James Blackwell

Submitted by laura on Tue, 2006-10-17 16:59.

This paper is for Chapter 23 in my History book. In chapter 23 I learned about “The March on Washington” and how it changed how people thought.

The march on Washington took place in the sixties. Martin Luther King Jr. had been trying to figure out a way to get some publicity. That way he could help the blacks that were being mistreated. Finally a woman called Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus to a white person. Clifford Durr, Rosa Park's employer bailed her out of jail. After she was free to go Rosa went to King Jr. and told him what had happened to her.

Martin Luther King Jr. just wanted to bring justice to the black people of America. These people were being misused, abused, and had no rights. Most of the black people agreed that they needed rights. The only problem wasn't the blacks though it was the whites. No matter where King went only one or two whites would help him out with the protests he was leading. The whites opposed King when he tried to do anything. Even then King refused to go into hiding or take the body guards that many people insisted he use. King's reasoning was that he wanted the protests to be calm, safe, and non-violent. This worked in many instances were if the crowd had been anything but calm there would have been quite a few casualties.

Martin L. King Jr. was a very powerful speaker. He convinced many people who had felt like they had lost hope to help and to hope again. King convinced many whites as well as blacks to join him and to help change the United States of America. King held many protests for black people's rights. Each time he held a protest he won one more battle. He was very close to the final battle when he was assassinated by James Earl
Ray on April 4, 1968. Many white and black mourned the loss of Martin Luther King Jr. that day. During his funeral procession many people forgot what color skin they had and mourned as one large group.

The protests were a mess after that. A lot of people either just gave up or became so angry that when the next protest came around it was more like an angry mob. King had organized the people according to age, race, ext. but now that he was dead none could take his place. A few tried to burden themselves with his job but just in some cases made it worse.

Chapter 23 taught me about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he did for America. King affected today in many ways. One of the ways that King affected today is that African Americans have more freedom than they used to. Another big thing that King did that changed today was that he gave people hope. He gave them the belief that they could go out into the world and change it just the way he did.