He peacefully campaigned against the inequality between white and black in America and he has one of the most famous and inspiring speeches to his name:Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Fifty years ago, on April 4, 1968, he was murdered.
Martin Luther King was a seasoned speaker. But at the end of his most famous speech, August 28, 1963, at the March to Washington for Work and Freedom, where he began to tell his audience of his dream about America's future, he had actually lost his line. Due to the enthusiastic reactions of the audience, he deviated from his prepared story and lost the thread.
Perhaps spurred on by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who stood close to the stage and yelled "Tell them about the dream, Martin"—he never admitted to hearing her—he ended his speech passionately and compellingly extemporaneously, excerpts of text from old sermons repeating. It was about his vision of his four young children, soon to live in a nation where they are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the nature of their character.
King's speech concluded the demonstration. More than 200,000 people had come to the capital on this hot summer day for speeches and music performances by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, among others. There was an unprecedented police force, because so many politically aware blacks together, that could become dangerous. Hospitals kept their operating rooms free. The sale of alcohol was banned in the city. Thousands of soldiers stood by. The black organizers themselves had planned logistics and programming in great detail to prevent riots and looting.
Water cannons and dogs
The day went off without a hitch. It was the first mass gathering to make national radio and television, and also the first time blacks were in the news in a positive way in the United States. The amazement of some of the comments at the serious dignity and friendly disposition of the mostly black protesters, who expressed their wishes so disciplined and calmly, and at the skill of the volunteer guards speaks volumes about the image of blacks. There was also a lot of media attention internationally; solidarity marches were held in nine cities, including The Hague.
It wasn't the first time the black civil rights movement had staged a demonstration in Washington, but this one was by far the most enthusiastic, as emotions were running high over the South's response to blacks' freedom struggles. The fear that young people in Washington would freak out out of frustration were not unfounded.
The civil rights movement had gained new momentum in the 1950s, but police, entrepreneurs and governments in the South continued to violently resist change. Many had already been injured and killed. However, this was increasingly shown on television, in spring 1963 from Birmingham in Alabama where the police used water cannons and dogs against black demonstrators.
President John F. Kennedy had to respond and announced that he would introduce a federal civil rights law. In order to put pressure on southern congressmen – comrades of Kennedy but supporters of segregation – it was decided to hold another march in the capital in August, partly at the initiative of King.
'Not a march but a farce'
King was the figurehead of the march and for many (still) the movement as a whole, but he did not represent everyone who was active in it. His method was controversial. Some radical youths called it a mockery to hold a demonstration when much heavier artillery was needed. What did a little demonstration solve? According to youth leader Malcolm x, it was not a march but a farce, there in Washington. King's clash with the radical wing, known from the later 1960s, dates back to this time.
King's approach has also been criticized from the more conservative angle. Here people feared the risk of failure and thus loss of face. To the outside world, the leaders of the various factions within the civil rights movement kept an appearance of unity, but inside rooms there were constant arguments, discussions, meetings, enemy motions, tactical phone calls, campaign trips, and so on. All this to prepare actions and to edit the press and politicians, but often also to persuade the various organizations within the movement. The disagreements about the right strategy have existed for a long time.
New forms of protest
One of the most important and oldest players in the field was the "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People":https://www.naacp.org/ (NAACP), founded in 1909. This wanted to go through the courts or the political legal enforce measures. This had resulted in a groundbreaking victory in 1954, when the Supreme Court declared legal segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
Legal triumph, however, did not reverse the segregation. The disappointment about this led to new forms of protest in the mid-1950s. The passive resistance grew around Martin Luther King à la Gandhi:with a group demonstrative but peaceful and dignified to demand your rights. It was about provoking a response from the authorities – it was expected to be aggressive and the press would come after it. Protesters had to be prepared to go to jail. Media attention and awareness were the goal.
In addition, there were actions aimed at a direct and tangible result. Solidarity white students were also involved. For example, they helped blacks register as voters. From about 1965, many black youth broke with the racial coalition. They began to reject cooperation with whites, putting more emphasis on black self-awareness and the use of violence when necessary.
They joined the black separatism for which a limited group of blacks had been advocating since the late nineteenth century:better break with the white Christian society in everything and become strong in their own circle. Now it was articulated by Malcolm x with his Black Muslims. The term Black Power came into use for this in 1966, but the whole complex of ideas behind it was already alive when King was lobbying left and right for the 1963 march in Washington.
Ghetto
King's method has so far been the most successful. After the march, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, followed by an Electoral Act a year later. Finally, blacks had the same rights as whites. However, the old pattern proved persistent:a law did not guarantee employment or better housing. Poverty among blacks remained a major problem, as did discrimination. Also in the north. Riots and looting broke out more and more in the black ghettos in the major cities.
King, overtaken on the left by increasingly radicalizing young people, now also moved to the left. He continued to reject violence, but was highly critical of President Lyndon B. Johnson. His campaign against poverty did not go far enough, according to King. He rejected the Vietnam War as a neo-colonial enterprise out of racial solidarity. King has seen few results from his change of course. The day after he gave a speech to garbage collectors on strike for higher pay, he was murdered, on April 4, 1968.