Essay On Why I Admire Martin Luther King

The people of the Civil Rights Movement are the people that I admire most. I admire them for their courage, their tenacity, patience, peacefulness and their relentless quest for equal treatment. From these individuals I learned that one person can make a difference, one person can start a revolution and make a change. From their leadership I have learned that you must stand up (or sit down) for what you believe to be right. At the forefront of this movement was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What I admire most about Martin Luther King, Jr. is his ability to motivate, influence and inspire people with his words. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most influential people of our time. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He felt the sting of prejudice at a very young age. He was told that he could no longer play with his white friends. The mother of the white children sent young Martin home telling him that she did not want her children playing with a colored child. He did
organized a bus boycott that lasted for 381 days. Rosa Parks, an activist in the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of colored People) was a seamstress who was tired, not physically tired, but tired of giving in. She sat down in the front of the bus in the white only section. She was arrested because she refused to give up her seat to a white person. Rosa was convicted of violating the segregation laws. Her crime was stated as “civil disobedience”. Her brave act incited a city wide boycott. No person of color rode the buses. They walked, carpooled or shared rides. This hurt the transportation industry greatly. The law was changed on November 13, 1956 by the Supreme Court, ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Rosa was given the nickname of “mother of the civil rights movement”. Even after laws were changed, segregation continued, especially in the schools in the southern