The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. -- and the civil rights struggle

Firefighters in Birmingham, Ala., turn their hoses on civil rights activists. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s civil rights campaign drew nationwide attention in the Southern city in the spring of 1963. King was jailed during the demonstrations, along with many supporters. From Birmingham jail, King wrote a letter explaining his stand on nonviolent protests: “You may well ask,” he wrote, “‘Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?’ You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.”   (Bill Hudson / Associated Press)

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with marchers at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. The March on Washington was a watershed moment in history. But, as NPR notes, “the outward appearance of unity masked divisions over the march by top civil rights groups. Young black militants predicted it would be nothing but a picnic at the Lincoln Memorial; older black leaders thought it might end in violence. On the night before the march, the speaker system was sabotaged. Meanwhile, the Kennedy White House and the Congress opposed it too, fearing riots.”   (AFP / Getty Images)

A visitor walks through the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. The memorial opened in 2011, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.   (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)