How did Martin Luther King campaign for human rights in the US?

Answer 1

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. campaigned for equality between Blacks and Whites in the United States through various means. It is notable, however, that he never used violence in advocating equality (unlike some of the other organizations promoting equality of Blacks in the United States. The methods he used included:

Sermons/Speeches: Rev. King is probably most famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech which was given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In the speech, given to thousands of people in person and millions more over the airwaves, Dr. King advocated for a true equality between Blacks and Whites by going back to Biblical motifs and ideas about "what makes an American".

Letters and Editorials: Rev. King also wrote a number of letters to newspapers and helped to write editorials. The most famous of these was "Letter from Birmingham Jail", an open letter where he defends the strategy of non-violent resistance to racism. He also argues that people have moral responsibility to break unjust laws.

Sit-Ins: Rev. King coordinated Sit-Ins, which were silent protests where Blacks would go to establishments like restaurants or movie theatres where they were not legally or culturally supposed to be. Instead of leaving, as society would dictate, they sat down and refused to move until they got service. Of course, they were not actually served and in many cases they had to be arrested by police to remove them from places where they "were not supposed to be". This made the police look bad for enforcing segregation and made more people critical of segregation

Protests: Rev. King coordinated a number of simple protests that would be non-violent assemblies of predominantly Blacks with some Whites holding up placards opposing segregation laws.

Marches and Parades: Rev. King had a number of high profile marches to advocate for and end to segregation. One of the most famous was his "March on Selma, Alabama".

Boycotts: In many key public sectors, such as buses, Blacks were responsible for a greater share of profits and benefits than they would be as merely a percentage of population. Rev. King coordinated bus boycotts, which led to money shortfalls in the public sector. It was hoped that this would put an economic strain on the segregating government.

Legislative Submissions and Court Cases: Rev. King had men lobby Congress and bring court cases to the Supreme Court to get Segregation removed at a legal level as opposed to merely campaigning. He stood right behind President L.B. Johnson when the latter signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act.