What struggles did martin Luther king jr encounter?
The biggest obstacle was prejudice. Many white people thought of
blacks as generally inferiour. They certainly did not want blacks
to be seen much. Blacks were told, in no uncertain terms, to get to
the back of the bus and only use rest rooms, drinking fountains,
etc., marked for "colored" people. Even many of the less-prejudiced
white people thought that blacks were fine as long as they kept in
their place (i.e., kept to black neighbourhoods, etc.)
The first big step in overcoming this system was when Jackie
Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball. Until then, blacks
were only allowed to play in "negro leagues", on teams with other
blacks and generally against other blacks. A few teams from time to
time tried to get a black player past the barrier, saying that he
was American Indian or the such, but it typically didn't work well.
Having a black player playing along side whites was at the least a
giant symbol.
The next thing was the de-segregation of the military. During
World War II, blacks were drafted, but were sent to black-only
units, such as the Tuskeegee Air Men. Harry Truman ended the
practice of black-only units, and demanded that the U.S. armed
forces accept blacks as full members (provided that they met the
physical requirements for admission). Given that men were still
drafted into the armed forces until 1974, this meant that a
generation of young white men had a more intimate contact with
blacks than had been the case previously. (Granted, many young
white men managed to escape the draft somehow, so the experience
wasn't universal, but it did expand contact between blacks and
whites well beyond what it had been.)
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court upheld a decision in
the case of Brown v. Board Of Education, which supported
desegregation of schools. The previous standard had come from a
case called Plessy v. Furgeson, which held that separate but equal
schools (and other public facilities) for blacks was acceptable.
Brown v. Board Of Education said that separate schools were
inherantly unequal. There were many fights in the 1950s and 1960s
concerning school desegregation, but the courts kept demanding that
school systems abandon segregation and start integrating black
students alongside white students. Thus, the courts became a big
ally of civil rights.
Legislation was also passed on the federal level which supported
civil rights. Previously, the pattern had been to hold that states
had the right to determine such things, and that the federal
government could only demand such rights when people crossed state
lines. Congress disagreed, and the courts upheld Congress's
interpretation that the federal government had some right to
proclaim certain minimum rights to be granted to all U.S. citizens,
rights which the states must uphold.
As for Martin Luther King, Jr., he was a preacher. He was also
an organizer. He came to the aid of a woman, Rosa Parks, who had
refused to go to the back of the bus, so that a white person could
have her seat in the front of the bus. She was arrested and jailed,
and Dr. King organized a march in her support. The march showed
that there were a great many people who were supporting Mrs. Parks
in her struggle. It became a rallying point for people. Before
long, federal law required that blacks could ride the busses free
from harassment. Since the courts were still working out whether
the federal government had the right to make such a declaration,
activists concentrated on intercity busses (Greyhound and its
competetors) which crossed state lines, since the federal
government certainly had jurisdiction there. People known as the
"freedom riders" would make certain that black people could ride
busses.
Dr. King kept organizing gatherings, mostly marches. There were
always speeches connected with these gatherings. They were
peaceful, and never advocated the use of violence. Dr. King
advocated using the law and the power of voting to create
change.
Thanks to Dr. King and others of the civil rights movement, much
has changed. There are no longer restaurants that refuse to serve
black people, no more blacks only waiting rooms for public
transportation nor entrances to theatres. (Even here in Detroit,
people were amazed to find that theatres and Tiger Stadium had
special entrances for blacks only; they would sit in places where
the whites in the audience wouldn't notice them, and they had to
arrive and leave by separate means. That's all in the past now, and
a couple of generations barely know that it ever happened.)