Martin Luther King, Jr.

Introduction

He was bornMichael Lewis King

Martin Luther
Baptist minister and social activist
lead the Civil Rights Movement in the
United States from the mid-1950s
until his death by assassination in
1968.

BIRTH DATE
January 15, 1929
Sweet Auburn
Atlanta, Georgia

DEATH DATE
April 4,1968
Assassinated by firearm
Lorraine Motel in Memphis

Education

Boston university
Morehouse College
B.Adegree insociology
Enrolled inCrozer Theological Seminary
B.Div.degree
doctoral studies insystematic
theologyatBoston Universityand
received hisPh.D.degree

Synopsis
Seismic impact on race relations in the
United States, beginning in the mid-1950s.
Among many efforts, King headed the SCLC
(Southern Christian Leadership Conference).
Through his activism, he played a pivotal
role in ending the legal segregation of
African-American
creator of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

 King received the Nobel Peace Prize

in 1964, among several other honors.
Had a good communication skill to
engage listeners
Valedictorian of his class, and elected
student body president

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Claudette Colvin
15-year-old girl
Refuse to give up her seat
Arrested
NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People)
Rosa parker

 NAACP chapter met with Martin

Luther King Jr. and other local civil
rights leaders to plan a citywide bus
boycott.
MLK lead the boycott

1st speech
"We have no alternative but to
protest. For many years we have
shown an amazing patience. We
have sometimes given our white
brothers the feeling that we liked the
way we were being treated. But we
come here tonight to be saved from
that patience that makes us patient
with anything less than freedom and
justice."

Southern Christian Leadership

Conference (SCLC)
Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph
Abernathy, and 60 ministers
non-violent protests to promote civil
rights reform
register black voters in the South

"sit-in" movement in
Greensboro, North Carolina
students sit at racially segregated
lunch counters in the city's stores.
When asked to leave or sit in the
colored section, they just remained
seated, subjecting themselves to
verbal and sometimes physical abuse
27 southern cities.

'I Have a Dream'

organized a demonstration in
downtown Birmingham, Alabama.
City police turned dogs and fire
hoses on demonstrators
MLK was jailed along with large
numbers of his supporters
Draw Nation wide attention

March on Washington
200,000 people in the shadow of the
Lincoln Memorial
made his famous "I Have a Dream"
speech
"I have a dream that my four children
will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of
their skin but by the content of their
character."

Nobel Peace Prize for 1964

rising tide of civil rights agitation
people in cities not experiencing
racial tension began to question the
nation's Jim Crow laws and the near
century second class treatment of
African-American citizens.
Act of 1964

Civil rights march

Selma to Alabama's
capital in Montgomery
turned violent
police with nightsticks
and tear gas
name of the event
"Bloody Sunday

Great Leader is A Good Leader

Effective (communicational impact)

Ethical (non-violent)
Purpose (eradication of racism)
Satisfying (understand what followers
want)

Emotional Intelligence/Self Control

Origin of Anger
Management
Martins mothers role: One
day, Martin and his father
went tobuysomenew shoes.
The clerk told them to go to
the back of the store. "We do
not serve colored in the front
of the store," he said. Martin
and his father proceeded to
leave the store, as they knew
that this was not respectful
treatment. Martin's mother
told him, "even though some
people make you feel bad
or angry, you should not
show it. You are as good
as anyone else."

Replacing Hate with

Love

Only by taming his own anger did King earn the right to
become a messenger of peaceful struggle to the people of
the nation. On September 30, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.s
house was bombed by segregationists in retaliation for the
success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In his
autobiography, he wrote:"While I lay in that quiet front
bedroom, I began to think of the viciousness of people who
would bomb my home. I could feel the anger rising when I
realized that my wife and baby could have been killed. I
was once more on the verge of corroding hatred. And once
more I caught myself and said: 'You must not allow yourself
to become bitter'."

 That night, he didn't just quell his own stirring for vengeance,
but also that of the restless and roused masses who were
outside his house, angered and ready to strike a blow at the
establishment until they were soothed and moved by his
words:"We are not advocating violence. We want to love our
enemies. I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them.
Love them and let them know that you love them."
In those moments, he wasn't trying to crush his anger, or that
of his people.He was trying to channel it into a higher
purpose.

Altering the System

In September 1962, as King sat on the stage during a

Southern Christian Leadership Convention, a white member
of the opposition party jumped up to the podium and
punched him several times in the face. As the security
guards rushed to his help and pulled away the hate-filled
youth, King responded, calmly, that he would not press
charges. In response, he said:"The system that we live
under creates people such as this youth. I am not
interested in pressing charges. I'm interested in changing
the kind of system that produces this kind of man."

In the words of King inFreedomwaysmagazinein 1968,"The

supreme task [of a leader] is to organize and unite people so
that their anger becomes a transforming force."
Reference:
http://www.inc.com/hitendra-wadhwa/great-leadership-how-mart
in-luther-king-jr-wrestled-with-anger.html

An Autocratic Leader

Peace Lessons to his followers while many of them wanted chaos

and to spill out their anger.
Many people (Negros) were not happy with his Non Violence
concept. Privately, King's supporters knew that non-violence was
not an outlook everyone shared, and Walker amused King by
telling him of how one black Virginian had responded to a white
bus driver who wanted him to enter his bus by the back door. A
massive figure, the man had picked up the driver with one hand
and said bluntly: 'Know two things. I can break your neck, and I
ain't one of Martin Luther King's non-violent Negroes.
Reference: https://www.google.com.pk/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&v
ed=0CC8QFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fhistory
%2Frecent
%2Fmartin_luther_king_01.shtml&ei=PyYfVPi4G8jiaMjygKAN&usg
=AFQjCNG1Zu4KBywdm_HUfypXjzDqRJzLDg&bvm=bv.75775273,d
.d2s

Emergent leader/Referent Power

Earned the power when the citys small group of civil rights
advocates decided to contest racial segregation on that citys
public bus system following the incident on December 1, 1955,
in whichRosa Parks, an African American woman, had refused
to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger and as a
consequence was arrested for violating the citys segregation
law. Activists formed the MontgomeryImprovement
Association toboycottthe transit system and chose King as
their leader. He had the advantage of being a young, he was
generally respected, and it was thought that his professional
standing would enable him to find another pastorate should
the boycott fail.
Reference:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/318311/MartinLuther-King-Jr

Determination

 Although Kings home was dynamited and his familys safety

threatened, he continued to lead the boycott until, one year
and a few weeks later, the citys buses were desegregated.
there were also notable failures, as inAlbany, Georgia (1961
62), when King and his colleagues failed to achieve their
desegregation goals for public parks and other facilities.
Jail after Alabama campaign (desegregation goals at lunch
counters)
Despite the lost of integrity several times and people
opposing his concept of non violence, he was determined to
achieve his cause.
Determined to carry out all his activities in a non violent way.

Behavioral Theory

Concern for people: Throughout the period of education he

had a concern for his fellow Negros. He used to dress up
properly, would make himself presentable and was always a
bright student just for the sake of his fellow Negros. To
present them in that segregated time period.

Visionary Leader/Self
Confident

He had faith in his vision,

his people and himself.
Best example: his I have a
dream speech on
Washington march in 1963,
August 28.