"Ordinary People get Involved"

“Ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it” (President Obama: ‘Change Happens When Ordinary People Get Involved).  Martin Luther King Jr., before he became such a well-known figure in American History, was an average Baptist Minister living in the streets of 1950’s-1960’s Birmingham, Alabama. After being part of a bus boycott, and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights act, MLK Jr. vowed his efforts towards equality (especially the registration of African American voters). Through marches in Selma all the way to Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr.  created a movement for advancing equality and nonviolence for all citizens no matter what race, religion, or ethnicity. We learned that “what we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black” (A New Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King Jr.). What we can take away from what MLK Jr. has taught us is that, we don’t need to become million-dollar celebrities in order to get people to listen to us and follow our path. We just need to have enough courage to stick up for ourselves and our beliefs when necessary because even though Martin Luther King Jr. has made it look easier said than done, his triumph was far better than someone waiting for something to happen (compared to how most people are now as stated earlier).