Martin Luther King, Jr., was the most eloquent leader of the American civil rights movement in the 1960s civil rights developments, the U.S Supreme Court ultimately proved the driving force that finally ended segregation on intrastate buses in 1956 In 1957 King took on the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which became the springboard for his authority and that of the emerging Civil Rights movement The movement began in black communities and churches but soon drew members from the broader population outside the south King shaped the SCLC philosophy toward nonviolent protest and pressure, drawing upon Christian teachings, but also inspired by the successful protests of Mohandas K Gandhi King was also on the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Through these leadership positions and through growing televised media attention, King became a national figure and a major force in U.S politics The movement often faced a violent response to its activi- King, Martin Luther, Jr 245 ties, particularly as its agenda expanded to include a full range of civil rights issues The speed of change proved dramatic and unstoppable and received national attention through events such as the 1963 March on Washington, which was inspired by and coordinated with other civil rights leaders but made famous by King’s “I Have a Dream” speech It has been argued that the focus of this demonstration became less angry and more embracing because of pressure put on King by President John F Kennedy, who believed the wrong approach could damage support for civil rights legislation King’s ascendance to national prominence was revealed when he became Time magazine’s Man of the Year for 1963 These protests helped in the passing, during the presidency of Lyndon B Johnson, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 Martin Luther King, Jr., received recognition for his gigantic influence when he was made a Nobel laureate in 1964, being awarded the Peace Prize in recognition of his many efforts It was in the mid-1960s that King tried to take the civil rights movement to the north, beginning in Chicago in 1966 King and Ralph Abernathy made an effort to confront the poor’s living conditions by moving to the slums Here he faced violence and discrimination as well as Mayor Richard J Daley’s Chicago political administration, which undercut reform activities whenever possible Eventually King and Abernathy returned to the South, but left a then-young follower, Jesse Jackson, in Chicago to carry on their work From this base Jackson later built his own organization King started to reevaluate his positions on many areas and issues, including social and economic reform as well as the Vietnam War His rhetoric and speeches took on new tones that seemed to challenge not only segregation, racial justice, and civil rights but also issues potentially far more controversial to the mainstream His turn to issues of poverty and its eradication led to his and SCLC’s involvement in the “Poor People’s Campaign” in 1968, which was to culminate in another major march on Washington demanding that the government address the needs of the poorest communities and members of U.S society In April 1968 his campaign took him to Memphis, Tennessee, where he offered his support to the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ strike for better wages and conditions King saw the solution to many of these problems in government-driven job programs to reduce and reverse poverty in the nation in the form of a poor peoples’ bill of rights While staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, in preparation for a local