ABSTRACT
Martin Luther King made the idea of non-violence and the tactic of non-violent direct action appear like a seamless extension of the black church and black religion. King's leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was in many ways a microcosm of his leadership role in the civil rights movement. King effectively acted as a bridge between different sections of the black community. The 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed as a direct consequence of King and the SCLC's 1965 Selma Campaign and opened up a path for blacks to join the southern body politic and to begin in earnest the process of building black political power. Ultimately, King and the civil rights movement helped blacks to gain access to and build a platform for social and political power. In doing so, they fostered a sense of black empowerment and psychological liberation that provided the foundations for implementing and for furthering those gains.
