Integrating the buses in Montgomery had worked. But Martin Luther King, Jr., knew that this was just the beginning. Martin and other black leaders met in Atlanta, Georgia. They formed a civil rights group called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference—the SCLC. On February 14, 1957, Martin became the head of the group.
In the South, civil rights leaders faced growing violence. One man’s home was bombed. So were several churches. Then a service station and a cab stand were bombed. Martin urged everyone to remain calm. “We must not return violence under any condition,” he said. He knew that his advice was hard to follow.
Martin’s speeches made him famous in Montgomery. Wherever he went, thousands of people showed up to hear him. People even ran up to him on the street to ask for his autograph.
On May 17, 1957, Martin spoke at a gathering called the Prayer Pilgrimage in Washington, D.C. The march took place on the third anniversary of the passage of Brown v. The Board of Education. On the day of the march, thousands of black and white people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The speakers asked the government to pass a Civil Rights Bill. This bill would guarantee all people in the United States equal rights under the law.
An important part of the Civil Rights Bill would be to make sure every adult citizen was allowed to vote. At the Prayer Pilgrimage, Martin said that was the most urgent request to President Dwight Eisenhower.
While Martin was marching and speaking, Coretta was busy running the King household. On October 23, their second child, Martin Luther King III, was born. Martin said of Coretta, “I am indebted to my wife, Coretta, without whose love, sacrifices, and loyalty neither life nor work would bring fulfillment.” By this time, Coretta wanted to become much more involved in the movement. Martin, however, preferred that she stay at home raising their children.
THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT
In 1870, THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION GAVE MALE U.S. CITIZENS WHO WERE TWENTY-ONE OR OLDER THE RIGHT TO VOTE. (WOMEN—BOTH WHITE AND BLACK--DID NOT GET THE RIGHT TO VOTE UNTIL 1920.) BUT ALL OVER THE SOUTH, BLACK PEOPLE WERE STILL KEPT FROM VOTING. THEY WERE TOLD THAT THEY HAD TO PAY A “POLL TAX” BEFORE THEY COULD VOTE. MANY WERE TOO POOR TO PAY. SOME BLACKS HAD TO TAKE TESTS TO PROVE THAT THEY COULD READ AND WRITE. IF THEY COULDN’T, THEY WERE TURNED AWAY. THEY COULD NOT VOTE FOR PRESIDENT. THEY COULD NOT VOTE FOR CONGRESS. THEY COULD NOT VOTE FOR LOCAL LEADERS. NOT ONLY WAS THIS UNFAIR, IT WAS AGAINST THE LAW.
In 1959, Martin did agree to take Coretta along on a trip to India. Martin wanted to see the land where his hero Gandhi had lived.
As he traveled through the country he saw that India was divided between the very poor and the very rich. Many people did not have jobs. Many slept out on the streets. Rich people, on the other hand, had beautiful homes and fancy clothes. Yet even with so much poverty, there was peace among the people. Yes, they were poor, but they did not take their troubles out on anyone.
Martin visited some of the places that were special to Gandhi. He and his group went to a place called Bambi. It was there that Gandhi had started a walk of more than two hundred miles to protest a tax on salt. Gandhi’s walk began with eight people. The number grew to thousands. Some say that more than a million people ultimately joined the walk. Gandhi told his people, “If you are hit, don’t hit back; even if they shoot at you, don’t shoot back. Just keep moving.”
Martin had a wonderful experience in India. When he returned home, he was even more convinced of the power of peaceful protest.
In 1959, the King family moved from Montgomery to Atlanta. It was hard to leave Montgomery, but Martin wanted more time for civil rights work. He could not be a full-time minister. He told his congregation, “History has thrust something on me which I cannot turn away.” In Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr., would become the co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, his father’s church.
By the year 1960, the civil rights movement was spreading throughout the South. Black students and white students staged “sit-ins” at lunch counters. Students would sit together at a “whites only” lunch counter and wait to be served. Often, the police would drag them out. But the students never fought back when arrested. Sometimes people yelled and spit at the students. Some threw rocks at them. No matter how many students were put in jail, the next day others would go “sit in” at the same lunch counters. They kept on because the fight was something they believed in.
Martin took part in the sit-ins. On October 19, 1960, he was arrested at a lunch counter in a department store in Atlanta. Over two hundred students were arrested that same day. They were all taken to the Fulton County jail. Martin told the judge that the sit-ins pointed out racial injustice. He wanted to make people in Atlanta see how wrong it was to have whites-only eating places. He said, “I must honestly say that we firmly believe that segregation is evil.”
Five days passed, and Martin and the students were still in jail. Black people in Atlanta were very worried. Finally, the store owners dropped the charges, and everyone was set free. But many white people were still angry with Martin. They wanted him back in jail.
On May 4, 1960, the police stopped Martin in his car. They gave him a ticket for driving in Georgia with an Alabama driver’s license. Martin thought, at worst, he would just pay the fine in court.
Instead, Martin was taken away, his legs put in chains, and driven to a state prison more than two hundred miles away. The ride to the prison was long. Martin was hungry. He was thirsty. He was scared.
When his followers learned what had happened to Martin, they tried their best to get him out of prison. They made calls to Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, who were running against each other for president.
At first, neither man wanted to help. They were afraid of angering the white voters. When reporters asked Nixon about Martin Luther King, Jr., being in jail, Nixon said, “No comment.”
Finally, one of Kennedy’s friends convinced the senator to help. First, Kennedy called Martin’s wife, Coretta. She was pregnant with their third child, and she was very upset. John F. Kennedy told Coretta that he and his brother Robert Kennedy, who was a lawyer, would do everything in their power to help Martin.
Robert Kennedy called the judge who had sent Martin to jail. He wanted to know why Martin couldn’t post bail. (Bail is money paid to the court that allows someone to remain free until the trial.) Now the judge agreed to set bail. Martin was freed.
Kennedy campaign workers printed millions of leaflets that said Nixon’s “no comment” remark showed that he was a man without a heart. Martin’s father, Martin Luther King, Sr., decided to vote for Kennedy now.
John F. Kennedy won the election that November. He was the first Roman Catholic president. Catholics in the United States had faced prejudice, too. That was one of the reasons many black people voted for JFK. Perhaps his own experience as a Catholic would make him more understanding of the problems of race in America. |