Civil Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Civil Rights - Essay Example (King, 1963) Blacks in America suffered from slavery during the early days of the Colonial period until the Civil War, but in many areas racist statutes known as â€Å"Jim Crow Laws† prevented blacks from voting or enjoying other basic rights of society until Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led his movement for change. (King, 1963) In leading blacks to full political inclusion and equality, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. built a path of civil disobedience based in the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and deep Christian understanding that focused on securing social justice through legislative change. This included removing â€Å"Jim Crow† laws from the books and passing new legislation nationally such as the Voting Rights Act of 1968 and Civil Rights Act of 1964 that officially guaranteed the human rights of African-Americans. (Infoplease, 2007) Dr. Martin Luther King was a Southern Baptist minister whose community included poor African-American families who h ad suffered the legacy racism and repression of Jim Crow laws, segregation in restaurants, hotels, schools, and other public facilities as part of an American â€Å"apartheid† doctrine similar to that in South Africa historically. Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.