1960s Civil Rights: Martin Luther King’s fight for justice without violence

In the 1960s, black men, women and children in the American south lived in fear and abject poverty. Each uncertain day brought the possibility of being jailed, beaten, even lynched with no judicial process. Grim living conditions resulted from a denial of basic human and civil rights by a white society which prevented them from voting through terror and intimidation. Martin Luther King was one of the extraordinarily courageous leaders who dared fight against these abuses, using a unique weapon which caught the attention of moderate whites: his voice.