Martin Luther King, Jr.

Introduction

• He was born Michael Lewis King• Martin Luther• Baptist minister and social activist• lead the Civil Rights Movement in the United

States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968.

BIRTH DATE

• January 15, 1929• Sweet Auburn•  Atlanta, Georgia 

DEATH DATE• April 4, 1968• Assassinated by firearm• Lorraine Motel in Memphis

Education

• Boston university• Morehouse College• B.A degree in sociology• Enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary• B.Div. degree• doctoral studies in systematic

theology at Boston University and received his Ph.D. degree

Synopsis

• Seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s.

• Among many efforts, King headed the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference).

• Through his activism, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American

• creator of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

• King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors.

• Had a good communication skill to engage listeners

• Valedictorian of his class, and elected student body president

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Claudette Colvin• 15-year-old girl • Refuse to give up her seat• Arrested• NAACP (National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People)• Rosa parker

• NAACP chapter met with Martin Luther King Jr. and other local civil rights leaders to plan a citywide bus boycott.

• MLK lead the boycott

1st speech

• "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and 60 ministers

• non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform

• register black voters in the South

"sit-in" movement in Greensboro, North Carolina

•  students sit at racially segregated lunch counters in the city's stores.

• When asked to leave or sit in the colored section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse

• 27 southern cities.

'I Have a Dream'

• organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama.

• City police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators

• MLK was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters

• Draw Nation wide attention

March on Washington• 200,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln

Memorial• made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech• "I have a dream that my four children will one

day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Nobel Peace Prize for 1964

• rising tide of civil rights agitation• people in cities not experiencing racial tension

began to question the nation's Jim Crow laws and the near century second class treatment of African-American citizens.

• Act of 1964

Civil rights march

•  Selma to Alabama's capital in Montgomery

• turned violent• police with nightsticks and

tear gas• name of the event "Bloody

Sunday”

Great Leader is A Good Leader

• Effective (communicational impact)• Ethical (non-violent)• Purpose (eradication of racism)• Satisfying (understand what followers want)

Emotional Intelligence/Self Control

Origin of Anger Management• Martin’s mother’s role: One day,

Martin and his father went to buy some new shoes. The clerk told them to go to the back of the store. "We do not serve colored in the front of the store," he said. Martin and his father proceeded to leave the store, as they knew that this was not respectful treatment. Martin's mother told him, "even though some people make you feel bad or angry, you should not show it. You are as good as anyone else."

Replacing “Hate” with “Love”• Only by taming his own anger did King earn the right to become a

messenger of peaceful struggle to the people of the nation. On September 30, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.’s house was bombed by segregationists in retaliation for the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In his autobiography, he wrote: "While I lay in that quiet front bedroom, I began to think of the viciousness of people who would bomb my home. I could feel the anger rising when I realized that my wife and baby could have been killed. I was once more on the verge of corroding hatred. And once more I caught myself and said: 'You must not allow yourself to become bitter'."

• That night, he didn't just quell his own stirring for vengeance, but also that of the restless and roused masses who were outside his house, angered and ready to strike a blow at the establishment until they were soothed and moved by his words: "We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them. Love them and let them know that you love them."

• In those moments, he wasn't trying to crush his anger, or that of his people. He was trying to channel it into a higher purpose.

Altering the “System”• In September 1962, as King sat on the stage during a Southern Christian

Leadership Convention, a white member of the opposition party jumped up to the podium and punched him several times in the face. As the security guards rushed to his help and pulled away the hate-filled youth, King responded, calmly, that he would not press charges. In response, he said: "The system that we live under creates people such as this youth. I am not interested in pressing charges. I'm interested in changing the kind of system that produces this kind of man."

In the words of King in Freedomways magazine in 1968, "The supreme task [of a leader] is to organize and unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming 

force." 

Reference: http://www.inc.com/hitendra-wadhwa/great-leadership-how-martin-luther-king-jr-wrestled-with-anger.html

An Autocratic Leader• Peace Lessons to his followers while many of them wanted chaos and to

spill out their anger. • Many people (Negros) were not happy with his Non Violence concept.

Privately, King's supporters knew that non-violence was not an outlook everyone shared, and Walker amused King by telling him of how one black Virginian had responded to a white bus driver who wanted him to enter his bus by the back door. A massive figure, the man had picked up the driver with one hand and said bluntly: 'Know two things. I can break your neck, and I ain't one of Martin Luther King's non-violent Negroes.‘

• Reference: https://www.google.com.pk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC8QFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fhistory%2Frecent%2Fmartin_luther_king_01.shtml&ei=PyYfVPi4G8jiaMjygKAN&usg=AFQjCNG1Zu4KBywdm_HUfypXjzDqRJzLDg&bvm=bv.75775273,d.d2s

Emergent leader/Referent Power• Earned the power when the city’s small group of civil rights advocates

decided to contest racial segregation on that city’s public bus system following the incident on December 1, 1955, in which Rosa Parks, an African American woman, had refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger and as a consequence was arrested for violating the city’s segregation law. Activists formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to boycott the transit system and chose King as their leader. He had the advantage of being a young, he was generally respected, and it was thought that his professional standing would enable him to find another pastorate should the boycott fail.

• Reference: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/318311/Martin-Luther-King-Jr

Determination

• Although King’s home was dynamited and his family’s safety threatened, he continued to lead the boycott until, one year and a few weeks later, the city’s buses were desegregated.

• there were also notable failures, as in Albany, Georgia (1961–62), when King and his colleagues failed to achieve their desegregation goals for public parks and other facilities.

• Jail after Alabama campaign (desegregation goals at lunch counters)• Despite the lost of integrity several times and people opposing his concept

of non violence, he was determined to achieve his cause.• Determined to carry out all his activities in a non violent way.

Behavioral Theory • Concern for people: Throughout the period of education he had a concern

for his fellow Negros. He used to dress up properly, would make himself presentable and was always a bright student just for the sake of his fellow Negros. To present them in that segregated time period.

Visionary Leader/Self Confident

• He had faith in his vision, his people and himself. Best example: his “I have a dream” speech on Washington march in 1963, August 28.