Martin Luther King Jr and Civil Rights. Please help!

I am trying to prepare myself for a coursework piece on Martin Luther King and how his involvement shaped the civil rights movement, or whether it affected it in a negative way... I just need some assistance in establishing the real issues within this spectrum. If anyone can answer the following questions there is hefty rep as reward!

How was the movement before kings involvement, what had happened?
Why did King become involved, how did the movement change after he became involved?
Was his influence negative or positive and why?
Could the movement have succeeded without him, and would it have been quicker???

Anything and everything related to this is useful, thanks.

Oh and I think I may as well tell you my coursework piece title, so you can perhaps make suggestions about how to approach this essay if you have done King, or History A2 before:

"How far was Martin Luther King Junior's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement integral to its success?"

I am becoming pretty desperate, so all help is welcome. Thanks.

-Rob

Reply 1

Sam2k

Google is and always will be your friend.

http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jan/king.html
http://www.classbrain.com/artholiday/publish/article_37.shtml
http://www.africanaonline.com/civil_rights.htm
http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/twentysix.html
http://www.black-collegian.com/african/dreams2001-2nd.shtml

Hope these help. Maybe understanding his life a little more will help decide how much he impacted the civil rights movement. I'm an american and the only other civil rights person I can name off the top of my head is Rosa Parks.

Reply 2

Pegasus

I studied Civil Rights as one of my AS units (as an exam not coursework). I would recommend trying to get hold of the following book:

Race Relations in the USA Since 1900 (Access to History S.) by Vivienne Sanders (ISBN: 0340869240).

I found it quite useful, in talking about criticisms of MLK, something which a lot of textbooks are reluctant to do.

When talking about pre-King I guess Brown vs Board of Education is always quite useful to talk about, as afterall it was a turning point in the Civil Rights movement.

I can't think of much more at the moment, I'm afraid, but check out the following website:

http://www.reportingcivilrights.org/

The timeline is particularly useful. Hope that helps- I'll get back to you if I think of anything else. :smile:

Reply 3

chats

Pegasus

Race Relations in the USA Since 1900 (Access to History S.) by Vivienne Sanders (ISBN: 0340869240).

yeh that book was very useful, especially the section on writing essays.

of the top of my head I think there was an essay similar to the one mentioned in this thread.

Reply 4

RobbieC

chats

yeh that book was very useful, especially the section on writing essays.

of the top of my head I think there was an essay similar to the one mentioned in this thread.

Excellent. I just got given that book you mentioned, and its not too big. Thank god.

Reply 5

chats

RobbieC

Excellent. I just got given that book you mentioned, and its not too big. Thank god.

thats the good thing, nice small book with everything you need!

Reply 6

pedy1986

You may like to look at MLK's influences on political theory under the concept of political obligation. Have a look for his essay (or speech?) called 'An Unjust law is no law'.