5 ways city culture was improved by Martin Luther King Jr.
The civil rights movement created opportunities for people nationwide. It also dramatically improved the cultures of these American cities.
For nearly all of his adult life, Martin Luther King Jr. drove the civil rights movement and became a national spokesperson for nonviolent protests against inequality. King’s message quickly spread from his early activism in Montgomery to become a global symbol for civil rights.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important events in his career and how cities’ cultures were transformed along the journey to embrace equality for everyone.
The epicenters of change
1. Montgomery, AL
Montgomery bus boycott
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery city bus. This incident, along with a similar occurrence nine months earlier, led King and fellow activist E. D. Nixon to advocate for a boycott of the city’s bus system.
The boycott proved to be extremely effective, putting considerable economic and political pressure on the government. Six months later, the federal district court ruled in the related civil suit, Browder v. Gayle, that Alabama’s laws for racial segregation on buses were unconstitutional. However, the state appealed the decision and so, the boycott persisted.
Then, on November 13, 1956, almost a year after Rosa Parks’s arrest, the United States Supreme Court upheld the ruling and confirmed that segregation in public transportation violated the Constitution.
After the ruling, Montgomery passed an ordinance permitting black passengers to sit anywhere they chose on buses, changing the landscape of public transportation in the city. However, this boycott had an impact far beyond public buses. It motivated a wave of activism across the South that would continue to dismantle a culture of segregation.
2. Birmingham, AL
Birmingham Campaign
1960’s Birmingham was the site of racial segregation and economic inequality. Because of these issues, King and his activism group, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), chose Birmingham to launch a campaign in April 1963. SCLC began utilizing tactics that were nonviolent but confrontational nonetheless and would violate any laws they deemed unjust. During this time, protestors marched through public spaces and conducted sit-ins.
Eventually, the Birmingham Police Department responded with police dogs and high-pressure water, sometimes against children protestors as well. Footage of this response was shown nationally on TV news reports and captured much of Americans’ attention at the time. The nationwide attention brought significant support behind the campaign and eventually led to the removal of “Jim Crow” signs, opening up public places to black citizens.
This desegregation effort was a major step towards freedom for all residents. Birmingham was at the time one of the most segregated cities in the country. But through campaigns like this one, the culture started to evolve.
3. Washington, DC
March on Washington
King and others organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom which took place in 1963. Part of the goal was to influence legislators to end racial segregation in public schools and prohibit racial discrimination in employment. On August 28, 1963, more than a quarter of a million people gathered at the National Mall around the reflecting pool, leading to the largest protest in Washington history.
From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream”, which marked a defining moment of the civil rights movement. After the march, legislation for civil rights reform escalated in priority and shortly after, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, including unequal voter registration rules and racial segregation in schools, workplaces, and public areas.
The March on Washington was a key component for enforcement of a national culture that stood against discrimination. Many cities that were traditionally segregated began to change towards integration and inclusion, but there was still a long road ahead.
4. Selma, AL
Selma to Montgomery Marches
Even after the Civil Rights Act was passed, a Selma judge issued an injunction preventing people from gathering with several civil rights groups or specifically named civil rights leaders, many of whom were working on voter registration in the city. Civil rights activity went dormant because of this injunction until King spoke at Brown Chapel in January 1965 when the sheriff was out of town. The speech began the Selma Voting Rights Campaign which hoped to address the discrimination and violence towards prospective black voters, famously by way of marches.
While participating in the 1965 march to Montgomery, peaceful marchers were attacked by state police and others in an event that would soon be called “Bloody Sunday”. This violence was shown throughout national media outlets and the horrifying scenes rallied support nationwide.
President Lyndon Johnson saw the brutality on TV and scheduled to meet with Alabama governor George Wallace in Washington. Two days after their discussion, Johnson presented a bill to a joint session of Congress that would be passed in the summer of 1965 as the Voting Rights Act. The act federally protected people’s right to vote across the country and allowed thousands of previously oppressed voters to express their political views.
5. Chicago, IL
Chicago Freedom Movement
Following their success in the South, King and other activists began civil rights campaigns in the North. In the spring of 1966, racial steering was discovered in several real estate offices in Chicago. Black couples were discriminated against despite matching the same income, background, and family demographics as white couples. This problem became the catalyst for the activists’ most powerful campaign of the northern cities: the Chicago Freedom Movement, also known as the Chicago open housing movement.
This movement lasted about a year and was a key inspiration for the Fair Housing Act in 1968. The act provided equal housing opportunities for all citizens without regard to race, religion, or nationality and made interference by force a federal crime.
This legislation was a major step for equality and it set rules that would open housing opportunities in cities around the U.S. for people who were previously bridled by discrimination.
A cultural legacy
Without a doubt, Martin Luther King Jr. had a tremendous impact on the freedom of millions of people and his efforts set precedents for advances in equality worldwide. Just half a century ago, it was not uncommon for American cities to be divided by hatred. Many people were discriminated against, attacked, and even killed because of that culture. But because of the events mentioned in this story and many others, citizens realized that the best city culture is one where every resident has the opportunity to do incredible things. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy shows that we all win when we live together.
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