Study & Essay
Study Questions
How did King's extensive education affect
his career as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement?
Contrast King's view of America during
the last three years of his life with his view during the Birmingham
and Selma campaigns.
Was King a leader in the right place
at the right time, or can his success be attributed to his innate
characteristics?
Essay Topics
Why did some of King's campaigns succeed, and others
not?
How did King's relationship to the Johnson Administration
differ from his relationship to the Kennedy Administration?
Toward what audience did King direct his "I Have a Dream" speech?
How is this clear from the speech's language?
Characterize King's relationship to other leaders and
organizations of the Civil Rights Movement.
Why was the church an important part of King's work
as an activist? What did he gain by working with and through it?
What aspects of King's life are emphasized in mainstream
America's remembrance of him?
If King had not been assassinated, what campaigns might
he have organized in the 1970s and 1980s? Would the Civil Rights Movement
perhaps fared differently during these years, or, after the victories
of the sixties, was deceleration inevitable?
