In 1955, King graduated from Boston University with a Ph.D. He obviously was a very intelligent student, but all the awards and degrees did not mean that much to him. The awards and degrees did not equal success. Martin decided to follow his religious convictions and became a pastor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama (Stephanie 1). .
The first protest involving King was in 1955, when a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus for a white passenger. King was the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, and was convicted along with the other boycott leaders for conspiring to interfere with the bus company's operations. During this time, King gained attention and national prominence for his great public speaking ability and his courage. In December of 1956, after 381 days of boycotting, the United States Supreme Court said that the segregation laws in Alabama were unconstitutional (Carson 2). Victory was theirs. It was progress, but not success. The first step of a long journey had been made to gain equality in a country trying to suppress the movement in any way. Soon after the Supreme Court decision, King invited sixty black ministers to attend a meeting concerning the civil rights movement in the South. During that meeting in Atlanta, on January 9 and 10, 1957, they formed the organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As SLCL president (unanimously elected), King decided that the main goal would be to establish black voting rights through non-violent marches and protests. On May 17, 1957, King delivered his first major speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, in the Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington, calling for the voting privileges (Carson 1).
Five months later, Congress passed the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction (Stephanie 2). This created civil rights organizations in the government that protected the voting rights of blacks.