Martin Luther King Jr And Malcolm X
...during the 1960’s. Martin and Malcolm grew up in different environments, different educational backgrounds, and different religious beliefs and had different views as to why blacks weren’t afforded the same rights as other Americans. Even though they had all these differences, they became Civil Rights icons in the 1960’s with one objective and that was equal rights for everyone.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born Michael Luther King Jr., on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia but later changed his name to Martin. He grew up in a middle class family and attended segregated public schools. He was a very smart student who skipped two grades. Martin graduated from high school at the age of 15, and received a B.A. degree from Morehouse College in 1948, at age 19. For the next three years, he attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he was elected class president in a class that was predominately white. He later went on to attend Boston University where he completed his residence in 1953 and received his degree in 1955.
Martin became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954. Also, during this time, he became a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as a stronger worker and voice for the movement. He was a peaceful leader who encouraged nonviolence to his followers. He urged blacks that in order to win their rightful place in society, they would have to have self respect, high moral standards and work hard. Martin led the first nonviolent demonstration bus boycott for blacks in December 1955. The boycott lasted 382 days and as result, the Supreme Court on December 21, 1956, declared the laws requiring segregation on buses was unconstitutional, which meant blacks and whites rode the bus as equals. In 1957, he became president of the Southern...
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