Throughout his MIA Mass Meeting speech on December 5, 1955, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brings forth the point that they will not be compared to radical groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or the White Citizens Council; his intentions, from the very beginning, were on protesting without violence. As Charissa pointed out, the protest of Montgomery’s segregated city buses lasted 382 days, though this was not an easy time for Dr. King by any means.
Dr. King was elected as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and became a national hero to millions of people, especially after the United States Supreme Court declared these bus segregation laws to be unconstitutional. He was recognized as the head of the struggle for civil right equality, but it was anything but trouble-free. In the 382 days of protesting, he was the focus of white hatred. He was arrest on January 26, received numerous threatening phone calls, was physically abused, and on January 30 even had his home bombed by a white supremacists group, while he was holding a meeting. He was arrested, tried, and convicted on March 22 for violating Alabama’s anti-boycott law; after his release gave his first speech in the North.
He endured possibly the most grueling and difficult times of his life during those 382 days, yet he remained non-violent and let his words take action, rather than physical altercations. In his speech on December 5, he stated numerous times that he was a devout Christian and he would not encourage any weapons, other than “…the weapon of protest.” I believe that the self-control he demonstrated is truly incredible and that the words that he preached are still being used in other civil rights struggles today.
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