Martin Luther King And Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King.
King was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a Baptist minister, his mother a schoolteacher. Originally named Michael, he was later renamed Martin. He entered Morehouse College in 1944 and then went to Crozer Religious Seminary to undertake postgraduate study, receiving his doctorate in 1955.
Returning to the South to become pastor of a Baptist Churchin Montgomery, Alabama, King first achieved national renown when he helped mobilise the black boycott of the Montgomery bus system in 1955. This was organised after Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man - in the segregated south, black people could only sit at the back of the bus. The 382-day boycott led the bus company to change its regulations, and thesupreme court declared such segregation unconstitutional.
In 1957, King was active in the organisation of the Southern Leadership Christian Conference (SCLC), formed to co-ordinate protests against discrimination. He advocated non-violent direct action based on the methods of Gandhi, who led protests against British rule in India culminating in India's independence in 1947.
In 1963, King ledmass protests against discriminatory practices in Birmingham, Alabama where the white population were violently resisting desegregation. The city was dubbed 'Bombingham' as attacks against civil rights protesters increased, and King was arrested and jailed for his part in the protests.
After his release, King participated in the enormous civil rights march on Washington in August 1963, anddelivered his famous 'I have a dream' speech, predicting a day when the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1965, he led a campaign to register blacks to vote. The same year the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing the discriminatory practices that had barred blacks from voting in the south.
As thecivil rights movement became increasingly radicalised, King found that his message of peaceful protest was not shared by many in the younger generation. King began to protest against the Vietnam war and poverty levels in the US. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968 during a visit to Memphis, Tennessee.

Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks is the woman known as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." She earnedthis nickname after standing up to the racial and social injustices that were still taking place due to Jim Crow legislation in the south during the 1950s. Jim Crow made sure that schools, parks, playgrounds, restaurants, hotels, public transportation, theaters, restrooms, drinking fountains, and so on were all segregated, or racially separated. This meant that African Americans could only usefacilities that were labeled "Colored Only." Parks grew up living with and taking care of her little brother, divorced mother, and elderly grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama. While living with her grandparents she attended the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, Booker T. Washington High School, and Alabama State Teacher's College for Negroes for the tenth and eleventh grade, which wereall-black schools. In exchange for tuition at the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, she cleaned two of the classrooms. She had little time to play because when she was home from school she spent her time caring for her ill mother and grandparents. While she cared for them, her grandmother told her stories about slavery and segregation. Her mother also talked to her about the injustices that weretaking place. She reminded Rosa every day that all of God's children were free. Due to her mother's illness, she was unable to graduate from high school. Eventually, due to her grandmother's death, she was unable to graduate with her class at Alabama State Teacher's College for Negroes. Through her own experiences, by listening to her grandmother's stories, and by attending the Montgomery...