Martin Luther King’s policy of peaceful protest was important because it led to public sympathy of the way black Americans were treated by white Americans an example of this would be the Birmingham campaign (1963), Kennedy said he was sickened by the images of violence and the soviet media used 1/5 of their time to broadcast on it. Other campaigns that where peaceful and effective which were set up or supported by king include The Selma campaign, Montgomery Bus Boycott, the march on Washington, the Birmingham campaign, king supported freedom rides. Some campaigns failed through peaceful protest such as the Albany movement as Laurie Pritchett stopped media attention by treating the protestors with respect. Kings policy of peaceful protest …show more content…

7 black Americans and 6 white Americans sat on the different parts of the buses and expected to meet violent opposition this would lead to media attention and it did as the KKK firebombed the bus. The use of peaceful protest in the freedom riders was good as it led to media attention and public sympathy. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was led by King and it was showed how successful peaceful protest could be because there was car-pooling which led to the boycott being sustained and the bus companies lost 65% of their revenue this showed black Americans economic power. They arrested King and 156 others thinking it would solve their problems but it didn’t it backfired and got media attention which created public sympathy and support for civil rights. Martin Luther King’s policy of peaceful protest wasn’t the only important reason for the successes of the civil rights movement another very important factor was the presidential action. Presidents such as Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson all helped the civil rights campaigns. Eisenhower helped at the little rock campaign of 1957; black students were trying to enrol the governor Faubus ordered the nation guard to prevent them entry Eisenhower ordered him to remove the guards, which he did, the black students were still prevented entry by white mobs; because of this Eisenhower ordered the nation guard to go back and protect the students. Kennedy was a