Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

One of the major victories for civil rights was the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which ended discriminatory practices keeping African Americans from voting, effectively giving them a much-needed voice in American democracy. Ferguson” established the legality of segregation based on the concept that facilities would be “separate but equal.” These laws and policies of racial segregation persisted through the 1950s, until groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized a series of protests in cities across the South to call attention to the injustice African Americans were experiencing. Segregation had been an entrenched policy in the United States since the passing of Jim Crow laws that barred African Americans from using the same public facilities as whites, going to the same schools, or marrying whites. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work focused on the repeal of unjust racial segregation laws and policies this activism became known as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, which eventually led to significant changes in laws regarding the treatment of African Americans.

That evening, James Earl Ray shot King, who died soon after at the age of 39. He was in the city to lead a protest, and had to stay an extra night due to a bomb threat on his plane. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in a hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. At this time, King also became involved in the civil rights movement, leading the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and the March on Washington in 1963, where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. in Theology from Boston University in 1955. In 1954 he began working as a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, and he received his Ph.D. At 19, King graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in sociology and then went on to attend Crozer Theological Seminary. King also personally experienced the pain of segregation as a child, when he and his white childhood friend began to attend the segregated Atlanta schools and were no longer allowed to play together.

His father was a strong influence on his life, laying the foundation for King’s focus on Christianity and racial equality. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, raised by his mother, an organist and member of the church choir, and his father, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr.

Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.