
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.