Martin Luther King, Jr.

The first black people in America were brought here by white people.  Many more blacks were brought here by whites.  The white people made laws that said that the blacks had to do whatever the whites told them.  The black people that worked for Whites did not get paid.  They were called slaves. Some white people were very mean to their slaves.  Other white people were nice to their slaves.  Even if they were nice, slavery was not fair.

The Civil War was a war that happened in America.  The states in the south part of America wanted to make their own decisions about slavery.   President Lincoln did not want slavery anywhere in America.  Many people died in this war.  People had strong feelings about slavery.  Some felt it was very wrong.  Other people did not see anything wrong with it.  President Lincoln won and slavery was stopped in America. 

Problems for black people did not end when slavery stopped.  It was hard for them to get jobs.  Many white people still treated them badly. There still were laws that made their lives hard.

In 1954, the Supreme Court passed a law against segregation.  Segregation means to separate people by force.  In 1954, the court said that Negroes, the old word for blacks or African Americans, could go to the same schools that white do.  This law helped blacks a little but it wasn't enough.  It was very hard for blacks to vote.  They could not do all the same things that white people could do.  They had to shop at different stores. They had to eat at different restaurants.  They had to go to different hospitals. Even though slavery was against the law, the white people were still in charge and could boss the black people around.

We know about Rosa Parks.  She would not give a white man her seat on a bus.  She was arrested and taken to jail.  This made many people mad.  It was not only black people that got angry.  White people got angry, too.

Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that all people should be treated the same.  He worked most of his life to change the way America treated black people.  When people got angry about Rosa Parks, this helped Dr. King with his fight.  He gave many speeches that made people think.  Dr. King did not believe in violence. He led marches to show the country that many people felt blacks should be treated the same as whites.  He led a march to Washington and gave a speech.  The speech he gave that day is now very famous. 

When Dr. King would lead marches it would be in the newspapers and on TV.  More people heard about his work and wanted to join in.  People were marching in Selma, Alabama to show their feelings about civil rights. Civil rights means the rights you have because you are a citizen of a place.  The Blacks wanted the same rights as whites.  March 7, 1965 was a sad day in the United States.  It is now called Bloody Sunday because people were hurt.  Pictures of the police beating the black marchers made people really angry.  More people began working to fix the laws.  On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964.  This law made many big changes to improve life for black people in America.  Today, black people whose family came from Africa are called African Americans.

Working to make things fair for blacks in America was very dangerous for Dr. King.  There were many people that hated what he was working for. He was stabbed.  His house was bombed.  People called him on the phone and made threats.  On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death.  People all over the world were sad.  On January 16th we celebrate his birthday because he was such an important man in America.

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