The Civil Rights Movement

Kellie Nicholls

2.23.10

Period E

The Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King and the SCLC

Martin Luther King became a hugely influential leader for the African American Community due to his ability to organize and lead a group that has so much going against them. Although his family was threatened, King urged his followers to not anything or anyone pull them down.

King created a new brand of nonviolent resistance based off of Ghandi which he called “soul force”. King held his philosophy even after the Brown decision. Most of the violence that was faced was murder and humiliation, including the murder of a 14 year old boy named Emmett Till who had allegedly flirted with a white woman. However, after the bus boycott ended, King joined with many ministers and civil rights leaders and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Its purpose was to carry out nonviolent acts against the evils of second-class citizenship. The leaders of this conference hoped that it would build up a movement and win the support of ordinary African Americans of all ages. A select few, who were following this movement, including many college students, thought it was too slow and wanted the change to come even faster. As the leadership of the Conference grew, so did the ideas. They were all based off of King’s original ideas of nonviolence and organization, but soon the many that had come together created their own and passed them on until the whole community was involved.