Hello and welcome to today's lesson on Martin Luther King Jr.

and the early Civil Rights Movement.

This lesson is part of a broader inquiry looking at the development of the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1960.

In the course of this inquiry, we'll cover lots of things, including the context of segregation discrimination in 1954, as well as the key civil rights organisations and different events leading up to 1960.

However, for today's lesson, we're just going to be focusing on Martin Luther King Jr.

and his role in the early Civil Rights Movement.

In order to do that, you're going to need a piece of paper and a pen for today's lesson.

If you don't have one, that's absolutely fine.

Just pause the video now, get everything you need, and then come back and press play when you're ready to go.

Great work.

Now we can get started.

As you can see, we've got our lesson outcome on this slide.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the importance of Martin Luther King for the Civil Rights Movement, including the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

But in order to achieve this outcome, we're going to need some keywords.

For this lesson, we've got five: orator, registration, citizenship, act, and Democrats.

Now, it'll be great to see these in the context of the lesson, but first, it's worth having a look at some key definitions.

So an orator is a public speaker, so someone who would be described as an excellent orator is someone who is very good at public speaking.

Registration is an act of signing up to do something, for example, voting.

So voter registration is the act of signing up to be able to vote.

When you gain citizenship, you become a legally recognised member of a nation and have certain rights and protections under the law.

So if you are a citizen of a nation, the laws in that country should apply to you and should give protection to you.

An act is a law passed by the government.

And finally, Democrats are members of one of the two major political parties in the US.

The Republicans are members of the other party.

Now we've got our keywords, we can get started on today's lesson.

And in the first part of today's lesson, we'll be looking at the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr.

So Martin Luther King Jr.

Came from a well-educated, middle-class family and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.

That's a southern state.

As a young man, he received a college education, that's like saying a university education here, and would speak regularly in his father's church.

And from these experiences, he became an excellent orator at a young age.

Remember, that's one of our keywords.

So that meant that he was very good at public speaking from a very young age, and this was as a result of speaking at university and his university education, but also from speaking in his father's church.

Now, although King moved to the north for his studies, he still experienced racism in places like Philadelphia and Boston.

So remember, it's important that we don't just think that racism existed in southern states.

People also experienced it in northern states, as we can see here in the early life of Martin Luther King Jr.

But by 1955, he'd gone back to the South and settled in Montgomery, Alabama as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church with his wife and children.

So by 1955, he'd grown up in Atlanta, Georgia, he'd gone to college, university in northern states like Philadelphia and Boston.

He'd become an excellent speaker from speaking at his father's church.

But by 1955, we know that he'd settled in Montgomery, Alabama as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

By this time, he was married with children.

Now, before we go on to learn a little bit more about the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr.

, we're just going to pause and check our understanding so far.

So I'd like you to list the qualities of Martin Luther King that would make him a strong civil rights leader.

Just jot them down quickly.

So give yourself a few minutes, pause the video now and press play when you've got a short list.

Excellent.

So you might have said that he was university educated, or you might have said college educated.

You might have said that he was an excellent orator from speaking at his father's church.

You might have said that he had lived in both northern and southern states, and you might also have said that he had firsthand experience of racism.

And remember, that was in both northern and southern states.

Really well done.

Let's find out a little bit more about the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr.

So we left off talking about him settling as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

As a result of him working as a local pastor, he was chosen to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association, the MIA, and help organise the Montgomery Bus Boycott that you might have already learned about.

That was in 1955.

He'd only been the pastor of the local church for a little more than a year.

And King was chosen not just for his excellent skills as an orator, but also because he was new to the area.

And that meant that he was not too closely associated with any major organisations and had not yet been targeted by local opponents of the Civil Rights Movement.

Now, it wasn't just that he led the Montgomery Improvement Association, many actually attributed the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the dynamic and charismatic leadership of King.

Some historians disagree and argue that the role of all the leaders involved should be considered.

However, it's clear that by the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King was set to be one of the next major leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

Now, before we go on to find out what happened to Martin Luther King after this boycott brought him into the spotlight of the Civil Rights Movement, we're just going to pause, check our understanding and put what we've learned in this first part of the lesson into practise.

So first, I'd like you to tell me what organisation was Martin Luther King chosen to lead in 1955? Was it A, the Congress of Racial Equality, CORE? Was it the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, the NAACP? Or was it C, the Montgomery Improvement Association, the MIA? Pause the video now.

Give yourself a few minutes to make a decision and then come back and press play when you think you know the answer.

Excellent, we know that he was chosen to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association, which organised and coordinated the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Now we're going to have a go at putting what we've learned into practise.

So Sam here has begun to explain the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr.

But there are at least two key details missing from his explanation.

So Sam has said, "Martin Luther King Jr.

was from a well-educated, middle-class family in Atlanta, Georgia.

He went to university in northern states, and so had experienced what life was like for Black Americans in the north and in the south.

In 1956, he had become part of the Civil Rights Movement as leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association during the Montgomery Bus Boycott." So now I'd like you to complete Sam's explanation by adding at least two key details.

So pause the video now.

Give yourself five to 10 minutes to figure out what key details are missing and where you think they should be added.

And once you've improved Sam's explanation about the emergence of Martin Luther King Jr.

, come back and press play.

Excellent work.

Now let's have a look at what your answer might have included.

So you might have left the first two sentences.

Martin Luther King Jr.

was from a well-educated, middle-class family in Atlanta, Georgia.

He went to university in northern states, and so had experienced what life was like for Black Americans in the north and the south.

But then you might have added his university education and experience from speaking in his father's church led to King becoming an excellent orator from a young age.

By 1955, King had settled in Montgomery as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, although he was not involved in the Civil Rights Movement from the beginning.

Then you could have continued on with the statement already existed.

In 1956, he became part of the Civil Rights Movement as leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association during the Montgomery Bus boycott.

You might have added your second detail at the end by saying King was chosen because he was an excellent orator and because he was not too closely associated with other civil rights movements because he was new to the area.

Really well done.

Now we've put our first part of the lesson into practise, we can move on to the second part of the lesson.

And in this part of the lesson, we'll be looking at the SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Now, although it was believed that a Civil Rights Act would be passed in 1957, King knew that more needed to be done in order to push for change.

So in January 1957, King helped establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the SCLC.

And this organisation followed King's belief in non-violence.

And this was inspired by both his Christian faith and the Mahatma Gandhi's work in India.

This organisation used the influence of churches with large numbers of Black American members to coordinate civil rights protests among local groups across the south.

It was different to other organisations like the NAACP as the SCLC did not recruit individual members, but offered support to existing local groups like the MIA and helped them work together to fight segregation.

Now, before we look at a particular example of the work the SCLC did, we're going to pause and check our understanding so far.

So the SCLC, as we know, believed in using non-violence to achieve its aims. But what was this inspired by? Write down a quick answer to this question and then come back and press play when you've got it down.

Great work.

So you might have said either Martin Luther King Jr's Christian faith or the work of Mahatma Gandhi.

Great work.

Now let's look at an example of one of the major campaigns of the SCLC.

So on the slide here, you can see a photograph of a training event for voter registration in the basement of a church in the South.

Now, registration is one of our keywords.

And remember, it's the act of signing up to do something.

So in the case of voter registration, it's the act of signing up to be able to vote.

And one of the first major campaigns for the SCLC was the crusade for citizenship.

And remember, citizenship is another one of our keywords.

So that's when you're protected by the laws, rules, and regulations of a country.

So the crusade for citizenship was the fight for Black Americans to actually have the citizenship they supposedly had under the law, and this was in 1958.

The campaign aimed to increase the number of Black Americans who were registered to vote as more Black American voters meant an increased chance that Black Americans could effect change in the government.

So if they could effect change in the government, it meant that they could address the issues that were stopping them from being able to live as full citizens of the United States protected by the law.

Now, this campaign did not gain much attention, but it did show the importance of voter registration to both Martin Luther King Jr.

and the SCLC.

Now, before we go on to the final part of the lesson, we're just going to pause one more time, check our understanding and put our learning about the SCLC into practise.

So firstly, thinking about the SCLC and what we've learned in this part of the lesson, I mentioned earlier that the NAACP recruited individual members and the SCLC was different from this.

I'd like you to tell me how.

Pause the video now.

Jot down a quick answer and when you've got it, come back and press play.

Great.

So you might have said the SCLC did not recruit individual members, but offered support to existing local groups like the MIA and helped them work together to fight segregation.

Really well done.

Let's have a look at one more question.

What did the Crusade for Citizenship in 1958 aim to achieve? Was it A, to increase voter registration amongst Black Americans? B, increase the number of jobs available to Black Americans.

Or C, increase the membership of the SCLC.

Pause the video now.

When you think you have an answer, come back and press play.

Excellent work.

We know the answer is A.

They aimed to increase voter registration amongst Black Americans.

The reason for this, as we've already learned, was because more Black American voters meant an increased chance that Black Americans could effect change in the government and therefore overcoming the different issues that stopped them from being fully protected by the law.

Now, let's put what we've learned into practise.

So I'd like you to write a summary of the role of Martin Luther King and the establishment of the SCLC, but I'd like you to do this in 100 words or fewer.

In these 100 words, I'd like you to include the following details in your response.

January 1957, Civil Rights Act, non-violence and Black communities.

So think carefully about the information you're choosing.

It's not just about getting down everything you can remember.

It's about carefully selecting the information you think is most important, but covers the key details needed in a summary of the role of Martin Luther King and the establishment of the SCLC.

So pause the video now.

Give yourself up to 10 minutes to write this short summary and then come back and press play when you think you're finished.

Excellent work.

Let's now have a look at what your answer may have included.

So you might have said the SCLC was founded by Martin Luther King Jr.

in January in 1957 as he believed more needed to be done to push for change, despite the belief that a Civil Rights Act was soon to be passed.

The SCLC was different to other organisations like the NAACP as they did not have individual members, but supported existing local organisations and utilised the church as the centre of many Black communities, particularly in the South.

One of their central beliefs was the use of non-violence, which was inspired by Martin Luther King's Christian faith and the work of Mahatma Gandhi in India.

So if you managed to get those key details in, really well done.

If you also managed to use more keywords than this example here, absolutely fantastic.

Now we can move on to the third and final part of today's lesson.

And in this part of the lesson, we'll be looking at the Civil Rights Act that was passed in 1957.

Now, by 1957, it's important that we know that opposition to desegregation at Little Rock High School, which was only enforced with federal intervention and led to only one of nine Black American students graduating had convinced President Eisenhower that more needed to be done to protect civil rights.

And as Martin Luther King had now become a prominent civil rights leader, he was involved in meetings with the president that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

And we can see them on the slide here.

So on the slide, there is a photograph of President Eisenhower meeting with civil rights leaders, and amongst them was Martin Luther King Jr.

And the act that was passed established the Commission on Civil Rights, gave all people the right to serve on a jury and gave the federal government permission to support anyone who was not able to vote.

Now, this sounds like a huge change, and you might be surprised by some of the reactions because in reality, it was not as it seemed.

But before we move on to look at the reactions of the American public, we're going to pause for now and check our understanding so far.

So I'd like you to have a look at this statement.

Martin Luther King Jr.

was involved in the creation of the Civil Rights Act 1957.

Is this statement true or false? Pause the video now, make a decision and then come back and press play.

Great work, we know that this statement is true, but we need to think about why this statement is true.

Is it true because Martin Luther King had become a prominent civil rights leader and was involved in meetings with Eisenhower that led to the 1957 Act? Or is it true because Martin Luther King made some suggestions that were eventually passed onto Eisenhower and therefore only had a limited role in the 1957 Act? Just pause the video now, and when you think you've justified your answer, come back and press play.

Excellent.

So we know that Martin Luther King was involved in the creation of the Civil Rights Act, and this is true because he'd become a prominent civil rights leader and was involved in meetings with Eisenhower that eventually led to the 1957 Act.

Really well done.

Let's go back and have a look at the reactions to this act.

Now, like I've already said, this was in many ways a huge change.

And for that reason, many people celebrated these changes because it was the first Civil Rights Act passed in over 80 years.

So on that level, for many people, this was a moment of celebration.

However many felt that this Act was a watered down version of what it should have been because Southern Democrats continued to support desegregation.

So because of opposition within government, they believed that this act was not as great as it should have been, and didn't lead to as much change as it should have.

It was also criticised for doing little more than restate laws that had already existed.

For example, all American citizens had had the right to vote since 1869.

It was only the Commission on Civil Rights that was newly introduced.

So on that level, many people critiqued it as seeming to bring a lot of change, but in reality not bringing much at all.

Although the Civil Rights Act showed that some progress was being made, and therefore King argued that it was much better than no act at all.

And it also demonstrated the power of the Southern Democrats to push back against the Civil Rights Act that could actually enforce significant change.

So although it was critiqued by many people, it was also celebrated.

And for people who shared the same beliefs as Martin Luther King Jr, they believed it was much better than nothing at all.

And it showed that progress was being made.

Even if it wasn't loads of progress, it was still some progress, and that was something to celebrate for many.

So before we finish for today, we're just going to check our understanding one more time and then put our learning from this lesson into practise.

So firstly, I'd like you to list the reasons why the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was critiqued.

So pause the video, give yourself a few minutes to jot down as much as you can remember from that last part of the lesson, and then come back and press play.

Great work.

Hopefully you said something like Southern Democrats continue to support segregation, and so the act was seen as watered down and some felt the act did little more than restate existing laws.

Really well done.

Let's look at one more question.

So how did Martin Luther King Jr.

respond to the Civil Rights Act of 1957? Was it celebrated as a moment of great progress? Did he feel it was much better than no act at all? Or did he openly criticise the act for failing to provide full change? Again, pause the video, make a decision, and come back and press play when you think you know the answer.

Excellent work.

We know that Martin Luther King felt it was much better than no act at all.

He wasn't under any illusions.

He knew this wouldn't bring the full change that was expected.

As we learned earlier, he'd already set up the SCLC because he knew more work needed to be done, but he did acknowledge that this was much better than no act at all.

Now let's put what we've learned into practise.

So I'd like you to write one or two paragraphs explaining the significance of Martin Luther King from 1955 to '58, and I'd like you to use the following details in your response: the Montgomery Improvement Association, the MIA, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the SCLC, the term voter registration, but also Civil Rights Act 1957.

So pause the video now.

Give yourself around 10 minutes or maybe a little bit more if you need more time to write a full two paragraphs and then come back and press play when you've completed your response to this task.

Really well done.

Let's now have a look at what your answer might have included.

So you might have said, Martin Luther King became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 as leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the MIA.

In this role, his dynamic and charismatic leadership contributed to the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was considered a landmark moment for the Civil Rights Movement.

King became an increasingly important figure in the movement as he helped establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the SCLC, in January 1957 to push for further change.

The SCLC organised the Crusade for Citizenship in 1958, which aimed to increase voter registration amongst Black Americans.

This meant an increased chance that Black Americans could effect change in the government.

Finally, King was involved in meetings with President Eisenhower that led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act 1957.

Although the Act preceded much criticism and was considered watered down because Southern Democrats continued to support segregation, it was the first Civil Rights Act passed for over 80 years, demonstrating King's importance in creating progress for the Civil Rights Movement.

If you managed to get all those details in, really well done.

If you also managed to include keywords like citizenship, Act and Democrats, absolutely fantastic.

You've done really brilliant work this lesson.

Before we finish, we're just going to look at a quick summary of what we've learned today.

So in today's lesson, we've covered quite a few different things.

First, we learned that King became an excellent orator as a result of speaking in his father's church and his university education.

We also learned that after settling in Montgomery as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, King was made leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the MIA.

We also learned that after leading a successful boycott, King established the SCLC in 1957.

The SCLC organised the Crusade for Citizenship in 1958, which campaigned for increased voter registration amongst Black Americans.

And finally, we learned that as a prominent civil rights leader, by 1957, King was involved in meetings with President Eisenhower, which led to the 1957 Civil Rights Act, although this was criticised for being watered down.

Really well done this lesson.

You've worked really hard.

I'm so impressed.